A bipartisan group of House Climate Solutions Caucus members, led by Reps Francis Rooney and Brian Fitzpatrick and including caucus co-founder Ted Deutch, introduced the Energy Innovation and Carbon Dividend Act on Tuesday, just days after the administration released the Fourth National Climate Assessment, which outlined grim scenarios to public health and the economy if the U.S. doesn’t address climate change.
The bill would:
- Establish a $15 fee per metric ton of carbon dioxide on domestic oil, gas and coal sectors, ramping up $10 each calendar year until emissions standards are met.
- Set emission reduction goals at 33 percent below 2015 levels within 10 years and 90 percent by 2050.
- Net revenues from the fee would be returned to U.S. taxpayers in the form of a dividend.
- The plan would also remove some existing regulation pertaining to greenhouse gases.
Bill sponsors say the measure would create 2.1 million jobs in ten years and save 13,000 pollution-related deaths a year. “To let the free market price out coal we should consider value pricing carbon,” Rooney wrote in a statement. “A revenue-neutral carbon fee is an efficient, market- driven incentive to move toward natural gas and away from coal, and to support emerging alternate sources of energy.” Fitzpatrick added: “Since my first day in Congress, I have committed to finding solutions that mitigate the effects of climate change. We must take a bipartisan, market-driven approach to reduce carbon emissions, which are contributing to atmospheric change, rising sea levels, and more intense natural disasters. I am confident that bipartisan efforts to preserve our environment and protect our way of life for future generations will ultimately succeed.”
Click here for a bill summary prepared by the sponsors.