An Open Letter to the New US House of Representatives Free Market Green Coalition – Without a Price on Pollution, There are No Market-Based Solutions to Clean Up the Environment

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March 16, 2016

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by Robert Kozak* (Advanced Biofuels USA) We welcome US Representatives Adam Kinzinger, Barbara Comstock, Joe Heck, Chris Gibson, Ryan Costello, Kevin Yoder, Richard Hanna, Dave Reichert, Elise Stefanik, Carlos Curbelo, Tom Reed and Bob Dold to the fight against climate change and pollution with the founding of the House Republican Energy, Innovation and Environmental Working Group.

Sadly, however, without an important change, their search for market-based solutions will be unsuccessful for one simple reason.

The accounting and taxation rules used in the US economy do not place a cost on pollution. Instead, corporations are allowed to ignore pollutants and Green House Gases (GHGs) by accounting for them as “externalities.”

The coalition might want to take a look at economist Naomi Klein’s This Changes Everything for details.

We therefore, suggest that the first order of business of the Free Market Green Coalition is the writing of legislation that would establish a Non-Renewable Carbon User Fee on all fuels used in the United States. (It is not a tax since non-users would not be paying.)

By adding the cost of mitigating climate change and implementing low GHG solutions (about $50 dollars/ton) to those fuels causing the problem, a strong signal will be sent to consumers and investors in the market that low GHG renewable fuels are the way to go.

Furthermore, such a user fee would not be a government program that “picks winners and losers.” Instead it would create a new innovation based industry in the US that would use market forces to bring the most effective solutions to US consumers and businesses.

For more details on this disappearing non-renewable carbon user fee, see It’s Time for a Non-Renewable Carbon User Fee for Fuels. READ MORE / MORE / MORE and MORE (ThisChangesEverything.org)

*Robert Kozak is the founder of Atlantic Biomass, LLC, and a co-founder of Advanced Biofuels USA. Having worked for about 40 years in the transportation, energy, environmental, and government relations industries and in enzyme development, he serves as a fuels/engines and policy expert for Advanced Biofuels USA. Kozak ran for Congress for the 6th District of Maryland as a Green Party candidate in 2006. He can be reached at atlanticbiomass @ aol.com

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