Putting A Price On Carbon and Investing in the Future
The Healthy Climate Bill [Update Feb 2016]
Great News! The Healthy Climate Bill has passed out of the Senate Environment and Natural Resources Committee and now faces a vote in the Joint Ways and Means Committee.
We can once again be a national leader in addressing the climate crisis. The Healthy Climate Bill will help us smooth the way into the just transition needed to achieve a fossil free future.
This bill will ensure that we achieve real emission reductions that are cost-effective, quantifiable and socially beneficial. We will move much more quickly to a clean energy economy with more investments in clean energy and energy efficiency. 350PDX has endorsed this bill and encourages you to support it.
Here are the key components of this bill:
- Force polluters to pay. This will be achieved by establishing a “carbon pollution market” in which “carbon allowances” will be auctioned to the polluters. This mechanism will allow the state to ratcheted down greenhouse gas emissions over time to achieve the following goals:
- For the year 2025 emissions will be at least 20% below 1990 levels
- For the year 2035 emissions will be at least 45% below 1990 levels
- For the year 2050 emissions will be at least 75% below 1990 levels
California has demonstrated with this polluter pay approach that you can grow your economy and create jobs while reducing CO2 emissions.
- Make investments that enable a just transition. We know that the climate crisis has disproportionate impact on disadvantaged communities that lack the resources to adapt and are thus most vulnerable. A significant share of the monies generated by the polluters will be used to help those living in economically distressed areas by funding projects and programs that create jobs and provide education and job training.
This bill will ensure that we achieve real emission reductions that are cost-effective, quantifiable and socially beneficial. We will move much more quickly to a clean energy economy with more investments in clean energy and energy efficiency. And, wonderfully, the program is self-supporting.
What Can We Do To Pass This Vital Legislation?
(A) Contact your legislators! They need to hear from you. A short personalized email works best. Find your representative.
(C) Write letters to the editor.
(D) Ask business owners to sign on to letters of support.
We need all of us building the climate movement together to achieve the fossil free future we need to have a healthy climate.