Three members of the Florida delegation–Republican U.S. Rep. Francis Rooney and Democrat U.S. Reps. Charlie Crist and Ted Deutch–are backing a proposal to reduce carbon usage with price controls and offering rebates back to American taxpayers.
The three Florida congressmen teamed up with U.S. Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick, R-Penn., and retiring U.S. Rep. John Delaney, D-Mary., who is leaving Congress to run for president in 2020, to unveil the “Energy Innovation and Carbon Dividend Act” (EICDA) this week.
Deutch’s office insisted the bill “will help reduce U.S. carbon pollution by 40 percent in 10 years, with 91 percent reduction target by 2050 (vs. 2015 levels)” through “pricing carbon at $15 per metric ton of CO2e and increasing the price by $10 every year” while the “Treasury Department would return 100 percent of the net revenue back to the American people, a policy highlighted by a Treasury Department report as helping lower- and middle-income families.”
A host of groups including Citizens Climate Lobby, Climate Leadership Council, the Nature Conservancy, Alliance for Market Solutions, Environmental Defense Fund, the National Wildlife Federation and the National Audobon Society are backing the proposal.
“This aggressive carbon pricing scheme introduced by members from both parties marks an important opportunity to begin to seriously address the immediate threat of climate change,” said Deutch. “The status quo is unsustainable; the time to act is right now.”
“Since organizing Florida’s first national climate change summit more than 10 years ago, it’s clear that reducing our carbon dependency is the key to winning this fight. The devastating findings released in last week’s report show that the clock is ticking and continued inaction would be catastrophic – for our environment, our economy, and peoples’ health,” said Crist. “We are taking an historic step with introduction of this bipartisan legislation; Congress must act with the urgency this crisis demands.”