A local climate activist is spreading the message about a piece of legislation that he says must be passed if the planet is to survive the effects of human climate change.
Stephen Melton, Parkville, is retired from the military and is a former teacher at the Command and General Staff College at Fort Leavenworth. In retirement, Melton has taken on a role as a climate ambassador for the Kansas City chapter of the Citizens’ Climate Lobby (CCL). The CCL is a group of more than 200,000 volunteers in just the United States and more internationally.
Melton spoke on Monday, July 12, to the Platte County Democratic Women’s Club (PCWDC) at the Platte County Resource Center. Melton in his role with the CCL speaks to groups like the PCDWC. His role also involves speaking to politicians and policy makers including the Platte County Commission.
“We’ll see how that goes,” Melton said.
According to Melton the group is non-partisan and speaks with lawmakers on both sides of the political spectrum. Melton said it seems the younger a person is, the more they seem to care about climate change and he brought some numbers to back up the theory. According to a cited study, Republican voters under the age of 40 approve of legislation being pushed by CCL by a three-quarters margin. All voters approved of the measures by a two-thirds margin.
The bill CCL supports is HR 2307 which would establish a program called carbon pricing that would assess a carbon tax on companies that extract fossil fuels at the point of extraction. In turn the funds collected would go to the U.S. Treasury and then dispersed to every American family on a monthly basis in the form of a dividend.
Melton said Canada recently passed a carbon pricing law and the European Union already has a carbon pricing system in place.
The plan and ones similar have the backing of a wide range of groups including scientists, economists, business and labor groups along with production groups like the American Iron and Steel Institute.
“You can’t really open up a newspaper or read a (magazine) without seeing more people coming on board,” Melton told the group.
The CCL hopes that voters start paying more attention to climate issues and start basing their choices on those candidates who support real change. Melton said there is already a big block of voters who are paying attention but it’s not translating into trips to the voting booth because of apathy from both parties on the issue.
“A lot of climate voters didn’t vote in the last election because they don’t think either party is going to do anything about it,” Melton said.
There are other bills that have been filed that are similar to HR 2307 and Melton said his group would support any of those bills because the process involves negotiations.
The idea behind carbon pricing is to make fossil fuel products and its use more expensive until a point where the cost is not sustainable. That means higher prices for consumers at all levels. That’s where the dividend kicks in.
Through a formula, each person through a program similar to the COVID-19 stimulus payments, would receive a monthly check to offset the costs. Melton said most working families would see a net gain or break even with the change. The real cost would fall on those in the top 20 percent of earnings.
“Fossil fuel use is highly correlated with people who have money and spend it on bigger houses, bigger cars and more trips,” Melton said. “They buy more stuff and everything you buy has fossil fuel content.”
Melton said those in the top 20 percent can afford to pay more but they can also afford the investments.
“They also have the money to invest in technologies that will lower their fossil fuel consumption dramatically,” Melton said.
The idea behind HR 2307 is to get to a carbon neutral level by the year 2050. Melton said the world and the U.S. cannot wait to start.
“Global warming is an extinction event,” Melton said. “The biggest extinction event in the history of the planet was the Permian Extinction. We are warming the planet 100 times faster.”
Melton said about 350,000 people die each year in the U.S. from respiratory diseases that are caused by fossil fuel pollution. The CCL believes more than 4.5 million lives could be saved over the next 50 years if carbon pricing is implemented.
It’s also going to take cooperation on a world stage. Melton said U.S. lawmakers also have an economic incentive to implement a carbon pricing system. The EU isn’t waiting around for the rest of the world and will start taxing imports with a carbon pricing tax that will stay within the EU. If U.S. lawmakers don’t do something they risk sending all of those taxes to Europe instead of collecting them in the U.S.
“The only way you’re going to get rid of fossil fuels is to increase the costs,” Melton said. “It will drive fossil fuel use lower. It would make alternatives like electric cars or putting a heat pump into your home instead of using natural gas much more attractive.”
For more information about CCL or to get involved visit the website at kcccl.org.