Oil and gas should support carbon-pricing legislation

Previously published in the Grand Junction Sentinel.

I was encouraged to hear Carrie Hackenberger say that American Petroleum Institute (API) President and CEO Mike Sommers has named climate change “the most important issue of our time.”

As a Citizens’ Climate Lobby volunteer, I share that belief.

At Citizens’ Climate Lobby (CCL), we use our personal power as constituents and voters to build political will for national policies to address climate change in a timely manner. Our volunteers directly lobby elected officials on a regular basis, asking them to pass carbon pricing legislation now. I would like to see the American Petroleum Institute and its corporate members do the same.

Colorado’s oil and gas industry takes pride in producing the cleanest molecules of energy, due to corporate best practices and state regulations, but this problem can’t be solved by Colorado alone. If we want to meet our climate goals, we need a national solution with an effective lever to shift behavior in China and India.

A smart market-based policy would put a fee on fossil fuel emissions, return the revenue to citizens in equal per-capita dividends and add a carbon border adjustment to protect U.S. businesses from unfair competition. The dividend protects working families from price increases, the fee incentivizes low-carbon solutions, and the border adjustment puts pressure on China and other trading partners to clean up their act.

I urge the oil and gas industry to actively lobby Congress for carbon pricing legislation now.