Green New Deal legislation

"Make polluters pay."

That is a nice, clear sentence and sentiment.  

Or maybe, "Make polluters pay us back" would be better.

Ocasio-Cortez. Unapologetic smackdown politics.

Simple works in political messaging. Simple means clear and decisive. Complications and nuance can come across as insincere. Trump understood and practiced this; Hillary did not.
Hillary was CSPAN. Trump was tabloid.

And lots of people like the fact that the nuance-complication people, the experts, don't like Trump, and he doesn't like them. Their mutual dislike proves that Trump is strong and steadfast.

Simple political messaging is not new with Trump. "Tippecanou and Tyler, too" is not deep policy analysis, but General William Harrison became famous for victory in the battle of Tippecanou against Shawnee Indian chief Tecumseh, and it worked as a slogan in a campaign song in 1840.  

"Remember the Maine" was a simple sentiment, undiminished by being false. People got the message: Spain injured us, so get revenge.

Simple works. Smackdown works. An ongoing premise of this blog is that the marginal voter knows at most seven things about a candidate. They vote on the basis of whether or not they feel the candidate is on their side. It makes Trump's vulgarity and narcissism irrelevant. A great many people think he is on their side, and they like it when he smacks down opponents.

The Green New Deal has great potential power as a message. People now remember FDR's New Deal favorably, and associate it with Social Security. It was bitterly contentious in the 1930's but rosy glasses have obscured this.

Trump, Fox, and the GOP are working right now to transform the Green New Deal message into a simple negative:  Ban cars and hamburgers, how crazy! Meanwhile, serious proposals are coming forward on behalf of the Green New Deal, fleshing it out from an aspiration to a program. 

Blog reader Wayne Taylor, a molecular biologist and now emeritus professor, wrote comments to previous posts, some of which I show below as a Guest Post. The Energy Innovation and Carbon Dividend Act (H. R. 763) has support from Democrats and, as of today, one Republican, a Representative from the SW coast of Florida representing an upscale, environmentally conscious district that includes Coral Gables and Naples, Florida.

It is serious legislation, which collects a carbon emission tax and then rebates it per capita to the public. It attempts to price the externality of emissions, not to raise money. Carbon emitters create a cost bourn by the general public. Charge them for it, then rebate it back to everyone. The bill is CSPAN-serious, but it need not be described that way.

Make polluters pay. Pay us.

Guest Post by Wayne Taylor

Taylor

"The Green New Deal is an aspirational Progressive agenda that Repuglicans have accused would bankrupt our economy and ruin America. In fact, it is a wish list of goals for the energy transition that can save us from the ravages of global warming and over $40 Trillion in damages over 30 years, but only if we invest about $2 Trillion (2% of our GDP) to build the new solar and wind energy infrastructure. This would allow us to retool and retire the outmoded coal, oil, and gas energy factories. Such an energy transition would be regarded as an energy war for the vested interests of the fossil fuel industry. Since our lives and well-being depend upon making this economic revolution happen, we need to also engage in the energy war on the winning side of the future. Solar and Wind energy.

We in Citizens Climate Lobby (CCL) now have a bill before Congress that will make the energy transition happen, called the Energy Innovation and Carbon Dividend Act (H.R. 763). It is now supported by many Congress People including our new Rep. Gil Cisneros (D, House Rep. Dist. 39, Fullerton, CA), who recently replaced Ed Royce (R), in the US House of Reps..  

The idea for the Energy Innovation act is simply to use the market mechanism to make energy polluters pay for use of the atmosphere as their "sewer" or smokestack. This law would work by the "Carbon fee and dividend" (CFD) mechanism, charging polluters who emit excess carbon dioxide to pay a tax at the mine or wellhead, at the increasing rate of about $10 per ton of CO2, increased $10 per year, emitted from the burning of coal, oil, or gas. The money collected by the federal govt. would all be put into a fund to be given back to taxpayer citizens as a Dividend. People would be able to use their monthly dividend (about $350 per month per family) to offset the increased prices for gasoline and all other products made from use of fossil fuel energy (nearly everything to start with). Other countries who do not have the CFD policy would be able to make petro-products more cheaply, but they would also be required to pay a tariff proportional to their CO2 footprint when these items are sold as imports into our country. 

Click for a detailed explanation of the bill

Modeling studies (RIMI) have shown that over 60% of families would get more monetary benefit from the CFD policy than they would need to pay from increased prices, so this is a progressive way to facilitate the energy transition using the market. As people put their money into buying cars and appliances etc. that are less carbon-intensive, the economy will favor energy sources like solar and wind which have no fee imposed. This policy is supported by Democrats and Repuglicans alike. This makes it politically feasible. We have no time to lose, so please call your US Rep., and tell them to support HR 763, the Energy Innovation and Carbon Dividend act."