U.S. Sen. Brian Schatz and Rhode Island’s Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse unveiled legislation Wednesday that would reduce carbon pollution and generate as much as $2 trillion dollars over 10 years. ADVERTISING U.S. Sen. Brian Schatz and Rhode Island’s Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse
U.S. Sen. Brian Schatz and Rhode Island’s Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse unveiled legislation Wednesday that would reduce carbon pollution and generate as much as $2 trillion dollars over 10 years.
“This is one of the most straightforward solutions to climate change, and has growing support across the ideological spectrum,” Schatz said in a press release.
The American Opportunity Carbon Fee Act would require polluters to pay a fee for every ton of carbon pollution they emit. The fee would start at $42 per ton in 2015 and increase annually by an inflation-adjusted 2 percent. The price of the fee follows the Obama Administration’s estimate of the “social cost of carbon,” the value of the harms caused by carbon pollution, including falling agricultural productivity, human health hazards and property damages from flooding.
The fee would be assessed on all coal, oil and natural gas produced in or imported to the U.S. and cover large emitters of non-carbon greenhouse gases and carbon dioxide from non-fossil-fuel sources.
