LTE: Climate fight requires unity

The burning of fossil fuels is the major factor driving climate change. We must transition to renewable energy to curb the most disastrous effects. We are already experiencing climate-driven extreme weather events that create climate refugees who feel compelled to relocate because their home areas are becoming unlivable. We’re being encouraged to swap gas-guzzling cars for electric models, and gas appliances for electric ones.

The transition to renewable energy will be slow and sometimes difficult. The climate provisions in the Inflation Reduction Act are a good first step but are insufficient to achieve the necessary reductions in carbon emissions by 2030 as President Joe Biden has pledged.

W need additional climate legislation, and it must be bipartisan. The transition to cleaner energy will be easier if new legislation includes a popular concept of charging carbon polluters at the source an annually escalating fee on emissions, and coupling it with a return of those fees to Americans as cash rebates. Companies will clean up their polluting ways to avoid the fees and the burgeoning renewables industry will create good-paying jobs.

We must recognize the truth and realize the real sources of blame for high gas prices: our addiction to oil and the greed of our suppliers. Tell your members of Congress, regardless of party, that we want bipartisan legislation that will reduce carbon emissions 50% by 2030 and set us on the path to reduce the worst impacts of climate change.