Confessions of a Climate Hawk

I am a climate hawk yet I:

~drive a gasoline powered vehicle

~Still burn heating oil despite my best efforts to cut down my use through insulation, solar panels, and a pellet stove.

~ flew on a jet-fuel powered plane to go to a climate conference 

~ do not live in a walkable/bikable community

I can't judge myself, or you, for these types of activities really. Our system of mildly incentivizing the "good" carbon neutral behaviors has proved itself to be not enough. We need to penalize the "bad" (fossil fuel burning) activities so that we will do less of them.

What is the easiest way to do this? A carbon tax, of course. Similarly to how we started taxing cigarettes once we were sure that cigarettes caused cancer, we need to put a tax on fossil fuels because we are sure they are killing our civilization.

Citizens Climate Lobby, which I am starting a Vermont Chapter of, has a good proposal to do just that: A Carbon Fee and Dividend. 

Fossil fuels would be taxed at the source of production. Fossil fuel companies would predictably pass on that cost to consumers. Over several years the tax rate would increase at predictable levels to send a clear price signal to the market of the need to change our energy markets and meet greenhouse gas emission reduction targets set forth by the International Panel on Climate Change.

The tax is revenue neutral so all the proceeds from it would be returned to households at tax return time. Households would use this money to offset their increased energy costs if they are still using fossil fuels, and incentivize them to switch from things such as heating oil furnaces to perhaps geothermal or other clean, renewable sources. "Under this plan 66% percent of all households would break even or receive more in their dividend check than they would pay for the increased cost of energy, thereby protecting the poor and middle class."

Just today news broke from oil giant BP's Sustainability Report 2013 that a carbon tax is indeed needed if we are to reduce carbon emissions substantially, (http://www.vancouverobserver.com/blogs/climatesnapshot/bp-calls-global-carbon-price-avoid-worst-impacts-climate-change).

if fossil fuel companies know this reality, what is holding us up? I'm looking at you, Congress.