cheka.
29th October 2016, 07:01 PM
see bold --- a billion more is planned for the fsa
http://www.yesmagazine.org/nation2019s-first-carbon-tax-is-what-our-climate-moment-demands-20161029
Washington state has a proposal on the November ballot which would do just that. Initiative 732 puts a stable, predictable, and rising price on carbon, and it uses the money raised to make our state tax system fairer and more progressive. I-732 will ensure that those most impacted will receive the most financial relief.
It makes the money polluters pay to lower the state sales tax a full percentage point, which benefits everyone. It lowers some business taxes to keep jobs in the state, and it invests $1 billion over the first six years in direct checks of up to $1,500 annually to 460,000 low-income working families through a 25 percent match of the federal Earned Income Tax Credit.
Our neighbor to the north, Canada, has already made implementing a carbon tax a national priority. One early adopter, British Columbia, implemented a carbon tax in 2008 and has seen decreases in its greenhouse gas emissions from 5 to 15 percent while its economy has grown at a faster pace that the rest of Canada. This demonstrates why economists say the “holy grail” of climate policy is to put a price on carbon.
The Sightline Institute, a Seattle-based sustainability think tank, analyzed I-732 and stated that it would “put wind in the sails of Washington’s clean energy economy as nothing else possible,” and called it “the biggest improvement in the progressivity of Washington’s state tax system in 40 years.” The New York Times said it could set an example for other states to follow.
I recently joined more than 50 of my fellow scientists at the University of Washington who signed an open letter endorsing this initiative. James Hansen, one of the most celebrated climate scientists in the world, endorsed I-732, saying it would make the price of fossil fuels more “honest,” by more accurately reflecting their costs to society. Until it is no longer free to dump CO2 into the atmosphere, the climate impacts will continue, with compounding, and long-lasting effects.
The hour is late, and we have an inescapable moral responsibility to leave our children and grandchildren a cleaner, healthier, safer world.
http://www.yesmagazine.org/nation2019s-first-carbon-tax-is-what-our-climate-moment-demands-20161029
Washington state has a proposal on the November ballot which would do just that. Initiative 732 puts a stable, predictable, and rising price on carbon, and it uses the money raised to make our state tax system fairer and more progressive. I-732 will ensure that those most impacted will receive the most financial relief.
It makes the money polluters pay to lower the state sales tax a full percentage point, which benefits everyone. It lowers some business taxes to keep jobs in the state, and it invests $1 billion over the first six years in direct checks of up to $1,500 annually to 460,000 low-income working families through a 25 percent match of the federal Earned Income Tax Credit.
Our neighbor to the north, Canada, has already made implementing a carbon tax a national priority. One early adopter, British Columbia, implemented a carbon tax in 2008 and has seen decreases in its greenhouse gas emissions from 5 to 15 percent while its economy has grown at a faster pace that the rest of Canada. This demonstrates why economists say the “holy grail” of climate policy is to put a price on carbon.
The Sightline Institute, a Seattle-based sustainability think tank, analyzed I-732 and stated that it would “put wind in the sails of Washington’s clean energy economy as nothing else possible,” and called it “the biggest improvement in the progressivity of Washington’s state tax system in 40 years.” The New York Times said it could set an example for other states to follow.
I recently joined more than 50 of my fellow scientists at the University of Washington who signed an open letter endorsing this initiative. James Hansen, one of the most celebrated climate scientists in the world, endorsed I-732, saying it would make the price of fossil fuels more “honest,” by more accurately reflecting their costs to society. Until it is no longer free to dump CO2 into the atmosphere, the climate impacts will continue, with compounding, and long-lasting effects.
The hour is late, and we have an inescapable moral responsibility to leave our children and grandchildren a cleaner, healthier, safer world.