Introduced in the last few days of November, H.R. 7173 is the first bipartisan climate legislative bill in over ten years. Although not likely to go anywhere in the current Lame Duck Congress, its sponsors of three Republicans and three Democrats want to lay the groundwork for passage in the new Congress.
The Act would charge a fee on fossil fuel (oil, gas, & coal) extraction at the point of production and return the money to households. This pricing would assign a cost to the resulting pollution, would level the playing field for renewables, and use the market to move us quickly to a clean energy economy.
With widespread coverage of the devastating California wildfires and more recently, of the release of the Volume 2 Climate Assessment, people are finally paying attention and taking notice of the very real impacts that may challenge us from climate change. We are running out of time to mitigate the damage.
Will Gibson
Pacific Grove
