By Cynthia Stancioff

Guest Columnist

The climate crisis is a uniquely challenging problem — larger and ultimately more threatening than any problem ever faced by humanity. Many feel powerless and helpless to discern a priority for action, so they stick to recycling and await affordable electric vehicles.

But imagine an opportunity to engage in a group effort to enact policy at the national level, to mitigate global warming through stimulating a shift in the U.S. economy away from fossil fuels and toward renewable energy. Imagine your own personal effort being magnified by the voice of your community, being sent to your members of Congress, and resulting in transformational national policy.  

A state-wide initiative called Carbon Cash-Back 4ME (CCB4ME) offers you an opportunity to make this kind of a difference.

Remember the “greenhouse effect?” — that blanket of CO2 in the Earth’s atmosphere that allowed Earth to become the only habitable planet around? We know now of course that the sudden and drastic thickening of that blanket due to the explosion of fossil fuel burning since the 1800s has caused a rapid warming of the atmosphere, oceans and landmasses, and threatens us with ecological collapse if we don’t abruptly curb emissions. 

We do know that it’s time to stop dumping carbon into the atmosphere. Top economists and climate experts agree that charging a fee for the carbon pollution generated by fossil fuels is an important part of the strategy to do so. Charging for this pollution is called “carbon pricing,” and is being practiced in over 40 other countries already.

After years of lobbying for a “carbon fee and dividend” policy by volunteers with the national Citizens’ Climate Lobby (CCL), there is a bill before Congress called the Energy Innovation and Carbon Dividend Act that proposes levying a carbon emissions fee on all fossil fuels at their source, and returning all of this fee directly to American households on an equal per capita basis through monthly dividend checks. This “cash-back” feature makes the policy equitable, benefiting low income households proportionately more than wealthy households.

It is projected to reduce U.S. emissions by 40% in the first 12 years, prevent 250,000 deaths, and create over 2 million new jobs. Border trade adjustments will protect U.S. trade. It doesn’t build the size of government, and it is bipartisan. 

Carbon pricing is coming, as evidenced by the existence of at least 10 carbon pricing bills currently, but this bill is the only one that returns all the money to households and compensates everyone equally.

In an initiative called “Carbon Cash-Back 4ME,” Maine CCL volunteers are seeking “town champions” to get articles on their 2021 annual Town Meeting warrants endorsing national cash-back carbon pricing. The town endorsements will be relayed to our federal lawmakers to urge them to enact this policy solution.You can become a town champion by contacting carboncashback4maine@gmail.com.  You can familiarize yourself with the policy by visiting the website athttps://www.carboncashback4me.org/.  

Procedures for getting an article in the town meeting warrant vary from town to town, so you will need to ask about it with your town office. If your town does not have an annual town meeting, you could ask the town council to pass a resolution endorsing cash-back carbon pricing.

This is a unique opportunity to move from minimizing harm to maximizing prospects for our climate future.  Consider taking advantage of it by becoming a CCB4ME town champion!

Cynthia Stancioff, M.P.A, University of Maine, is a Citizens Climate Lobby volunteer, Nature advocate, and wild mushroom enthusiast from Chesterville.