Your Opinion: Half truths cited to deny climate change

Dear Editor:

Half-truths are no better than a lie. The News Tribune published a March 27 Nelson Otto letter containing several half-truths.

One concerned Australia. For two years Australia had a carbon fee but the current prime minister rescinded that fee. This was the result of political pressure. Otto reported claims from Australian carbon polluters. Those polluters claimed the carbon fee was a costly failure. This is the half-truth: International news reports credit the fee for reducing carbon dioxide emissions for the first time in decades. The fee was already working and removing it was a political failure.

What went wrong? Australia collected the fee but what did they do with the money? That was unclear and the public saw no benefit. The polluters and Rupert Murdoch newspapers easily turned increased public costs into a winning campaign for one politician. The Australian government fumbled this issue and created a political failure.

Here in America, Citizens' Climate Lobby is one major group pushing for a market-based solution to reduce carbon with a plan that is revenue neutral. It's neutral because the fee on carbon is collected from the polluters and given to you and me. The expectation is that energy cost to consumers will rise, but this will be offset by returning the fee assessed at the source to the consumers. Companies no longer may profit from polluting the atmosphere with CO2 without a cost, as they do now. This will incentivize them to reduce emissions. This worked in Australia but they did not offset consumer costs.

CCL's plan is similar to extraction fees that now exist in Alaska, Montana, New Mexico, Colorado, Louisiana, Texas and Wyoming. Alaska returns part of their fee. Annual Alaskan checks have been as high as $2,000 per family.

A growing majority of Americans believe serious climate problems are happening and may get worse. In 2014 Yale Climate Opinion Maps indicated that 75 percent of the public wanted CO2 regulated and 63 percent wanted coal plants restricted. This month's Gallup poll found only 10 percent of the public deny climate change.

Too many American politicians are leading from behind on climate issues. Why deny physics? If Missouri is not part of the solution, it is part of the problem. Unfortunately, there is a large disconnect between the general public on climate and Missouri and U.S. politicians who ignore that public opinion. As citizens we need to demand better representation.