Your Opinion: Carbon fee won't help climate

Dear Editor:

Mr. Lester's LTE was interesting if not a bit misleading. The deduction that Lester wrote of is not unique to oil and gas industries; it is used in all industry including farming. An article in Forbes explains that the "tax treatments" for all integrated (BIG) oil companies were in fact repealed in 1975 and today is only available for independent producers and royalty owners. Another article in Forbes also reported that not only were deductions considered oil and gas subsidies but HEAP which is the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program, yes the one that helps the poor from freezing to death in the winter, is considered an oil subsidy. According to investment sites oil ranks 114th out of 215. Their margin runs at 6.2 percent publishing has a higher profit margin at 51.7 percent. Besides these profits "that are lining the pockets of big oil" are actually lining the pockets of around 96 million Americans especially if you have an IRA or a 401(k).

According to data from NOAA Sea Levels at Chesapeake Bay have been rising since the end of the last ice age and there's no evidence that sea level rise is accelerating due to man-made global warming. What is interesting is that in several articles, the residents of Tangier Island reject the "climate victim" label and as Mayor James Eskridge states, "we want a new sea wall to prevent erosion, not a lecture about saving the world with solar panels."

On the subject of armadillos, a Southwest Missouri State University biology professor was surprised that Armadillos survived last winter because the extreme cold conditions should have killed them off. One report suggested that they are adapting to the cold and could soon reach Nebraska.

The big question we have to ask is, will the carbon fee/tax/dividend actually do anything to get rid of armadillos or stop the flooding in Chesapeake Bay, and the answer is a resounding "no." There is absolutely no credible evidence whatsoever that it will have an infinitesimal affect on climate much less reverse the impending catastrophes alarmists claim, so let's stop trying to take money from hard-working Americans and their retirement funds for something that will have little or no affect on climate.