The latest U.S. News & World Report features a two-page interview with On the Commons fellow Peter Barnes (“A Climate Change Proposal with Cash”). http://www.usnews.com/articles/news/national/2008/06/02/a-climate-change-proposal-with-cash.html?PageNr=1
on how best to deal with global warming. Barnes points out the flaws in the pending “cap-and-trade” schemes for curbing carbon emissions. He also explains, in a Q&A with reporter Marianne Lavelle, why a better system would give citizens a dividend of between $1,200 and $6,000 a year for a family of four. U.S. News says “cap-and-dividend” is “an idea garnering increasing attention as Washington begins to grapple with global warming.”
“It’s necessary to have a higher carbon price but not necessary to take that money out of the pockets of janitors and nurses and reporters,” said Barnes. “It will kill the whole thing, and that’s the last thing we need. The politicians need to come up with a way of raising carbon prices without screwing the poor and the middle class. And [cap-and-dividend] is, I think, the best way to do it.”