I really don't see the point in advocating or debating proposals like this. Our masters in the One Percent are now so addicted to their money and power machine of capitalism that most will never allow any fuels for the machine to be restricted in any significant way. Economic actors in this system are like cancer cells--they must grow or die. The only real debate is between human extinction by climate destabilization or extinction by global nuclear wars caused by capitalist gangs fighting over disappearing fuels to run their machine. The only real solution is...change the system!
The debate described in this article is about a plan proposed by James Hansen, a noted climatologist.
Hansen calls his fee and dividend plan the “essential backbone” of his proposals for reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Under it, a substantial fee would be levied on all fossil fuels at the well head, mine shaft, or point of entry, and subsidies to the fossil fuel industry would be eliminated. The fee, which would increase in predictable steps over time, would be paid by fossil fuel companies, and each month every legal resident would receive an equal share of the money collected, as a direct bank deposit or debit card.
This would directly increase the price of fossil fuels as such, and indirectly increase prices for products and services that use fossil fuels, but Hansen calculates that the poorest 60% of the U.S population, who generally have small carbon footprints, would receive more in dividends than they would pay in increased fuel and other prices.
