I found Mario Molina’s recent plug for the Give A Flake campaign, which promotes political activism on climate change, to be timely (“Aspen Skiing Co. stays ahead of the curve,” letters, Dec. 15, The Aspen Times).
The quote he leads with, “Sometimes caring about an issue isn’t enough. You have to do something,” resonates strongly with me. And pressuring our politicians — letting them know we are watching them on this issue, that it matters to us — the solution that Give a Flake has latched onto, strikes me as the right one.
To that end, I would like to give my thanks to one particular Flake.
Jeff Flake, Republican of Arizona, just teamed up with Chris Coons, Democrat of Delaware, to introduce exactly the sort of policy that could vault our country into a position of strong leadership on the climate issue. The bill is the Energy Innovation and Carbon Dividend Act (EICDA), and Flake and Coons co-introduced it in the Senate. The same bill was introduced just a few weeks before in the house, and now has 10 co-sponsors there, including several from each party.
If you haven’t been following the political climate on climate politics closely, this may all come as a surprise. Isn’t this supposed to be a partisan issue? Actually, no, and we need to stop thinking about it that way.
Market-based solutions such as the EICDA (in short, it puts a price on emitting greenhouse gases, signaling the market to transition over to cleaner fuels) are friendly to businesses and the economy as a whole, and they don’t compromise on effectiveness in order to be that way. In short, they really are the best solutions in town. The EICDA will reduce U.S. emissions 90 percent by 2050, if enacted.
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Sens. Michael Bennet and Cory Gardner, I would love to see your names on this bill in the 116th Congress!
Daniel Palken
Boulder