Abby L. Harvey
GHG Monitor
8/1/2014
Rep. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) this week introduced legislation to establish a “cap and dividend” program to reduce carbon emissions. The “Healthy Climate and Family Security Act,” which will face an uphill battle in the Republican-controlled House, would cap carbon emissions, sell permits and return revenue from those sales to citizens. Increased national concern and a ramp up in action to reduce carbon emissions prompted the bill, a Von Hollen aide told GHG Monitor, saying, “There is a much greater awareness across the United States of the costs that are being imposed today on their communities from climate change. The reality that we need to act is really hitting people—it is not an issue that is far down the road, it’s happening now. President Obama has been a real leader on this issue, and, as a supporter of the [Environmental Protection Agency’s] recently announced carbon rule and the rest of the President’s Climate Action Plan, Congressman Van Hollen believes this legislation supports those efforts and shows we stand ready to build on that progress.“
The bill would develop a declining cap on carbon to reduce CO2 emissions gradually, eventually reaching an 80 percent reduction below 2005 levels by 2050. The bill lays out a reduction schedule with an initial target decrease of 10 percent below 2005 levels set for 2016. From that point, target reductions fall 10 percent each decade to 2050 at which point emissions should “be equal to 80 percent less than the number of metric tons of carbon dioxide emitted in the United States in 2005.” Carbon pollution permits would be auctioned off to sellers of coal, natural gas and oil at least four times a year the bill says.
Under the bill, the proceeds of the auction would then be paid quarterly to “any individual with a valid social security number (other than a nonresident alien individual) who is lawfully present in the United States for such quarter.” These payments will be made electronically in the form of a Healthy Climate Dividend, the bill says. “By capping carbon emissions, selling permits, and returning 100 percent of the revenue to everyone equally, this ‘Cap and Dividend’ approach achieves necessary greenhouse gas reductions while boosting the purchasing power of families across the country,” Van Hollen said in a press release.
