In his Dec. 18 opinion article, “The highway to EVs has got to take a detour,” state Sen. James Libby raises several good objections to rules that mandate the use of electric vehicles. “Let’s avoid that (mandates) and look for a better way,” he concludes.
That better way is the proposed federal policy embodied in the The Energy Innovation and Carbon Dividend Act (H.R.5744). In 2019, the Wall Street Journal published “Economists Statement on Carbon Dividends,” (Jan. 16) in support of this federal legislative policy, the largest public statement by economists in history. Signatories included 3,558 U.S. economists, 27 Nobel laureate economists, and four former chairs of the Federal Reserve. The statement explains that a sufficiently robust and gradually rising carbon tax will replace the need for various carbon regulations (and mandates). The statement further states that, to maximize the fairness and political viability of a rising carbon tax, all the revenue should be returned directly to U.S. citizens through equal lump-sum rebates.
As an economist, would Sen. Libby join his fellow economists and support this ‘better way?’
Tony Barrett
Harpswell
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