Our Best Bet

            Lets get one thing straight. Climate change is real. The amount of evidence supporting climate change is overwhelming. The surplus of extreme weather in recent months is no coincidence. The early believers of climate change knew this would happen if we continued on the path we did. The real question surrounding climate change now is what are we going to do to fix it.

            The problem with fixing climate change is that a large part of our economy revolves around oil and gas. The Center of Automotive Research found that one in ten jobs in the United States is supported through the automotive industry (Rampell 3). If we are going to slow climate change we must shift our economic focus to a cleaner industry.

courtesy of autoallience.com

            The best way to make this transition is through the soultuions being proposed by former congressman Bob Inglis. In his 12 years in Congress, Inglis was a member of the House Scientific Committee, Chairman of the Research Subcommittee, and Ranking member of the Energy and Environment Subcommittee (“Our Leaders”). His conservative approach is perfect for the current circumstances of our economy and environment.

           

            Inglis’s first solution to slowing climate change is through a carbon tax paired with an income tax cut (“Our Leaders”). A carbon tax would force big polluters to pay money to government based on the amount of carbon dioxide they put into the air. It’s about time we hold the oil and gas companies accountable (“Our Leaders”). It can be expected the oil and gas companies would shift their burden from a carbon tax to the consumer in the form of higher gas prices (Poterba 11). While this may seem like a bad thing, its really not. Higher gas prices create need for more efficient cars (11). Nobody would want to drive around a gas-guzzler if gas was five dollars per gallon. People need more incentives like this to live efficiently.

            The other big solution being proposed by Inglis is cutting subsides on oil and gas companies (“Our Leaders”). For those of you who don’t know, subsides are financial contributions by a government in exchange for some type of benefit (Pershing and Mackenzie 132). The most common subsidies talked about are the ones with the oil companies in which we give oil and gas companies money in exchange for lower gas prices (132).  By doing this, we are part of the problem. It’s hard to promote clean energy if we are giving money to the competitors. Lets cut the subsidies and let the higher gas prices promote clean energy for us.

            While Inglis’s solutions may seem harsh on the people, they are our best bet for slowing climate change. It is clear our current plan doesn’t appear working to slow climate change fast enough. It’s going to take bold ideas like Inglis’s to slow climate change.

Inglis, Bob. "Our Leaders." Energy and Enterprise Initiative About EEI Comments. N.p.,

     n.d. Web. 14 Nov. 2013.

Pershing, Jonathan, and Jim Mackezie. “Removing Subsidies.” n.b. Web. 12 March 2005 Poterba, James. “Tax Policy To Combat Global Warming.” Working paper No. 3649.

    National Bureau of Economic Research. Web. 1 April 2002.

Rampell, Catherine. "How Many Jobs Depend on the Big Three?" Economix How Many

     Jobs Depend on the Big Three Comments. New York Times, 17 Nov. 2008. Web. 26

     Nov. 2013.