My kind of Republican Party

To the Editor;

I agree with Matt Gagnon in his column, “How Biden can unify U.S.,” regarding the need for bipartisan solutions to the multiple problems the Biden administration and Congress face. However, climate change is one bipartisan problem Gagnon omits, even though Biden has emphasized it.

Climate change already costs this country hundreds of billions of dollars every year in recovery from wildfires, floods, and wild wind storms. If it continues its trajectory, costs will rise every decade, as rising seas flood every coastal community. 

George Shultz, of Ronald Reagan’s cabinet, has already proposed the first and essential solution to the climate conundrum. It is carbon pollution pricing, which returns all revenues via equal monthly Carbon Dividend checks to all taxpayers. The plan is supported by 3,589 U.S. economists, including Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen. They believe this will incentivize U.S. innovators to compete in a global market for clean energy.

The Energy Innovation and Carbon Dividend Act is a bill that lays out the plan’s details. It was drafted and introduced to the House in 2019 by the bipartisan Climate Solutions Caucus. It will be reintroduced in the House and Senate this year. 

President Joe Biden has his work cut out. And concurrently so does the Republican Party, transforming itself from a party recently focused on appointing judges, to a party that sees the U.S. as world leader again, tackling every issue: climate change, COVID, reviving the economy, addressing racial and economic inequities, and international cooperation with bipartisan fervor. That’s my kind of Republican Party. 

Peter Garrett

Maine state coordinator

Citizens Climate Lobby

Winslow