Commentary: Newport, Costa Mesa need climate-change resolutions

The big California climate change news that happened in August was not the passage of Senate Bill 32. It was the passage of Assembly Joint Resolution 43.

AJR43 moves the climate change focus from California to Washington, D.C., which is where we really need leadership. AJR43 asks the president and Congress to pass revenue-neutral carbon fee and dividend legislation, a carbon “tax,” which would put a steadily rising fee on carbon-based fuels while returning all the revenue to households on an equal basis.

Under such a plan, each household would receive a monthly dividend check to help lower- and middle-income households adjust to the effects of rising fossil fuel prices. People could use their dividend to keep buying dirty fuel products, but actual experience in places like British Columbia show that people change with rising prices, the economy does go green and emissions fall.

AJR43 also asks Congress to impose import tariffs to protect American businesses and to insure the rest of the world follows our lead. The fee-and-dividend plan, as proposed by the Legislature, would not increase the size of government.

It would employ market-based incentives rather than government regulations and subsidies and according to the economic model AJR-43 refers to, the REMI model, done by Regional Economic Modeling Inc., fee and dividend will actually boost the American economy and add to our job roles.

I’m one of 36 volunteers who traveled to Sacramento in support of AJR 43. We went because the resolution endorses nearly everything our group, Citizens Climate Lobby (CCL) has been lobbying for in Washington, for the last seven years.

CCL helped put it together and is named in the resolution. Now we are turning our sights toward cities in hopes of getting individual communities to endorse fee and dividend legislation and in doing so, become familiar with the fact that there is something we, as citizens, can do to effectively address this serious global problem.

Newport Beach and Costa Mesa could make a difference. A resolution from prosperous, conservative Orange County would pack a wallop in Washington, where we’re currently seen as deniers.

I know we are not deniers because I’ve personally knocked on hundreds of doors and asked residents in Eastside Costa Mesa, in CdM, in the East and West bluffs and on Balboa Island, two questions. Is climate change happening? Should we do something about it?

A clear substantial majority says yes and yes, but our congressman, Dan Rohrabacher, who I’ve come to know and personally like, doesn’t believe the climate is changing or if it is, it’s not our fault.

I work with Rohrabacher’s office in hopes that he’ll reconsider his position and nothing would help me more than a Newport or Costa Mesa resolution similar to AJR 43.

MARK TABBERT is co-founder of the Citizens Climate Lobby’s Orange County chapter.