Petition for a Green Recovery & Green America
#1 in the Series: Petitions for Smarter Capitalism
“Socialism collapsed because it did not allow the market to tell the economic truth. Capitalism may collapse because it does not allow the market to tell the ecological truth.” - Oystein Dahle, former Exxon Vice President
Mr. President & Congress,
We are calling on you to lead by example a global green recovery by first creating a boom in demand for continually cleaner, less polluting goods, services and production methods. Because supply follows demand, this in turn will lead to a boom in investment, innovation and green jobs developing, supplying and using these continually cleaner alternatives – leading in turn to an ever cleaner, safer, healthier, more sustainable American and global economy. The best way to do this is to implement the three elements of pricing that tells the ecological truth described below.
- Goods, services and production methods that cost more to all of us and the environment in the long run should cost more upfront in the short run. For example, because coal compared to solar or wind has much larger global warming, pollution, extraction, health, death, injury, disposal and clean-up costs to society and the environment in the long run, it should cost more than solar and wind upfront, in the short run. This will discourage its use in favor of what’s truly less expensive, solar and wind, and thus prevent higher, even catastrophic costs to our children down the road. In short, pricing that tells the truth is not only realistic and morally, ecologically and economically honest and responsible, it’s also fiscally conservative – a dollar of pollution prevention tax is far cheaper than a hundred dollars of cure or clean-up — and common sense, better safe than sorry, because there might not be an effective cure or clean-up at any cost.
In an open, transparent, fast track program, our scientific community would calculate all these pollution, health and disposal costs which function as huge, unacknowledged, backdoor taxes on all of us today and huge deferred taxes on all our children tomorrow. Now, making these “hidden” taxes visible, True Cost-Pollution Prevention (TCPP) taxes worth billions of dollars would increase in predictable increments at points of extraction, manufacturing and importation on top of all the major inputs and industrial ingredients such as energy, water, steel, paper and chemicals that together make up most of our goods, services and methods of energy, industrial and agricultural production. Their predictable increases will give businesses and investors time to plan and invest in pollution reductions and incentives to do so because when they make these reductions, their TCPP taxes either slow down or go down. The ultimate game changing result: reducing pollution becomes more profitable than polluting! (TCCP tax increases on greenhouse gases would be structured to achieve by 2020 the high end of the 25% – 40% reduction from 1990′s emission level that world climate science consensus says is necessary to avoid the worst effects of global warming.) And the result of reducing pollution becoming more profitable than polluting: a boom in green jobs developing, selling and using continually cleaner, safer, healthier goods, services and methods of production that would increasingly underprice, outcompete and replace than their more polluting counterparts.
- 25% of TCPP taxes would then be rebated back to all adult residents with monthly bank deposits to cushion the public from initial higher prices on goods and services and help them buy eco-friendlier goods and services. (Other costs would drop over time like garbage, heating, cooling, health care and guarding overseas oil supplies.)
Installing Solar Panels: A crucial part of a green recovery
- In order to further accelerate and subsidize the boom in demand for and supply of green jobs, most of the remaining 75% would be disbursed by state and local governments a) to help train unemployed citizens and contractors in the cities, inner cities, suburbs and rural areas to retrofit homes and businesses with solar panels, wind turbines, double-pane windows, better insulation, non-toxic carpets and paint, dual/low flush toilets, etc., b) to help low to average income homeowners, renters, businesses and farmers pay for these same solar/wind retrofits and buy the hybrid/electric vehicles also powered by them, c) to help low/average income citizens, coal miners, oil workers and others in especially effected areas and industries start green businesses offering these same and other services, and d) to help public transit districts lower fares and expand transit services with new rural, suburban, urban and inner city lines and alternatives such as hybrid and/or electric bicycles, scooters, taxis, subcompacts, vans, mini-buses, double-buses, trucks and motorcycles located at busy bus stops, train and tram stations/stops, downtowns, malls, schools, office and business parks etc. and rentable at affordable rates by the hour, half-day, day, weekend and/or week. (See petition for a Solar America.)
- A smaller portion of this 75% would be disbursed by non-governmental organizations directly to communities around the world most impacted by global warming to help them cope with it and to communities living inside and adjacent to rainforests, the lungs of the world, to pay for protecting, restoring and maintaining their health, biodiversity and sequestration of the excessive CO2 we’ve already emitted.
The Bottom Line – By continually buying and selling constantly eco-friendlier goods and services that underprice and replace their more polluting counterparts, businesses will save and make money, increasing profits, consumers will save money and together, all of us will also be
- helping America’s economy and society become cleaner, safer, healthier, more sustainable – and more competitive in the next global growth industries of clean energy, clean tech and green chemistry
- helping to save our children’s future
- and ultimately helping to save civilization
Saving and making money leading to saving civilization…how cool is that? And what a great way to also lower health care costs — with healthier, less toxic air, water, food, energy, homes, offices, factories, jobs and everyday products!
- Mr. President and Congress — Pricing that combines long term reality, saving money, making money, increasing profits, creating a healthier economy and environment and protecting our children and their future — this is the bold game changer America needs to recover, reinvent our economy and help clean up our world.
See Smarter Capitalism , a more socially just, ecologically realistic and hence more sustainable version of the current model which includes as just one of its principles True Cost-Benefit Pricing
See More on True Cost-Benefit Pricing for details
See Petition for A Solar America, the second in the series of Petitions for Smarter Capitalism which describes in more detail the solar aspect of True Cost-Benefit Pricing