La Crosse calling on Congress to adopt carbon fee

Idea to charge fee on carbon-producing energy
in hopes of incentivizing clean energy development. 

La Crosse’s city hall is getting serious about global warming.

Most recently, La Crosse Mayor Tim Kabat publicly affirmed his commitment to sustainability with an eye towards fighting global climate change locally.

A resolution from the city is calling on Congress to adopt a carbon fee. The resolution, that’s yet to be adopted, calls it a revenue-neutral carbon fee.

The idea essentially is to charge a fee on carbon-producing energy with the hope of incentivizing clean energy development.

It comes from the policies of the Citizens Climate Lobby – there is a chapter of the group in La Crosse – and the organization calls the carbon fee the “best, first-step to reduce the likelihood of catastrophic climate change from global warming.”

Again, this is just a resolution that would call on Congress to adopt, what is basically a carbon tax – a concept the House in Washington most recently voted to condemn.

The resolution does acknowledge that energy prices would increase with a carbon fee but also says those increases would be temporary.

Backers of the tax claim economic and health gains would even things out in the end.