We can’t wait until 2020 to cut emissions

While it is encouraging that a path forward now exists for an international agreement on climate change, the deal completed Dec. 11 in Durban, South Africa, will allow greenhouse gas emissions to continue rising until 2020. By that time, we may well exceed the tipping point on global warming.

Extending the Kyoto Protocol to 2017, implementing a legally binding pact to limit greenhouse gases by 2020 and including China and India and especially the United States in the pact are some positive breakthroughs that we should celebrate. But it's clear from what the science is telling us and the increasing number of extreme weather events that we can't wait until 2020 to start cutting fossil fuel emissions.

A bill introduced in the U.S. House by Rep. Pete Stark, D-Calif., the Save Our Climate Act of 2011 (H.R. 3242), places a steadily rising tax on carbon-based fuels and returns revenue to consumers on a per-capita basis. Border adjustments on imports from nations that don't have a similar pricing mechanism provide a strong incentive for other nations to implement their own carbon tax.

In the face of global crisis, the world waits for U.S. leadership. We must lay aside partisan bickering and develop a national policy of sustainable energy use.

H.R. 3242 is a workable plan. It is revenue neutral and encourages the free market to move into alternative energy development. I urge Rep. David Loebsack to become a co-sponsor.

Elisabeth Robbins

Marion