Solutions to Reducing CO2 Emissions

Since the risks are so high, let’s assume the problem of global warming as depicted in the former Vice-President Al Gore movie “An Inconvenient Truth” is correct.

The Clinton-Gore did not make much progress on this issue as their approach is regulation, command and control. How about working together with conservatives, who believe in incentives and the law of supply and demand, to actually enact measures that would be effective?

- Expand nuclear power in the United States which is zero greenhouse gas emitting
- Assist expansion of nuclear power in China and India
- Discourage fossil fuel consumption in the US by adding a $1 per gallon gas and BTU tax,
but be revenue neutral simultaneously reducing other taxes
- Discourage beef consumption and methane production in the US by adding a meat tax,
but be revenue neutral simultaneously reducing other taxes
- Discourage resource consumption in the US by doubling property taxes and utilities for a
2nd home, triple for property taxes and utilities for a 3rd home, etc., but be revenue
neutral simultaneously reducing other taxes

Folks could consume as much gasoline, electricity, beef, and own as many home as they’d like, but they would substantially pay the taxes funding the government, and as costs of these items go up, demand will go down.

If liberals and conservatives worked together, these solutions could be enacted promptly and start reducing CO2 emissions.

The Al Gore movie states that 30% of CO2 emissions come from burning wood. The populations of China and India (whose emissions are exempt from the proposed Kyoto Treaty) totaled 2.4 billion in 2006 or 37% of the world’s population. They have a tremendous amount of people living in dire poverty. As they prosper, burning wood, deforestation, and population growth should decline.