Melendez '20 Defends VT State Carbon Pricing Efforts
Vermont Digger published commentary on proposed carbon pricing by Sabrina Melendez '20.
The opinion piece, "A fee and dividend model of carbon pricing," expresses support for proposed measure called. Melendez notes that the phrase "carbon tax" is misleading and explains, "A fee and dividend model [of the carbon tax] would tax the carbon emissions of fossil fuel companies at the extraction and distribution level, and the money from those taxes would be returned to the people of Vermont in order to make up for higher gas prices."
She writes: "In short, climate groups are not interested in “imposing a carbon tax on our workforce” as Gov. Phil Scott said in a statement he released on Sept. 26. The statement was in response to the newly established Climate Action Commission’s “listening tour,” in which carbon pricing was repeatedly suggested by a wide array of local Vermonters as the most feasible and just way to address the climate crisis. In Bennington County, 40 out of the 48 Vermonters who spoke advocated for carbon pricing. If Gov. Scott refuses to consider a carbon price that will actually help low- and middle-income Vermonters, then the Climate Action Commission serves no purpose but to smile and wave as climate change disproportionately targets low and middle-income Vermonters in the years to come."