Rising seas along the East Coast. More intense hurricanes along the
Gulf Coast. Increased drought and water shortages in the West. These are
just a few of the impacts scientists believe will result from unrestrained
global warming – impacts that will leave no corner of America unaffected.
Science tells us that, to avoid the most dangerous impacts of global
warming, America and the world must take immediate action to reduce emissions
of global warming pollutants. In the United States, that means halting the
growth in global warming emissions now, reducing emissions by at least 15 to 20
percent by 2020, and achieving reductions of at least 80 percent by
mid-century.
America has the tools to achieve these goals. We are the most
technologically and economically advanced nation in the world, blessed with
vast natural and intellectual resources. And our nation has a track record of
responding to major challenges and achieving unthinkable goals.
All Americans have a responsibility to act to prevent dangerous global
warming. But the oil, coal, auto, and electric utility industries have a special
responsibility. For decades, these industries have fouled the atmosphere and
done so free of charge, despoiling a gift of nature that rightfully belongs to
us all.
This must now end. The time has come to limit America’s emissions of global
warming pollutants, the vast majority of which come from the burning of fossil
fuels. In so doing, our political leaders must ensure that polluters pay for
the right to use our most precious common resource – the atmosphere – with the
revenues used to ease America’s transition to a clean energy economy and to
benefit the public at large.
Auctioning Allowances in Cap-and-Trade: A Clean, Fair, and Smart Solution
to Global Warming
There are many paths America can take to reducing global warming emissions.
Among them are “cap-and-trade” programs that couple a cap on emissions with a
mechanism that allows businesses to buy, sell and trade “allowances” to
pollute.
It is critical that any cap-and-trade program require the auctioning of
pollution allowances, rather than giving those allowances away for free to
polluters.
By auctioning pollution allowances, we affirm that no one has a “right” to
pollute. Instead, we claim the atmosphere as a common resource, to be managed
for the benefit of the public, which no polluter may foul without due
compensation.
By auctioning pollution allowances, we reduce the societal cost of achieving
emission reductions, enabling America to achieve its climate protection goals
with less disruption to our economy and the lives of individual Americans.
And by auctioning pollution allowances, we prevent the accumulation of
billions of dollars in windfall profits by polluters, and instead put those
revenues to work on behalf of the public. Allowance revenues can support
efforts to transform America into a clean energy economy and to provide a
regular dividend or rebate to American consumers.
We call on state and federal lawmakers to limit global warming emissions to
the levels demanded by the science and to auction all pollution allowances in
any cap-and-trade program.
Carl Pope
Executive Director
SIERRA CLUB
San Francisco, California
Mark Cooper
Research Director
Consumer Federation of America
Washington, DC
Chad Dobson
Director of Government Affairs
OXFAM AMERICA
Boston, Massachusetts
Roger Hickey and Robert Borosage
Co-Directors
CAMPAIGN FOR AMERICA'S FUTURE
Washington, DC
Margie Alt
Executive Director
Environment America
Lynn Thorp
National Campaigns Coordinator
CLEAN WATER ACTION
Washington, DC
Howard A. Learner
Executive Director
Environmental Law & Policy Center
Chicago, Illinois
Michael Brune
Executive Director
RAINFOREST ACTION NETWORK
San Francisco, California
Erich Pica
Director, Domestic Campaigns
FRIENDS OF THE EARTH
Washington, DC
Gary D. Bass
Executive Director
OMB Watch
Washington, D.C.
John Passacantando
Executive Director
GREENPEACE
Washington, DC
David Morris
Vice President
INSTITUTE FOR LOCAL SELF-RELIANCE
Washington, DC
Rev. Sally Bingham
President
THE REGENERATION PROJECT / INTERFAITH POWER & LIGHT
San Francisco, California
Van Jones, J.D.
President & Founder
ELLA BAKER CENTER FOR HUMAN RIGHTS
Oakland, California
Stephen A. Smith
Executive Director
SOUTHERN ALLIANCE FOR CLEAN ENERGY
Knoxville, Tennessee
Bill McKibben
STEP IT UP 2007
Burlington, Vermont
Seth Kaplan
Senior Attorney
Conservation Law Foundation
Rachel McMahon
Director of Regulatory Affairs
CENTER FOR ENERGY EFFICIENCY AND RENEWABLE TECHNOLOGIES
Sacramento, California
Ralph M. Martire
Executive Director
CENTER FOR TAX AND BUDGET ACCOUNTABILITY
Chicago, Illinois
Frank O’Donnell
President
CLEAN AIR WATCH
Washington, DC
V. John White
Executive Director
CLEAN POWER CAMPAIGN
Sacramento, California
Ann Hancock
Executive Director
CLIMATE PROTECTION CAMPAIGN
Graton, California
Tam Hunt
Energy Program Director / Attorney
COMMUNITY ENVIRONMENTAL COUNCIL
Santa Barbara, California
Kristen A. Sheeran, PhD
Director
E3 NETWORK: ECONOMICS FOR EQUITY AND THE ENVIRONMENT
Tom Athanasiou
Executive Director
ECOEQUITY
Jason Barbose
Global Warming Advocate
ENVIRONMENT CALIFORNIA
Sacramento, California
Bill LaBorde
Program Director
Environment Washington
Seattle, Washington
David Gahl
Air and Energy Program Director
ENVIRONMENTAL ADVOCATES OF NEW YORK
Albany, New York
Jeremiah Bauman
Environmental Advocate
Environment Oregon
Portland, Oregon
Eban Goodstein
Project Director
FOCUS THE NATION
Lake Oswego, Oregon
Michael Noble
Executive Director
FRESH ENERGY
St. Paul, Minnesota
Matt Baker
Executive Director
Environment Colorado
Denver, Colorado
K.C. Golden
Policy Director
Climate Solutions
Seattle, Washington
Diane Brown
Director
Arizona PIRG
Phoenix, Arizona
Edward (Ned) W. Stowe III
Senior Legislative Secretary
FRIENDS COMMITTEE ON NATIONAL LEGISLATION
Washington, DC
Charlie Higley, Executive Director
Citizens Utility Board of Wisconsin
Madison, WI
Erik Magnuson
Environment Arizona
Phoenix, Arizona
Fred Schlicher
Acting Executive Director
MASSACHUSETTS CLIMATE ACTION NETWORK
Boston, Massachusetts
Lauren Ketcham
Advocate
Environment New Mexico
Albuquerque, New Mexico
David R. Celebrezze
Director of Air & Water Special Projects
OHIO ENVIRONMENTAL COUNCIL
Columbus, Ohio
Billy Parish
Energy Action Coalition
Rex Wilmouth
Director
CoPIRG
Denver, Colorado
Luke Metzger
Environment Texas
Austin, Texas
Gary Patton
Executive Director
PLANNING AND CONSERVATION LEAGUE
Sacramento, California
Emily Rusch
Advocate
CALPIRG
Sacramento, California
Becky Stanfield
Director
Environment Illinois
Chicago, Illinois
Tyson Slocum
Director, Energy Program
PUBLIC CITIZEN
Washington, DC
Dan Kohler
Director
Wisconsin Environment
Madison, Wisconsin
Erin Bowser
Director
Environment Ohio
Columbus, Ohio
Alex Matthiessen
President
RIVERKEEPER, INC.
Tarrytown, New York
Dena Mottola
Executive Director
Environment New Jersey
Trenton, New Jersey
Ken Bossong
Executive Director
SUN DAY CAMPAIGN
Takoma Park, Maryland
Mark Ferrulo
Director
Environment Florida
Tallahassee, Florida
Matt Auten
Advocate
Environment Rhode Island
Providence, Rhode Island
John Blair
President
VALLEY WATCH
Evansville, Indiana
Brad Heavner
Director
Environment Maryland
Baltimore, Maryland
Chris Phelps
Advocate
Environment Connecticut
Hartford, Connecticut
Marian Riggs Gelb
Executive Director
Iowa Environmental Council
Des Moines, Iowa
Jennette Gayer
Advocate
Environment Georgia
Atlanta, Georgia
Erika Staaf
Advocate
Environment New Hampshire
Concord, New Hampshire
Paul Burns
Executive Director
VPIRG (VERMONT PUBLIC INTEREST RESEARCH GROUP)
Montpelier, Vermont
Elizabeth Ouzts
Director
Environment North Carolina
Raleigh, North Carolina
Carrie La Seur, Ph.D., J.D.
Plains Justice
Mount Vernon, Iowa
Frank Gorke
Executive Director
Environment Massachusetts
Boston, Massachusetts
Casey Ehrlich
BLANKET THE GLOBE
Salem, Massachusetts
INDIVIDUALS (affiliation for identification purposes only)
Robert Reich
Goldman School of Public Policy, University of California, Berkeley
James K. Boyce
Department of Economics, University of Massachusetts, Amherst
George Lakoff
University of California, Berkeley
The Rockridge Institute
James Gustave Speth
Author of Red Sky at Morning: America and the Crisis of the Global Environment
William E. Spriggs, Ph.D.
Professor and Chair, Department of Economics, Howard University
Martha Phillips
Former Executive Director, Concord Coalition
Betsy Taylor
Founder
CENTER FOR A NEW AMERICAN DREAM
Takoma Park, Maryland
Allen L. White
Tellus Institute
Boston, Massachusetts
Harriet Barlow
Director
HKH FOUNDATION
New York, New York
Steve Kirsch
Chairman
STEVEN AND MICHELE KIRSCH FOUNDATION
San Jose, California
Juliet Schor
Chair and Professor, Department of Sociology, Boston College
Peter Barnes
Senior Fellow
TOMALES BAY INSTITUTE
Point Reyes Station, California
Joe Nation
Former Assemblyman (D-Marin/Sonoma)
Lecturer in Public Policy, Stanford University
William R. Freudenburg
Dehlsen Professor of Environment and Society, Environmental Studies Program,
University of California, Santa Barbara
Pran R. Young
Donald Bren School of Environmental Science and Management, University of
California, Santa Barbara
Dave Olsen
Initiator, California Climate Action Registry
Jonathan Isham
Luce Professor of International Environmental Economics
Middlebury College
Middlebury, Vermont
Sara J. Weinheimer
Managing Partner
VERDE VENTURE PARTNERS
New York
Garrett Greuner
Founder, Ask.com
Dean Baker
Co-Director, Center for Economic and Policy Research
Jonathan F P Rose
President
Jonathan Rose Companies
Robert Perkowitz
Managing Partner
VivaTerra, LLC
William Bates
Step It Up 2007
Joshua Skov, MA, LEED AP
Principal, Good Company
Burns H Weston
Bessie Dutton Murray Distinguished Professor of Law Emeritus and Senior
Scholar, UI Center for Human Rights (UICHR), University of Iowa
Vermont Law School Visiting Distinguished Professor of International Law and
Policy
Gary Flomenhoft
Fellow, Gund Institute
David Sassoon
President, Science First
Edward Skloot
Robin Hahnel, PhD
Professor of Economics, American University
Peter Dorman
Economist, Evergreen State College
Juliette Anthony
Californians for Renewable Energy (CARE)
Rafael Aguilera
Principal, The Verde Group
Jonathan Isham
Luce Professor of International Environmental Economics, Middlebury College
Tracy Bach
Professor, Vermont Law School; Senior Research Fellow and Associate Director,
Climate Legacy Initiative
Rick Reed
President, BeeLine Associates
Ildiko Polony
Ella Baker Center for Human Rights
Lori A. Ehrlich, CPA, MPA
www.truthandprogress.com