Thank you for publishing some good climate news (“Carbon pollution is down in the US”, Jan. 10). But as the headline further noted, the 2% drop in 2023 is “not fast enough to meet Biden’s 2030 goal.”

The article reported that although coal burning decreased, oil and gas production and transportation increased, and seem to be continuing to do so; and that climate targets will only be met with a tripling of the 2023 rate of decline in emissions. So now what?

Economists agree on few things, but one near-consensus view among top economists is that attaching a pollution fee to the price of carbon fuels will supply the necessary economic incentive to shift our economy away from CO2-emitting fuels to green renewables, and thus reduce carbon emissions sufficiently to avoid a catastrophic future.

The U.S. House of Representatives has before it a bill (The Energy Innovation Act) that would attach pollution fees to fossil fuels and direct the Treasury to collect and disburse those fees to American households on an equal per capita basis with monthly dividend checks. This “cash-back carbon pricing” is a win for the climate as well as for the people trying to live in it.

Maine’s U.S. Reps. Golden and Pingree have an opportunity to help make it happen. Let’s hope they take it!

Cynthia Stancioff

Camden