To the Editor:
“A Charge on Carbon Use” (letter, May 4) listed five reasons that it makes sense to impose an “emissions charge” on carbon and pointed out that calling it a “tax” would be politically unwise.
The term to use is “fee.” It should start small and rise gradually over several years, and all of the revenue raised should be returned as rebates to American households. By definition this is not a tax. At the same time, the huge subsidies our government pays to support the fossil fuel industry should be withdrawn.
As the costs of fossil resources rise, the costs of alternative resources will fall. Within less than a decade, ours can be a clean-energy economy.
ELLIE WHITNEY
East Windsor, N.J., May 4, 2011
Note from KBJ: To a progressive, the end (controlling people's lives) justifies the means (abusing language).
Keith Burgess-Jackson, J.D., Ph.D. 