By William C. Eacho
The pope has spoken on climate change. But can our elected leaders chart a political path to solve the problem?
After talking individually with the offices of 175 members of Congress, our organization believes there is a centrist approach that can earn bipartisan cooperation. We should put the free market to work by creating a carbon fee to reduce emissions. To make it pro-growth, use half the revenue from that fee to drop the corporate tax rate — the highest in the industrial world — from 35 percent to 25 percent.
Most of the other revenue could go to low- and middle-income Americans to protect them from slightly higher energy prices. Encourage global adoption of the fee with a border tax adjustment.
Pricing carbon works. British Columbia passed a revenue-neutral carbon fee and reduced emissions while growing faster than any other province in Canada.
As residents of a state on the front lines, Floridians should weigh in on whether there's any better way to tackle climate change.
William C. Eacho is co-founder of Partnership for Responsible Growth.
This letter to the editor originally appeared in the Orlando Sentinel on September 26, 2015.