Tribune reporter Michael Hawthorne penned a typically thoughtful and informative article (“BP’s Whiting refinery agrees to cut air pollution,” News, May 24), about the new emissions cleanup agreement between the Environmental Protection Agency and the BP oil refinery in Whiting, Ind. These measures will reduce soot and toxic vapors like benzene and hydrogen sulfide, making life healthier for residents not only near the refinery but across the entire region.
Hawthorne also noted that the agreement will produce a side benefit, which is reduction of the refinery’s greenhouse gas emissions. While this is welcome, it only amounts to about 2 percent of the facility’s total.
Much more needs to be done here and all across the country if we have any hope of slowing down climate change, which is a serious threat to the health, wealth and well-being of our children and grandchildren.
The best way to really tackle climate change, according to many economists, is to impose a rising fee on the carbon content of fossil fuels, and then return all of the money right back to the population. This can be done through reduced income taxes, as British Columbia currently does, or through a direct monthly check similar to Alaska’s distribution of oil- and gas-producer fees to its citizens.
This policy would encourage conservation and, more important, unleash private capital to invest in solutions that minimize energy costs. It is the kind of a public-private partnership on which both conservatives and progressives should be able to agree.
Recent polls have shown widespread public support for such a policy, even if it raises energy prices in the short term.
By all means, let’s continue to curtail hazardous emission from refineries and other large polluters. But let’s also tackle the much bigger threat of climate change. In the long run, we will all win.
— Rick Knight, Chicagoland Citizens Climate Lobby, Chicago
