I oppose this legislation for the same reasons I opposed the Lincoln Carbon Act.
What were those reasons
Although this bill is hardly as egregious as
LC 1.10, I cannot support legislation that allows for corporations to purchase exemptions to pollute.
My comment from the March By-Election:
The "Lincoln Carbon Act" is in essence is a skewed solution that unfairly shifts the burden for healing our atmosphere onto the working class when the greatest share of energy usage is consumed by corporate enterprise. This act would needlessly commodify carbon, thus granting a blank check to high-profit corporations to purchase carbon credits in a manufactured marketplace to the detriment of smaller businesses and lower income families. If a corporate entity stands to profit ten dollars for every five dollars taxed through a carbon initiative, what do they stand to lose in continuing business as usual?
I support a fair means to regulate carbon emissions as part of a greater array of climate legislation: one that ensures that the concerns of market capitalism are treated as a symptom of the climate crisis, not a solution. If elected to the fifth seat on the council, should the bill once more come to a vote in its current state, I shall oppose it.
