Support for a carbon tax
In the Dec. 5 editorial, the BDN got it right in explaining the “devastating consequences” of climate change predicted in a report from 13 agencies within the Trump administration. But I would like to add some important and hopeful information to the BDN’s concerns about the “absence of national leadership” and the comment that “Congress isn’t much help.”
Many newspapers are reporting on the Energy Innovation and Carbon Dividend Act that was introduced to the U.S. House of Representative on Nov. 27 and is sponsored by three Republicans and five Democrats. There is a consensus, including from the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and economists worldwide, that establishing a carbon fee is crucial to controlling carbon emissions. The act does just that. The revenues from the fee would be distributed as monthly dividends to all Americans. The dividends will offset the fees for two thirds of households, according to a study by Regional Economic Models, Inc.
This policy grows green jobs while moving us away from fossil fuels, reducing the impacts of combustion on health and climate change. And the bipartisan support it has garnered is essential to the passage and continuations of a policy of great importance.
Nancy Jacobson
Bangor
Waiting for Mexico to pay for the wall
The Democrats have offered a generous $1.3 billion for border security. Beyond that amount, they are right to wait for Mexico to pay any additional amount for the wall as President Donald Trump has promised.
Trump should make good on this campaign promise that his supporters totally believed.
Steve Kahl
Waterville
Lies from the swamp
Why is it illegal to lie to Congress when every member of Congress has lied constantly to the American public? They are not prosecuted for this, are allowed to keep their cushy jobs, their ridiculous pensions and laugh at us with no fear of prosecution. Let any member of the American public lie to them and somehow a crime will be manufactured, if need-be, to put that person in their place — usually prison.
Russian czars and Nazi Germany could not have been more adept at this fraud. When will people wake up and remove the scum from the swamp known as Washington, D.C.?
Larry Davenport
Fort Fairfield
Freedom from vaccines
Rep. Ralph Tucker, D-Brunswick, has introduced a bill that would eliminate nonmedical exemptions for vaccinations. Maine currently allows people to opt out of vaccines for philosophical, religious or medical reasons. If passed, his bill will eliminate the first two reasons thereby deny Maine residents their right to make informed health decisions for themselves and for their family.
Chemicals such as mercury and aluminum are in most vaccines today. As free individuals in a free society, we must protect our inalienable right to decide what is injected into our bodies and the bodies of our trusting children.
I ask Tucker to rescind his bill and stop this deliberate attack on our freedom. It’s our family. Our health. And ultimately, our choice.
Donna Dodge
Denmark