Four New Carbon Pricing Bills

Our push for carbon pricing just took some new, exciting steps forward. First, Florida Republican Rep. Francis Rooney has introduced the bipartisan Stemming Warming and Augmenting Pay (SWAP) Act with cosponsor Rep. Dan Lipinski (D-IL) (pictured). Together, these two representatives have also introduced the Raise Wages, Cut Carbon Act. Citizens’ Climate Lobby is pleased to see the introduction of these bipartisan bills that would achieve significant reductions in CO₂ emissions. The bills indicate that Republicans and Democrats are beginning to agree that a price on carbon is the most efficient way to reduce America’s emissions quickly, a position long held by economists.

Another development today is that Sen. Chris Coons (D-DE) has introduced the Climate Action Rebate Act of 2019 in the Senate, with Rep. Jimmy Panetta (D-CA) introducing a companion bill in the House.

All four of these bills have been analyzed and updated on the Carbon Pricing Bills in Congress resource page by CCL's legislative staff.

We are excited to see Republicans and Democrats focusing their attention on the effective tool of carbon pricing, both through these bills and on the Energy Innovation Act. The climate is neither Democratic nor Republican, nor is it waiting around for us to resolve our political differences. The essential question should not be who supports a particular policy proposal, but rather how effective will that proposal be at reducing emissions. We need to build more bridges between the two parties, and have more bipartisan dialogue, if we are to take meaningful action. Major bills like these accomplish those goals.

August Recess Legislative Update
Please plan to join a special online meeting on Tuesday, July 30, to learn more about these new bills. Event details and RSVP. We’ll gather on Zoom line 2017-2017-17 at 8:00 pm ET / 5:00 pm PT. In the meantime, you can discuss and ask questions in the Community forum discussion topics.