Dividend Diversion Concern

What's to stop Congress and/or the President of the United States from diverting dividends meant for Americans, into the hands of Fossil Fuel industries/lobbyists, MOC's, and/or the President, himself?  How can this be averted?

3 Replies
Rob Johnson
151 Posts

@Dan Barenholtz

the bill has the funds going to where it is going, (to the people). Gas tax goes to roads,  payroll tax goes to SS,  no need to avert anything,   Income tax is not dedicated,  so is discretionary. 
 

T Todd Elvins
2924 Posts

Hi @Dan Barenholtz
 

Check out our “Handling challenging questions about the Energy Innovation Act”. Scroll down to “Cost of living impacts” and click on “Skeptical that the government will return the money”.  Here's an excerpt

The Energy Innovation Act establishes a trust fund and directs all carbon fee revenue to that fund. Each month, payments are made from that fund to American households. As such, the fund will not grow in size and will not be a pot of money which politicians might want to dip into (this is different from the Social Security “trust fund” which amasses money over decades).

In fact, the bill contains a provision for an “advance payment” of the first month’s dividend to all recipients in the month prior to the collection of the carbon fee. This additional payment will be deducted from the fund over the following 36 months so that the program remains revenue neutral. In essence, the fund would “borrow” from future carbon fee receipts to finance the first month’s dividends.

There is no 100%  guarantee to prevent any bill from being amended five to 10 years into the future by anything a future Congress may pass. However, those who fear the government raiding any of the designated dividend funds should find the 100% net revenue back to households comforting when compared with other uses for the funds as it links the transparency of the fee with a direct benefit to all households. Any future political leader who proposed diverting the funds which are showing up in American's pocketbooks would face a backlash of voters who are losing out on the part of the policy which is helping all of us to make the energy transition.

What you might say

It’s true that many do not have a high level of trust in our government. The Energy Innovation and Carbon Dividend Act starts paying a dividend even before the carbon fee is in effect. This is to make sure that households can handle any price increases and to demonstrate a commitment to return carbon fee revenue to American families.

Any future political leader who proposed diverting funds from the dividend would face the wrath of voters who are feeling the effects personally.

Optional for a conservative audience:

This is why we need conservatives at the table when this bill moves through Congress: to assure that the fee is redistributed back to the people.

 

@T Todd Elvins, you got it. Imagine if you will that Americans received monthly dividends for a time, and then media reported that Congress “amended” the act to fund something-or-other and those checks got cut in half. Out come the pitchforks and torches. 

It's a major reason why the dividend payments should be monthly, not quarterly as some politicians suggest, and that they should not be allocated to some kind of tax credit or tax swap that few people will be aware of. 

Some conservatives may disparage the dividends as “more entitlements," but that's inaccurate because the money is being distributed to both offset increased energy costs and to compensate everyone for the economic burdens caused by the emissions and their effect on the climate.

Forum help

Select a question below

CCL Community's Sitewide Forums are an easy and exciting way to interact with other members on CCL Community.  The Sitewide Forums are focused on subjects and areas of general interest to members.  Each forum consists of topics that members have posted, along with replies from other members. Some forums are divided into categories to group similar topics together. 

Any members can post a topic or reply to a topic.

The Sitewide Forums are open to the entire CCL community to create, comment on, and view online discussions.  Posts and comments should address the subject or focus of the selected forum. 

Note: Categories can only be created by community administrators.

Guidelines for posting: (also see general Community Guidelines)

  • Don’t see your question or topic? Post it.
  • Be thoughtful, considerate (nonpartisan) and complete. The more information you supply, the better the better and more engaging the conversation will be. 
  • Feel like cursing? Please don’t.
  • Ask yourself, “Would my topic post reveal sensitive or confidential information?” If so, please don't post!

Flag/report any offending comments, and then move on. In the rare instance of a comment containing a potentially credible threat, escalate that immediately to CCL.

If the Sitewide Forum has no categories, select the "Add Topic" button at the top of topics window. 

If the forum has categories, when you click on "Add Topic," a dropdown list of the categories appears. Select the desired category and then "Add Topic."
In either case this brings up a box to enter both the topic subject and topic text.

If you have questions or wish to add comments on a posted forum topic, open the post and click the blue “Add Reply” button at top. You can also click on the “Reply” link at the bottom of the original topic posting.

This opens a text box. Add your reply. You can also add documents by dragging a file into the text box. Click “Post” at the bottom of the reply window This will add your reply to other replies (if there are any), sorted by oldest on top. 

If, however, you want to reply directly to someone else’s reply, click on the “Reply” link at the bottom of their reply. 

When replying to a topic post or a topic reply it may be helpful to quote the original text, or the part that your reply is referring to. To quote a topic or reply, click on the "Quote" link at bottom of post. 

When you do this the full text of either the post or reply will be pulled into a reply text box. If desired, you can remove parts of the quoted text in order to get the portion you are interested in quoting.

You can subscribe to notifications of new postings from any of the Sitewide Forums or forum categories. To subscribe, select the green “Subscribe” button at the top of the forum. Click on dropdown arrow to select frequency of notification.

If you are already subscribed, the button will display “Unsubscribe.”  Select it to unsubscribe or select the dropdown arrow to modify frequency of notification. 

Note: If you subscribe to a Sitewide Forum, such as "Media Relations" that has categories (such as "LTEs and Op-Eds"), you will also be subscribed to all the categories. If you wish to subscribe to only one or more of the categories, unsubscribe to the parent forum and subscribe individually to desired categories.

.

If you see a topic post or reply that interests you or that you like, you can click the “Like” icon at the bottom of the topic post or the reply. This lets the poster know that the topic was helpful. It also contributes to the topic’s popularity, which influences where it is listed in the "Popular" forum tab. There are also additional reactions available for members to use. Mouseover the "Like" icon to choose one of these options: Love, Clap, Celebrate, Insightful, or Interesting.

CCL Community Guidelines

  • Discuss, ask and share
  • Be respectful
  • Respect confidentiality
  • Protect privacy

More guidelines
 

CCL Blog Policy Area Categories