Letter: Bipartisan solutions for universal problems

Partisan approaches to climate action have not been working as illustrated by the bold attempts made last year by the Democratic party that failed. We need non-partisan leadership on climate — someone who puts country before party and understands we can longer play around the edges on this issue. Two of the most constructive voices in the past year have been our very own Senator Romney and Representative Curtis. 

Both Sen. Romney and Rep. Curtis, attempting to see the big picture, value the need for policies that bring down global emissions and not just emissions within our borders. Both men have spoken about the need for a border carbon charge to hold other countries accountable for their emissions. This is one of the most promising ideas to emerge in all the decades of trying to address climate because it would hand a decisive competitive advantage to our manufacturers — including ones right here in Utah.

We make things more cleanly in the U.S. than many other countries in the world. A policy to press this advantage by charging imports for their emissions would create more jobs and opportunities in the United States while putting market pressure for the first time on other countries to follow our lead. As Romney put it at an event earlier this year: “We can negotiate with the Chinese–or we can simply have a border adjustment tax that recognizes that they put a lot more pollution in the air.”

It’s this kind of fresh thinking that can lift America out of our rut on climate. Let’s offer our support to Sen. Romney and Rep. Curtis in this endeavor. 

Jana Conrad, Holladay