雖然美國期中選舉讓共和黨成為國會多數，其中有許多氣候否定論觀點，但民主黨並未放棄為氣候變遷而戰。
羅德島民主黨參議員Sheldon Whitehouse 19日提出美國機會二氧化碳排放費法案（American Opportunity Carbon Fee Act），排放者必須根據每噸排放量支付費用，2015年每噸價格為42美元起跳，每年還依通膨調漲2%。
從接受補助到付費補償 排汙業者地位轉變
該法案能「補償污染者對所有人為造成的環境成本。」白宮說，「目前我們補助大規模污染業者每年幾千億，讓他們汙染環境不用付任何代價。」白宮認為，這個機制能在10年間創造2兆元的收益，且能「回饋給美國人民」。
「健康受影響、海平面上升造成財物損失、海水暖化造成漁獲減少，這等等的成本都由人們概括承受。」如果此法案成為法律，所有碳污染費用都能進入美國機會基金（American Opportunity Fund）。
此法案適用於所有於美國境內生產或境外進口的煤、石油和天然氣業者，且只要排放非碳溫室氣體，或是來自於化石燃料產業以外的二氧化碳排放，都需評估碳排費。
減碳排充國庫 號稱「最直接」氣候變遷解決法案
法案共同提案人、夏威夷民主黨參議員Brian Schatz說，「此法案讓我們能掌握我們的經濟未來，是最直接的氣候變遷解決方案，也獲得越來越多跨黨派的支持。」
美國財政部、環保署和能源資訊署將合作評估和收費，確保應用最佳的研究和資料蒐集方法。白宮也列舉幾個可能的用途，包括減稅、增加社會安全效益、補助學費學貸、投資基礎建設、氣候緩解調適和減少國債。
根據獨立智庫「未來資源」（Resources for the Future）估計，根據二氧化碳社會成本收取排放費，10年內光是發電產業就能減少碳污染50%。發電產業是最大的二氧化碳排放者，佔年度總排放的40%。
Senate Democrats are not backing away from the climate change fight, even after the midterm elections shifted the balance of power in Congress to the Republicans, many of whom are in a state of climate-change denial.
U.S. Senator Sheldon Whitehouse, a Rhode Island Democrat, today introduced a bill that would place a fee on emissions of the greenhouse gas carbon dixoide (CO2).
The American Opportunity Carbon Fee Act would require polluters to pay a fee for every ton of carbon they emit. The fee would start at $42 per ton in 2015 and increase annually by an inflation-adjusted two percent.
Whitehouse says the measure would generate as much as $2 trillion dollars over 10 years, which “would be returned to the American people.”
The bill “would correct a market failure that currently allows polluters to push the costs of their pollution onto everyone else,” said Whitehouse. “Right now we are subsidizing big polluters to the tune of hundreds of billions of dollars annually by allowing them to pollute for free.”
“We all pay the costs of this subsidy through higher health costs, property damage from rising seas, warming waters that affect our fishing industry, and more,” he explained.
If this measure beomes law, all revenue generated by the carbon pollution fee would be credited to an American Opportunity Fund to be returned to the American people.
Whitehouse suggests possible uses that include: tax cuts, social security benefit increases, tuition assistance and student debt relief, infrastructure investments, climate mitigation or adaptation, and reducing the national debt.
Senator Brian Schatz, a Hawaii Democrat, who cosponsored the bill, said, “With this bill we can take control of our economic future. This is one of the most straightforward solutions to climate change, and has growing support across the ideological spectrum.”
The fee would be assessed on all coal, oil, and natural gas produced in or imported to the U.S. and cover large emitters of non-carbon greenhouse gases and carbon dioxide from non-fossil-fuel sources.
The U.S. Department of Treasury would assess and collect the fee, working with the Environmental Protection Agency and Energy Information Administration to ensure the best research methods and data are used.
A study from Resources for the Future, a non-partisan think tank, estimates that a carbon fee tracking the social cost of carbon would reduce carbon pollution by about 50 percent within a decade from the electricity sector alone compared to business-as-usual. The electricity sector is the largest source of carbon pollution, about 40 percent of annual emissions.
※ 全文及圖片詳見：ENS
