And the best way to keep carbon in the ground is to put a price on it.
Right now, the fossil fuel industry is the only industry in the world that doesn't have to pay to clean up its own waste.
Instead, these guys pass the costs of that waste (carbon pollution) on to the rest of us in the form of what economists call "negative externalities."
Some examples of "negative externalities" include things like the cost of cleaning up from climate change driven severe weather events, the cost of pollution-related health problems and the cost to local economies of fishing grounds devastated by ocean acidification.
Because the fossil fuel fat-cats like Exxon and the Kochs just pass the costs of these externalities on to you and me to pay the bill, while getting an estimated $5.3 trillion in subsidies every year, the fossil fuel industry is artificially profitable and artificially competitive.
Oil and gas are only cheaper than wind and solar because their market price doesn't reflect the damage they do to our planet and our society.
But if their market price did take into account this damage, then the fossil fuel industry would immediately lose out to renewables that are actually much, much cheaper than gas, coal or oil.
Which is why President Obama or his successor should propose a national carbon tax and make the fossil fuel industry and billionaires pay to dispose of their own trash.
Even a small $10-per-ton national carbon tax would cut greenhouse gas emissions by around 28 percent of 2005 levels, save tens of thousands of lives, and, if the proceeds were given back to us like Alaska's permanent fund, could help jump-start the renewable energy industry.
This isn't complicated. It's economics 101.
So if President Obama really wants to beef up his climate legacy, he should do more than just visit some melting glaciers in Alaska.
He should start working right now on the one thing that will really take the fight to Big Oil: a national carbon tax.
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