Petition to Obama & Congress for a Green Recovery, Economy & America

For the Sake of Our Children
Petition for a Green Recovery,
a Green Economy & Green America
#1 in the Series: Petitions for Smarter Capitalism
"Socialism collapsed because it did not allow the market to tell the economic truth. Capitalism may collapse because it does not allow the market to tell the ecological truth." - Oystein Dahle, former Exxon VP
Mr. President & Congress,
We are calling on you to lead a global green recovery leading to a clean, healthy, sustainable economy, America and world.
• First, sponsor a series of nationally televised programs where the American scientific community and military can educate the public on the clear and present danger posed by our pollution of the planet in order to gain maximum public support for a Green Recovery.
• Then create a Green Recovery by creating an economy-wide boom in demand for continually cleaner, safer, healthier, less polluting energy, goods, services and production methods of all kinds.
• Because supply follows demand, an economy-wide boom in investment and innovation will follow with millions of new green jobs developing, making, installing and selling ever cleaner, healthier alternatives as well as millions of other jobs becoming ever greener with Americans working in ever cleaner, healthier, safer workplaces using ever cleaner, healthier products and production methods.
• The best way to create this is to implement economy-wide pricing that does tell the ecological truth.
Pricing That Tells the Truth
• Pricing that tells the truth is when the overall, long term costs of goods, services and production methods - social and environmental health, pollution, disposal, security/military and government subsidy - is reflected short term in the upfront cost.
• As a prime example, because every year in America coal mining accidents kill and injure miners, its fine particle pollution causes 24,000 premature deaths, 38,200 non-fatal heart attacks and 10’s of 1000’s of hospital visits and asthma attacks, its mercury pollution exposes 100,000 to 200,000 children to dangerous levels in the womb, its acid rain and waste from mountaintop removal and mining poisons 1000’s of America’s lakes, streams, and community water supplies, not to mention its huge contribution to global warming, coal would become prohibitively more expensive than solar and wind as they don't have a single one of these enormous costs.
• With many of the same costs but in different proportions, oil, gas and nuclear would be more expensive than solar and wind, toxic chemical-laden factory farm food more expensive than organic food, cancer-causing products more expensive than safer alternatives, single use more expensive than reusable and industrially recyclable more expensive than home compostable, Nature’s recycling.
• The way to make this truly, overall realistic and responsible pricing happen economy-wide is in an open, transparent program, our scientific community, using the new science of industrial ecology’s lifecycle cost assessments (LCA’s), would calculate these costs which in large part act as huge, unacknowledged taxes on society and huge, deferred taxes on our children.
• Making these backdoor taxes clear and visible, Real Cost-Pollution Prevention (RCPP) taxes on the social and environmental costs of all major industrial ingredients, inputs, services, construction and production methods would increase in predictable increments and be levied at the most appropriate points of extraction, manufacturing, importation and/or sales.
• Their predictability will give consumers, businesses, investors and governments the time and certainty to best plan how to reduce pollution and this is the Game-Changer that uses the most powerful economic incentive of all – making a profit.:
• Reducing and eventually eliminating pollution (and thus reducing and eventually eliminating ones RCPP taxes!) becomes more profitable than polluting!
• Continually Cleaner and Safer will under price and replace Dirty and Dangerous while profiting at everyone else’s expense, aka privatization of profit and socialization of cost will no longer be profitable.
• In short, Real Cost-Benefit Pricing is not only truly realistic, morally, ecologically and economically honest and responsible, it’s also fiscally conservative – a dollar of pollution prevention tax now is far cheaper than higher, even catastrophic costs to our children down the road.
Rebating RCPP Taxes to the Public
To Accelerate the Green Recovery
• The best way to jump start and accelerate the creation of millions of new green jobs and the greening of America's economy is as follows.
• Deposit 25% of RCPP taxes monthly into the bank accounts of all adults who filed, paid taxes but earned less than $250,000 the previous year. This would be to help America's majority buy these ever eco-friendlier goods and services as well as to cushion them from initially, higher, economy-wide pricing. (Military costs for guarding overseas oil will drop over time as ...