The reasoning given to use a tax -- to move us away from the energy sources that are irreparably damaging our atmosphere and oceans and thereby our economy and our health -- is good. However, the reasoning would be even better if it included the idea of using a "dividend" rather than a "tax." The difference is that the dividend approach would recycle all the fees collected from the carbon-based fuel producers or importers directly back to our individual households, so governments don't grow dependent on such revenues and aren't trying to pick specific alternative energy sources to support. Legislation has already been introduced in the U.S. Congress for this approach, so all existing and potential future technologies can compete fairly to reduce these carbon emissions. This dividend approach has both Republican and Democratic sponsors and is known as the Energy Innovation and Carbon Dividend Act. More info about this market-based, non-tax, technology- and jobs-stimulating approach is available from the Citizens Climate Lobby website. We all have a crucial role to play in finding an approach that will back us up from the edge of the cliff that our overly "successful" use of fossil fuels has brought us to. However, only by working together is any solution even remotely possible. The Energy Innovation and Carbon Dividend is one such potential approach, but only if we all act NOW, not 10 years from now, and tell our representatives this is what YOU want. If we just hope that science or technologists will come up with the answer without you registering your desire for an answer with your government representative, your hope and our hopes, for our children, grandchildren and their descendents will all go unanswered. In other words, we all need each other to solve this life-threatening problem now, before it's too late. - old Christian and citizen of the United States of America and planet Earth