Janice L. Kirsch: Doctor calls for sensible carbon policy

I am a child of the San Joaquin Valley, growing up in Bakersfield and, later, working as a doctor in Merced and Fresno. As the climate changes, we see unrelenting drought, increases in valley fever, asthma, allergies and other respiratory diseases. The medical literature confirms this and I bear personal witness to my patients’ plight.

Whatever one’s feelings about this president, in his State of the Union speech, he correctly noted the future of energy worldwide will be clean. Fossil fuel industries should not receive silent medical subsidies.

Let’s call for a fee on carbon, levied at the mine or the well. To prevent taxpayers from bearing the burden of increased fuel costs, this fee should be returned as a dividend to all households, a plan expounded in detail by the non-partisan Citizens’ Climate Lobby.

The San Joaquin Valley has long provided this country with precious agriculture. May the health of valley citizens be central in our lobby for life.

This story was originally published January 18, 2016 at 12:21 PM with the headline "Janice L. Kirsch: Doctor calls for sensible carbon policy."