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MVMITiL M1 1. RESOLUTION OF THE CITY OF CHICAGO SUPPORTING NATIONAL CARBON FEE & DIVIDEND LEGISLATION WHEREAS, the costs of climate change — including destabilized weather and extreme weather events, rising sea levels, and health impacts —now pose a substantial threat to the health, prosperity, and security of Chicagoans and all Americans; and WHEREAS, the City of Chicago recognizes that rising carbon emissions are exposing and will continue to expose Chicagoans to the risks of increasingly extreme heat in the summers, heavier rainstorms, more frequent and severe flooding, and stresses on the public health and economy; and WHEREAS, presently, the environmental, health and social costs of carbon emissions are not included in the price of fossil fuels, but rather these externalized costs are borne by all Chicagoans, Americans, and the world's citizens; and WHEREAS, the Paris Agreement, signed April 22, 2016, commits the United States to aid in limiting the increase in global temperature to below 2 degrees Celsius above pre - industrial levels; and WHEREAS, economists overwhelmingly support a "carbon tax" or "carbon fee" as the most effective, most efficient way to reduce emissions, and sound economic policy in its own right. WHEREAS, Carbon Fee & Dividend will place a fee on fossil fuels at the source (the well, mine or port of entry), beginning at $15 per metric ton of CO2 equivalent emissions, and steadily increase annually at the rate of $10 per metric ton; and WHEREAS, all revenues so collected will be returned to American households on a per capita basis as a monthly dividend, more than offsetting any increased costs of carbon -based products in most American households; and WHEREAS, a border adjustment will assess a fee or rebate on goods traded with foreign countries which do not establish a comparable price on carbon emissions, thus protecting American businesses from foreign businesses who do not incur the costs of carbon pricing measures; and WHEREAS, Carbon Fee & Dividend legislation would create jobs, grow the economy, save lives, and reduce greenhouse gas emissions; and WHEREAS, Carbon Fee & Dividend is consistent with and in several instances facilitates the realization of the goals of the Sustainable Chicago Action Agenda; and WHEREAS, a national carbon tax can be implemented quickly and efficiently because the federal government already has in place mechanisms, such as the Internal Revenue Service, needed to implement and enforce the fee, and already collects taxes from fossil fuel producers and importers; and WHEREAS, a national carbon tax, levied at the point of extraction (well, mine, or port of entry), need only be collected once and is transparent and simple by design; and