This week, filling my car up with gas was the most expensive I had ever experienced, at $4.23/gallon in New Haven. Much to our displeasure, people are experiencing rising prices everywhere, as high as $7/gallon in California. My colleague, in his recent opinion piece “An Energy Reckoning in the U.S.”, talks about the energy price spiral we are experiencing which is causing fossil fuel-based services, like gas prices, to skyrocket.

We know we need to get away from burning fossil fuels like coal, oil and natural gas because they create heat-trapping pollution. But this shouldn’t mean giving up technological advances which abundant energy has enabled, like the ease of driving or even flying across the country. What we need is systemic change: a world of abundant and affordable clean energy that includes things like electric vehicles and jets that don’t pollute.

But here we are, getting hit with seemingly inexorable rises in oil and gas prices. And that is on top of the inflation that was already taking hold from the pandemic.

Why are oil and gas prices skyrocketing? It’s based on the fear that Russia, in an effort to leverage control over Ukraine, could cut supply. Or, Europe could decide to stop purchasing Russian fuel. The U.S. has already sanctioned Russian fuel but its effect is limited since we are not a major purchaser. Either way, this will cause a global shortage. As one Harvard economist pointed out, “Russia is incredibly unimportant in the global economy except for oil and gas.” 

You may ask, why not just drill for more oil? Unfortunately, no amount of production in the U.S. will provide relief. Since Congress lifted the ban on oil exports in 2015, American-drilled oil and gas have been priced on the international market. Anyway, oil and gas producers are currently resisting expansion. They are enjoying the huge profits coming in from these high prices.  Also, too much supply can make prices — and profits — plummet and result in stranded assets.

Our best response is to break our fossil fuel dependence and invest in domestically produced renewable energy. By doing so, the U.S. will be freed from the whims of global oil markets and begin to tackle climate change simultaneously.

But as the prior piece points out, the energy transition will not occur overnight. He mentions vital commodities needed for clean energy are vulnerable since we rely on other countries for supply. Businesses like Panasonic recently announced plans for a new massive battery plant in the U.S. to supply Tesla. But these things take time to get built.

To decarbonize, we need effective policy that will accelerate the transition without harming our collective well-being. Carbon pricing in the form of “Carbon Cashbacks” can accomplish this by putting us on the path to net-zero emissions by 2050. It makes big polluters pay then transfers cash to American households. It creates jobs and eliminates pollution, saving lives. If warming is stopped by 2ºC, researchers expect more than 4.5 million premature deaths will be avoided, not to mention the 3.5 million hospitalizations and emergency room visits, and approximately 300 million lost work days in the U.S. The health gains to be made through carbon pricing are astronomical, something that resonates deeply with me as a master’s student in the School of Public Health.

Finally, the opinion piece argues the U.S. and Europe alone cannot stop climate change. Exactly correct. The solution is to put a price on carbon at our border. Both the European Union and Canada are planning border carbon adjustments. Simply put, countries have to pay us for the pollution they emitted when they made the products they are shipping to us. They can choose to pay us, or they can make their manufacturing plants cleaner and keep their money.

Let’s break free from high energy prices and get on track to stop climate change. Take action by emailing the President and your Members of Congress and ask them to take the first step by putting a price on carbon.

KATERINA PAONE is a first-year Master’s student at the Yale School of Public Health. Contact her at katerina.paone@yale.edu.