| Peter Barnes | |
|---|---|
| Born | New York City |
| Nationality | American |
| Occupation | Entrepreneur, writer. |
Peter Barnes is an American entrepreneur, environmentalist, and journalist.
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Barnes grew up in New York City. He earned a B.A. in history from Harvard University and an M.A. in government from Georgetown.[1]
Barnes began his career in journalism working as a reporter for The Lowell Sun in Lowell, Massachusetts. He later became a Washington, D.C. correspondent for Newsweek and was subsequently employed as a west coast correspondent for The New Republic.[1]
In 1976, Barnes co-founded a worker-owned solar energy company in San Francisco, California. In 1983, he co-founded Working Assets Money Fund.[1]
He served as president of Working Assets Long Distance in the 1980s. In 1995, Barnes was named Socially Responsible Entrepreneur of the Year for Northern California.[1] [2]
Barnes is an ardent environmentalist and an outspoken advocate of the need to reduce carbon emissions. He originated the terms "Capitalism 3.0" and "Sky Trust". These terms describe his proposal for a "cap and dividend" program", modeled on the Alaska Permanent Fund, which Barnes maintains will reduce greenhouse emissions and create a citizens dividend for all Americans.[3] [4] Barnes contends that his proposals are more workable and sustanable than that of the cap-and-trade policies of the Kyoto Protocol.[4]
Since 2003, Barnes has authored three books that deal specifically with his environmental ideas and proposed solutions.
The Sky Trust proposal is based on the idea that each and every American owns the sky as if it were a common asset. Sky Trust's goal would be to "promote climate stability by: limiting the amount of carbon that can be that can be put into the atmosphere; allowing the free market to set a price on the right to emit carbon; collecting revenue from those who buy those rights; and returning earned revenue to the owners of the sky."[5] Sky Trust is a "cap and dividend" system that would have to be implemented by Congress in order to be fully functional. This particular cap and trade system would allow private companies to buy market value permits that allowed them to emit a certain amunt of carbon into the air. Companies can trade permits with each other in order to suit their permit needs for carbon emission as well. The revenue generated from the selling - by the government - of permits to the companies would be shared among American citizens.