NASA's Jim Hansen has a better plan than cap-and-trade.

The Obama Adminstration and its allies in Congress think that cap-and-trade will help us transition towards clean energy and conservation by making fossil fuels more expensive.

They’re right about the second part — oil and coal will become more expensive under this scheme.

But NASA climate scientist Jim Hansen,who’s become an outspoken policy advocate, says that what he calls cap-and-tax won’t help get the economy off of fossil fuels.

Instead, as they become more expensive, the public will just have no choice but to pay more, because cap-and-trade will not encourage alternatives. All the extra cost generated will simply go into the pockets of Wall Street firms like Goldman Sachs that developed cap-and-trade in the first place.

Hansen has a solution that’s simple and that should appeal to conservatives and liberals alike: impose a fee on all fossil fuels at the wellhead and then distribute the proceeds as direct payments to all legal U.S. residents.

Washington could define a path that would lead the world toward a clean energy future. And, incidentally, it would solve the climate problem – without requiring anyone to agree that there even is a climate problem.

Hansen outlines his idea in an essay sent to his email list where he also throws some sharp barbs at the New York Times.