Quote:
Originally Posted by llwhiteoutll
If it was to mitigate the impact of GHGs on the environment or drive people to be more sustainable, the everyone would pay it.
The money (all of it) would also not go into general revenues, but be used for green initiatives and programs to spur more sustainable behaviors.
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It's funny your thinking like a socialist here. The point of a Carbon tax is it reduces carbon emissions without intervening in the market. You don't have green initiatives and pick winners and losers.
A carbon tax works by making things that emit carbon more expensive. This has two affects reduce consumption and most importantly make less carbon intensive alternatives more attractive because of their reduced cost.
Because the tax is a consumption tax whether or not you get a rebate from the government or not your choices on what to buy are affected by the tax. The low income person is just as incentivized to spend on less carbon intensive options as the wealthier person.
Now Notley missed the part about lowering general taxes in order for the Carbon tax not to be a tax grab but using a tax grab to subsidize green tech is just picking winners. The tax is the incentive to change behaviour.