Quote:
Originally Posted by Tinordi
More evidence that the carbon tax is useless. BC Carbon tax reduced gasoline consumption by 10.7%.
http://institute.smartprosperity.ca/...ne-consumption
Eager to hear the next round of baseless ignorant accusations from non-economists and non-policy analysts on why the most universally recommended policy instrument to reduce GHG emissions is actually not going to work. Please continue to cite no evidence to support for opinion while amping up your hysteria and overconfidence. |
I have read these studies and can't find any flaws in the methodology however the results don't make sense.
Are people that price sensitive to gasoline price fluctuation that a 1 cent increase regardless of cause decrease consumption by 1%. That notion seems ridiculous to me. And yet the data suggests that this is true.
I think there needs to be a big caveat with the data.
1) Continuous increases in the carbon tax are likely to have a smaller affect than the first as non-essential transpiration and easily substituted transportation are the first to be cut. This is demonstrated by the rural areas not seeing reduced consumption.
2) Given that gas prices fluctuate continuously the affect of the Carbon tax in the long term should be insignificant to the rising price of gas in general. If prices stabilize at X cents per L then the marginal increases of carbon taxes would have an affect. However in our current environment the price of oil will still dominate the consumption affects.
None of this is to say that a Carbon tax won't do anything. It will push things in the correct directions at the margins and as an alternative to a PST is a good choice of what to tax.