British Columbia adopts ambitious Carbon Tax

[jolinar of malkshor]

Originally Posted by MelBridgeman

Not sure if that is completely correct, but prior to the "little ice age" there is speculation that some of it was opened up

Many European explorers navigated much of the arctic. Because there were so many islands it was hard to find a straight passage and took much longer than expected. The Franklin expedition was only 500 km from making it through the passage when it was frozen in for 4 years and the crew went missing. It was completely navigated in 1906 by a sail boat, it took 3 years.

[Flames89]

I am lukewarm about these measures. However, first off, I believe doing something is far better than doing nothing. Leadership isn't about waiting until everyone is on board and THEN deciding to do something. Leadership is about leading, whether the result is successful or not.

Now, the tax idea is just a meek ok, because it hits the individual. As another poster suggested, this tax will only spur inflation while doing very little to curb or incentivize (word?) a change in carbon consumption and/or spur invention. Now, if they reduced some of their current tax take on gasoline, and replaced it with this tax - then that would be better, as this tax will not curb consumption of gasoline. Further, the claim of spending the tax reductions on lower income earners is suspect. May be true, but their tax position is too high already. Canada is over taxed already. So what should they do?

Instead, BC should be providing tax incentives for low carbon users (use less, pay less - not use the same, pay more). They should be providing incentive programs for clean-tech businesses. Tax breaks for energy efficiency. The fund should allocate their capital to these programs, while they should be reducing the lower end taxes to offset any increase in expenses to the individual. Early stage businesses require government support if they are ever going to compete with later stage companies/technologies (for example, all the incentives that are built in for E&P companies, as well as non-clean power generators).

BC is also part of the great clean power call of 2008. This is a great move, having all your energy come from zero carbon sources. And even though this may hit the end customer slightly, the government is taking the larger hit by providing pricing incentives!

So doing something is better than nothing. And BC is doing it the way they know how. However, there are better ways. Ed should be taking this on, use some of the wealth of this province to fund clean-tech research and provide incentives to clean businesses.

We need oil, and for the next 70 years we will never get away from 50% of our energy coming from carbon sources. However this alone would be a great movement for the environment.

[burn_baby_burn]

Originally Posted by Flames89

Instead, BC should be providing tax incentives for low carbon users (use less, pay less - not use the same, pay more).

That sounds like a great idea. The idea should be to reduce emissions, not create wealth off of causing emissions. Although the whole point of the tax is to generate revenue while being patted on the back by the voters. Which will get the politicians re-elected, but doesn't really help the environment one bit.