Monday, January 6, 2014

COMPREHENSIVE CARBON TAX IS THE LEAST BAD OPTION: REVENUE NEUTRAL

Do you agree that carbon emissions have to come down to take the edge off global warming?  Or do you have doubts about what they call climate change?  Then just simply reduce smog and other lung-unfriendly pollutants but how do you do it?  The rate we are going, what happening is, it is as if taxpayers are being milked to subsidize renewable energy.  Do we have to launch a carbon-trading market?  Or should we tighten energy-consumption regulations on appliances and cars, or how about carbon taxes?

Everything has its imperfection.  An example is the carbon trading markets have been an abject failure.  Europe was flooded with carbon credits, pushing their value down to almost nothing.  It had fraud-prone market.

The less risky choice is a comprehensive carbon tax that affect to all hydrocarbon fuels, from gasoline to propane.  Since there are no exemptions it is democratic.  And since if there is one thing governments do efficiently, it is easy to administer and it is collect taxes.  Consequently, it provides each consumer the liberty to decide the cheaper energy use that best go well with his or her budget.  But the question is, is it fair?  If the extra tax income is offset with lower taxes elsewhere then it is revenue neutral, which makes it fair.


At least the one in British Columbia works considered a global model, does.  An independent study found that per capita fuel consumption in B.C. fell 17.4 per cent in the tax’s first four years (to 2012) while greenhouse gas emissions fell 11 per cent. And the tax has not indignant the economy.

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