4 ms·

Does a carbon tax work? Ask British Columbia

6 points by cossatot 11y ago

osipovas 11y ago
Alberta, the neighbouring province I'm a resident of is considering something "similar". Here is a great article by Macleans: http://www.macleans.ca/economy/economicanalysis/heres-what-we-know-and-dont-know-about-albertas-carbon-tax/ http://www.macleans.ca/economy/economicanalysis/heres-what-w... I for one, as a citizen am in favour of shutting down coal fired plants that add to the particulate count in my air. I will gladly pay the extra $300-$500 to get rid of it :)
- cossatot 11y ago
  I'm not sure if one exists (in US or Canada) but some sort of particulate matter tax would also be nice, and in some cases preferable to regulations. A major political benefit is that particulates are a much more local problem than CO2.
ryao 11y ago
Renewable energy can be considered to be a perpetuity in economics. Perpeuities are definitely valuable and should always improve the economy in the long term, even if jobs are lost in the transition, which will happen with jobs around coal and natural gas when we finally transition to renewable energy. I would rather see taxation policies focus on them rather than "global warming". The same sort of transition would happen, although aiming for the transition itself rather than a perceived problem would probably achieve it faster. I would also like to see any taxes instituted be accompanied by reductions in existing taxes to eliminate the possibility of increased tax burden to increasing breathing room for government corruption and waste. I suspect that politicians behind these initiatives publicly claim global warming and privately think/talk about increased breathing room, so there is little chance of seeing anything adopted that responsibly avoids increasing taxation and I imagine fights over this will continue. This is from someone who had solar panels installed on his home 4 months ago with the goal that they generate more electrical energy than his house consumes each year and is looking into other green technologies (E85 vehicle conversion, passivhaus, etcetera), but does not consider discussions of global warming to be a strong motivating factor for any of it.

6 points by cossatot 11y ago

Alberta, the neighbouring province I'm a resident of is considering something "similar". Here is a great article by Macleans: http://www.macleans.ca/economy/economicanalysis/heres-what-we-know-and-dont-know-about-albertas-carbon-tax/ http://www.macleans.ca/economy/economicanalysis/heres-what-w... I for one, as a citizen am in favour of shutting down coal fired plants that add to the particulate count in my air. I will gladly pay the extra $300-$500 to get rid of it :)

cossatot 11y ago
I'm not sure if one exists (in US or Canada) but some sort of particulate matter tax would also be nice, and in some cases preferable to regulations. A major political benefit is that particulates are a much more local problem than CO2.

ryao 11y ago

Renewable energy can be considered to be a perpetuity in economics. Perpeuities are definitely valuable and should always improve the economy in the long term, even if jobs are lost in the transition, which will happen with jobs around coal and natural gas when we finally transition to renewable energy. I would rather see taxation policies focus on them rather than "global warming". The same sort of transition would happen, although aiming for the transition itself rather than a perceived problem would probably achieve it faster. I would also like to see any taxes instituted be accompanied by reductions in existing taxes to eliminate the possibility of increased tax burden to increasing breathing room for government corruption and waste. I suspect that politicians behind these initiatives publicly claim global warming and privately think/talk about increased breathing room, so there is little chance of seeing anything adopted that responsibly avoids increasing taxation and I imagine fights over this will continue. This is from someone who had solar panels installed on his home 4 months ago with the goal that they generate more electrical energy than his house consumes each year and is looking into other green technologies (E85 vehicle conversion, passivhaus, etcetera), but does not consider discussions of global warming to be a strong motivating factor for any of it.