Damien, you miss the point. The Kyoto treaty is not about limiting carbon emissions. The treaty is about policy entrepreneurs and third-world kleptocrats making loadsadough. From you and me, to be precise.
The CST (ahem! you heard it here first!) will probably turn out to be more about filling the treasury and less about limiting CO2 emissions. Nobody can -- or should -- try to tell me that the tobacco tax is about discouraging smoking. It's about money.
While a CST may have the economic effect of discouraging consumption because of higher prices, gummints will soon become addicted to the revenue. Just like the present gas tax, and just like provincial lotteries and video slots.
Whether they are effective or not in getting to a policy goal is entirely beside the point.
While an interesting concept, Jim finds the big major flaw in the CST. The government is responsible for using/distributing the cash.
But it does have two major things going for it. At the very least the money is staying in country, and not lining the pockets of some third world corrupt government. And if the tax was egregous enough, individuals and corporations would try to find ways of reducing their usage.
Perhaps the $$ should be earmarked for education and R&D. At this point we don't need hoards of wind farms and solar arrays, we need wind farms and solar arrays that would actually WORK in Canada, and aren't more destructive than they are benificial.
This is the key for the next step in the climate discussions. In order to make things better we need something new to replace the existing infrastructure, and there's nothing on the table to replace what we have.
No. It's just another tax; It's based on consensus, on false assumptions, not science.
And all that tax you pay on gas now... the bulk of it's real cost... all of that helps save the whales, does it?
No saved whales, Ran, but major reductions in National debt... plus some nice new C-17's (a big "Thanks!" to the USAF for allowing us to barge into line) :)
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Why is the solution to every friggin' problem more taxes ? Stealing yet more money from the public to address an issue that may or may not be important, in a manner that may or may not work, is the modern equivalent of an appeal to magic. And, as most appeals to magic tend to be, the results will be a big fat zero.
Posted at 2007-02-07 01:20:43 [PermaLink]If a CST (love that!) was implemented, it would have to be matched by an equivalent reduction in other taxes. Which would be impossible.. there's no way any government could give up a revenue stream like this.
Posted at 2007-02-07 08:15:57 [PermaLink]