Wednesday, August 01, 2018

Ottawa Backpeddles on Carbon Tax. More Trudeau Horseshit.


It's not even in effect and they're already taking the carving knives to it.

Enviro-Can has cried "uncle" for the sake of competitiveness. Yeah, really. Seriously, they did.

The federal government will drastically reduce the scope of its planned carbon tax to address competitiveness concerns as it prepares to replace Ontario’s cap-and-trade system with its own levy. 
After a closed-door meeting with industry officials last week, Environment and Climate Change Canada issued new guidelines that lower the percentage of emissions on which large polluters will have to pay the carbon tax and offer bigger breaks for energy-intensive companies that face tough international competition. The guidelines will be imposed on every province that doesn’t meet the federal standard for carbon pricing. 
Companies will try to pass along any costs of the carbon tax to consumers, but industry leaders say they may have to absorb it in competitive markets. The reduced tax means businesses will have fewer costs to pass along, face less competitive pressure and likely produce higher emissions.

Just more Trudeau horseshit.
Ottawa issued draft regulations in January indicating companies would have to pay the carbon tax on roughly 30 per cent of their emissions, with a benchmark set at 70 per cent of their industry’s average emissions performance. The new rules to start in January will lower that requirement to pay tax on 20 per cent of emissions, and some particularly vulnerable industries – including cement and steel making – will pay tax on roughly 10 per cent of their greenhouse gas emissions.

8 comments:

Northern PoV said...

Hey, it's the thought that counts, eh?

Aspirational goals are so enticing.

Anonymous said...

So F***'d this planet is. "Carbon Leakage" is the code for we can't do anything until everybody on the damn planet agrees to do something. We need some leadership in the government, an idea more outdated than a wind-up alarm clock these days.

Oh well, it will make a good paper - "Effects of unmitigated temperature rise on a formerly habitable planet". Alas, it will be carved in stone and not read for a couple billion years.

-PF

The Mound of Sound said...


The stumbling block, PF, is that the carbon emissions problem is but one cog in a bunch of gears that together turn the wheels of climate change, overpopulation and over-consumption of the Earth's very finite resources. All of these crises are human driven. Solving them demands equitable solutions, some group or region or community of nations giving up something for the benefit of the greater global civilization. The willpower - political and public - for that sort of cooperation doesn't exist.

Ask your neighbour who's always polishing his pickup truck what it would take for him to ditch the truck for a sub-compact electric car? You know what he would say. Problem unsolved.

Scott in Montreal said...

We are already past the point of no return, with the multiplier effects of melting arctic permafrost releasing untold tonnes of methane gas (multiple times more heat-trapping than CO2) in a self-perpetuating cycle. The time to reduce emissions with half-measures was twenty or thirty years ago.

We need some serious macro-environmental engineering solutions to keep things in our little world livable, but that is not going to stop runaway over-population. Get ready for a rough ride folks.

Anonymous said...

Absolutely, Mound. The overpopulation and over-consumption thing is something that has bothered me for years. And it is not getting any better. The responses I get to broaching those topics are just basically Malthus was wrong and we will come up with another green revolution type scenario. My take is that the green revolution postponed the reckoning - we're running out of arable land, that the we have is being degraded, the nitrogen cycle is messed. Now add in climate and if you take any sort of reasonable, science-backed predictions you're called alarmist.

Unless you're a military planner or an actuary. When you look at folks whose livelihood and self-interest ride on actually getting the predictions right, the future is far from rosy. When you look at folks whose interest lies in getting people to believe their predictions are correct, well you get anything from JT to Trump. I have no idea how to try to effect the needed changes and I boggle at the lack of interest and impetus to do some from those with kids and grandkids that they claim to love.

Trailblazer said...

Ask your neighbour who's always polishing his pickup truck what it....

He would say the same as I would!!piss off.
One person will not make a difference.
The only way to reduce emissions is by rationing.
With rationing that rich prick down the street has no more "rights" to energy than you or I.
It would be fair and be seen to be so.
That he or she had only so many carbon/energy credits to run his/her home or transportation would even the playing field and rightfully so.
That 5 or 10 thousand square foot 'home' those two live in would only be allowed so much energy to heat it!
George Monbiot discusses this in his book 'Heat"

TB

Toby said...

Before rationing, before carbon taxing or trading what needs to come first is to stop subsidizing the carbon industries coal, oil and gas. It makes no sense whatsoever to tax consumers at the pump all the while passing the money to industry.

Trudeau has really sold the farm from under those who voted for him. What an incredible disappointment he is.

The Mound of Sound said...


Trail Blazer, of course he would say "piss off." That's my point. At no level is there the political or the public will to deal with climate change in any meaningful way.

Rationing. Who's going to do that, Trudeau? Why he can't/won't even see KPMG prosecuted for their Isle of Man tax dodge scheme. And KPMG's wealthy clients who were caught out? They were all given cushy settlements. Not one had to pay full freight.

Don't forget, Trudeau/Morneau are "job churn" central. They're grooming the plebs for a life of insecurity and servitude.

Rationing. That's hilarious.