Carbon pricing: Poorer, not greener
It’s that they won’t reduce greenhouse gas emissions linked to climate change effectively and will instead become a permanent sin tax we’ll all pay for using fossil fuel energy, much like the papal indulgences of old.
In order to reduce emissions significantly, carbon prices would have to increase to more than five times what they are today, which would have a devastating impact on the take-home pay of every Canadian and probably cause a recession.
Instead, we’ll get the worst of both worlds -- a higher cost of living, a lower standard of living and no meaningful reduction in emissions.
Consider the facts.
The highest carbon price in Canada today is $30-per-tonne of industrial carbon dioxide emissions or their equivalent in other greenhouse gases.
That’s in B.C. Notley is bringing in a $20-per-tonne carbon tax next year in Alberta, rising to $30 in 2018. Wynne says under her cap-and-trade scheme in Ontario, carbon pricing will start at about $18-per-tonne in 2017. Quebec’s cap-and-trade carbon price is $15-per-tonne.
None of these prices is anywhere near what’s needed to lower emissions in line with Trudeau’s targets -- which used to be Stephen Harper’s.
To do that, Canada will have to cut emissions by at least 127 megatonnes (Mt) annually by 2020, 241 Mt by 2030.
B.C. is credited with having Canada’s best carbon pricing scheme, if not the world’s.
But even the government admits it will reduce B.C.’s emissions by only 3 Mt annually by 2020.
B.C. Premier Christy Clark and Wynne have both warned Ottawa we aren’t meeting the Trudeau/Harper emission targets, let alone steeper ones the feds have suggested they might impose.
Writing in February’s edition of Policy Options, (hat tip to Evan Solomon of Maclean’s for citing it) energy economist Mark Jaccard, one of Canada’s leading authorities on the subject, said in order to sufficiently change human behaviour in terms of energy consumption to meet Trudeau’s 2030 target, Canada needs a national carbon price of $30-per-tonne, starting next year, rising $10 annually to $160-per-tonne in 2030.
That would raise the price of gasoline alone by 40 cents-per-litre, excluding all other costs.
But carbon pricing doesn’t just increase the cost of gasoline, electricity and home heating fuel, as politicians pretend.
Because we rely so heavily on fossil fuel energy, it raises the cost of almost everything.
Jaccard says governments can achieve the best results in lowering emissions through smart regulation of fossil fuel using industries.
Of course, that will also increase our cost of living, just not as transparently as carbon pricing.
As for smart government regulation, the Wynne administration in Ontario can’t explain why its defective licence plates are bubbling and peeling, but it’s going to fix the climate?
Given that governments are imposing carbon pricing on us, it must be open, transparent and revenue neutral.
It must return 100% of the billions of dollars annually governments will take from the public by raising taxes and prices on consumption, back to the public in income tax cuts and grants to the poor who don’t pay taxes.
So far, no government -- B.C. comes closest -- has made such a commitment. They just want your money.
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