By Nancy Thorner
Just what is a climate tax? Olivia Lai in her article dated January 6, 2022, Carbon Tax in the USA, describes it accordingly:
“A carbon tax is a growingly popular financial mechanism used to combat climate change by imposing a direct price on greenhouse gas emissions produced by companies and industries. By charging polluters the emissions they produce by the tonne, the tax creates an economic incentive for companies to reduce their carbon activity or invest and switch towards cleaner fuels or technologies.”
Carbon credits compared to Catholic Church Middle Ages indulgences
David Icke had an interesting way of explaining carbon credits going back to the Catholic Church in the Middle Ages, “how commoners were convinced to buy indulgences for their sins, from which the Catholic Church became rich.”
“Similarly, today, our overlords—the mainstream media, central bankers, and their political allies—are working overtime to convince the commoners to pay for their alleged climate sins.”
Icke’s further states: “Although advocates promote them as a way to “save the environment,” in reality, carbon credits are nothing more than a devious mechanism to tax, regulate, and control you.
Olivia Lai further notes in her Carbon Tax in the USA article that 27 countries have adopted some form of carbon tax — among them Denmark, the European Union, Sweden, the UK, and even China— but our nation is not even thinking of imposing one. However, California and Massachusetts do have cap-and-trade programs.
New to Oregon, as of January 1st of this year, is a new carbon tax law described as “not a gas tax, but a fee that companies who produce CO2 emissions have to pay.”
Oregon’s carbon tax most likely will be felt by consumers in what they must pay for heating oil, natural gas, propane, and at the gas pump
Carbon tax a reality in Trudeau’s Canada
Missing from Olivia’s Lai’s article as to countries who have adopted some form of carbon tax was our northern neighbor Canada.
A federal carbon tax is already a reality in Trudeau’s Canada, which is causing the price of food and other goods and services to soar.
To make matters even worse, the federal carbon tax will triple by 2030.
Canada’s government believes that carbon taxes are the ideal way to reduce greenhouse gas to have a meaningful impact on climate change.
WEF at Davos, 2023
Of the six major themes tackled at the WEF in Davos in 2023, the first two had to do with climate change: (1) the growing effects of the climate on mankind and (2) the development of renewable or green energy (clean energy technology).
Speaking at the World Economic Forum in Davos, the head of the World Trade Organization (WTO), Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, called for a global carbon tax and reforms to trade regulations to enable the world to meet decarbonisation goals this decade in order for 2030 climate goals to be met.
Then there was our own nation’s Special Presidential Envoy for Climate John Kerry who lauded fellow attendees at the World Economic Forum’s (WEF) for trying to save the planet.
As Kerry remarked: “When you start to think about it, it’s pretty extraordinary that we — select group of human beings because of whatever touched us at some point in our lives — are able to sit in a room and come together and actually talk about saving the planet. I mean, it’s so almost extraterrestrial to think about ‘saving the planet.”’
Revealed by Davos participants was an “individual carbon footprint tracker” which will track where people travel, how they travel, what they eat, and what they consume. This is not only scary but a Big Brother technical advancement to infringe on our privacy.
Carbon accounting in our nation?
Google Cloud is working with global organizations to help them use technology to build a more sustainable future.
Even though President Biden did promise to reduce carbon emissions by 2030 to hit zero emissions by 2050, even signing an executive order to make 50% of all new cars electric by the end of the decade in a huge push for renewable energy, there has not been any mention of carbon pricing.
This, however, is not the mindset of many experts and world leaders who believe that carbon pricing should be part of any climate policy planning and action.
Evaluating a carbon tax in US. to address climate change in U.S.
Not unexpectedly, there are pros and cons on the issue of a carbon tax as suggested in this article by Kamran Kiyani:
The Pros –
1. Encourages the use of cleaner energy.
2. Provides a stable and predictable policy economy.
3. Can generate revenue for governments.
4. Encourages the leaner production processes.
The Cons –
1. May be regressive.
2. Can be difficult to implement.
3. May be opposed by industry.
What if fossil fuels don’t cause global warming?
Although posted in 2009 by Paul Bedard, Carbon Dioxide Doesn’t Cause Global Warming, Bedard’s article is still noteworthy today.
Leighton Steward, at the time, confronted legislators on Capitol Hill with studies and his book Ice and Paradise while legislators were working on an energy bill. He convinced them that their carbon dioxide cap-and-trade scheme could actually hurt the environment by reducing CO2 levels.
Dated March 4, 2020 Collister Johnson wrote the following article, Eliminating Fossil Fuels Now Would Have No Effect On Temps.
“No matter what assumptions are used for the amount of or increase in fossil fuel-generated CO2 in the US, from small amounts to very large ones, complete elimination of all fossil fuels in the US immediately would only restrict any increase in world temperature by less than one-tenth of one degree Celsius by 2050, and by less than one-fifth of one degree Celsius by 2100,” writes Johnson. “So, all this Sturm und Drang in Congress about legislation needed to lower fossil fuel use is really much ado about nothing.
“The US could, in fact, have a policy of doing nothing about fossil fuels, and the Earth’s temperature would still be the same as if we passed legislation eliminating all fossil fuels – which coincidentally would have the effect of destroying our modern way of life,” Johnson says.
As for the renewable energy sources of wind and solar, they are not viable sources of energy to power our nation’s tremendous need for energy, which will only increase in future years.