Future Babble

[BT]

Why carbon tax will work even if climate change theory is wrong
 
By Don Cayo 24 Nov 2010 Cayo
 

    Just because nobody knows the future is no excuse to do nothing in the face of worrisome possibilities, says Dan Gardner, the author of a solidly researched new book that makes it clear just how shaky ? if not dead wrong ? expert predictions usually are.

    Good policy, Gardner writes in Future Babble: Why Expert Predictions Fail ? and Why We Believe Them Anyway, stands up as worthwhile even if the forecast that prompted it turns out to be wrong.

    He cites as an example ?a stiff carbon tax with the revenues returned to the economy in the form of cuts to other taxes? ? which is what we have in B.C., except our carbon tax isn?t so stiff.

    ?Would it deliver even if climate change turns out to be bunk?? he asks.

    ?Absolutely. Carbon taxes raise the effective cost of fossil fuels, making alternative energy more competitive and spurring research and development. And reducing the use of fossil fuels while increasing the diversity of our energy sources would be wonderful for a whole host of reasons aside from climate change. It would reduce local air pollution, reduce the risk of catastrophic oil spills, buffer economies against the massive shocks inflicted by oil price spikes, and lessen the world?s vulnerability to instability in the Middle East and elsewhere. It would also reduce the torrent of cash flowing from the developed world to the thuggish governments that control most oil-producing nations, including Saudi Arabia, Iran and Russia. And of course there?s peak oil. If the peaksters turn out to be right, finally, how much of our economy is fuelled by oil will determine how badly we will suffer ? so carbon taxes would steadily reduce that threat, too.?

http://communities.canada.com/vancouversun/blogs/cayo/archive/2010/11/24/why-carbon-tax-will-work-even-if-climate-change-theory-is-wrong.aspx

[Xavier_Onassis]

Anything that helps us wean ourselves away from oil is a good thing. Oil can be put to better use as plastics and other petrochemicals, after all.

The allegations that Global Warming does not exist have not been disproven, nor has this theory been questioned by legitimate scientific publications.

[Plane]

I remember Vice president Bush proposeing a gas tax during the Reagan administration. The timeing would have been good because the price of gas had just fallen and the new taqx would be lightly felt, the recipts from the tax could be devoted to reasearch and development of fuels that wouldn't need to be imported.

"Bushwhacked" I remember was the reply , the public was not receptive.

[Xavier_Onassis]

The oil industry and the manufacturers of SUVs were a lot more influential in preventing this.

Oil is not a renewable source of energy. A system that depends on fossil fuels is not sustainable. That is irrefutable.

When automobiles replaced horses, it was a huge change for the better, as the enormous piles of horse poop were a serious threat to the health and livability of every city and town. It is better to encourage progress than to drag our feet and prevent it from happening, and that is what Big Coal and Big Oil and all their hirelings are doing.
 
We have enough natural gas from shale rock in the US to replace a lot of oil. Around half of the gas stations in France sell natural gas,and adapting a gasoline car to gas is not very expensive. We should start by using the gas we have as a transition fuel.It is less toxic and does not need to be imported.