Regardless of the Trump position on many issues- the reality is the Paris climate crap is a colossal producer of hot air that will do nothing for the environment. Its a political football to be kicked around by politically correct mutton heads who would be the first to wail if we took the Accord seriously and began to ban their gas guzzling toys! Real protection of the environment means hard choices about what fossil fueled items we can really dispose of without ruining the economy!
Here is an article describing why LIE-beral environmental plans are a total failure! With some comments of my own in brackets):
Carbon schemes doomed to fail: Report
By Lorrie Goldstein, Toronto Sun. First posted: Thursday, May 04, 2017 08:04 AM EDT | Updated: Thursday, May 04, 2017 08:08 AM EDT
Canada’s carbon pricing schemes are doomed to fail because their primary purpose isn’t to lower greenhouse gas emissions, but to increase government revenues and control of the economy, the Fraser Institute says in a report released Thursday.
“Carbon-pricing in Canada doesn’t work the way ivory tower economists envision, and instead has become just another tax,” said Kenneth Green, the Institute’s senior director of energy and natural resource studies, and author of Poor Implementation Undermines Carbon Tax Efficiency in Canada.
The study concludes none of the four provincial carbon pricing models introduced in Ontario, Alberta, Quebec and B.C., along with Ottawa’s national mandatory minimum carbon price which starts next year, meet the three conditions necessary to effectively reduce industrial greenhouse gas emissions linked to climate change.
First, carbon pricing must replace other forms of government regulation, not add on more regulations.
Second, the government must return all the money it raises from carbon pricing to the public in the form of reduced personal and corporate income taxes, known as revenue neutrality.
Third, governments cannot impose carbon pricing while continuing to subsidize expensive and inefficient forms of green energy, such as wind and solar power.
(Green energy such as wind power actually has a LARGER CARBON foot print than simply producing electricity from natural gas generators- because of the carbon produced in manufacturing and installing wind and solar generators- they are so unreliable that govt must keep gas plants fully fired up and ready to take over from green energy at a moments notice! It is this priority LIE-berals have given to green energy that is driving up electricity costs- along with civil service GREED for gravy! )
The Fraser Institute says no carbon pricing scheme in Canada - which will take billions of dollars out of the economy annually by increasing the taxes or prices on almost all goods and services - is revenue neutral.
Ontario, which plans to raise almost $8 billion from cap and trade over four years, is using only $1.32 billion to offset higher electricity prices, while the rest will be spent on whatever the government decides, ranging from transit, to counter-productive renewable energy subsidies, to, the Fraser report says, “dubious” efficiency programs.
(LIE-berals have engaged in such dubious green energy programs before- offering up grants to people who buy energy efficient windows- with the windows sealed nicely by new glass and heat STILL whooshing out of poorly insulated walls and ceilings-and people left with major window bills and minor grants! Its all just typical LIE-beral bait and switch- they sell the sizzle but NOT the steak! And its all designed to keep LIE-berals in power-at ANY price!)
Alberta’s carbon tax is expected to generate $4 billion from 2017 to 2020, but only $1.4 billion will be returned to low-income residents, the study says, while $2.6 billion will be spent on “favoured government projects.”
Quebec, which has raised $330 million from its cap and trade scheme so far and expects $3 billion in revenues by 2020, is not returning any money to the public in reduced income taxes, according to the report. Instead it is putting all of it into a government-mandated “Green Fund” for use as it sees fit.
B.C.’s carbon tax, the report says, was revenue neutral when it was introduced in 2008, “but by 2013-14 ... the government had taken to shaky bookkeeping to preserve the appearance, but not the reality, of revenue neutrality.”
The study estimates that by 2018-19, B.C.’s carbon tax will have increased cumulative taxes on B.C. residents by $865 million, or about $800 for a family of four.
The report concludes, “Canada’s experience with carbon taxes shows that governments have little interest in ideal implementation. Instead, rather than simply addressing greenhouse gas emissions efficiently, they prefer to create revenue streams for pet projects and retain the ability to transfer wealth ...
“Even as governments extoll the wisdom of revenue-neutral carbon pricing ... they are not prepared to implement or maintain such schemes. Rather ... carbon pricing has become just another mechanism to fund intrusive and inefficient government manipulation of the economy, while extracting a new revenue stream from our already highly-taxed private sector.”
Lorrie Goldstein
(Foolish environmentalist believe that change can be effected by simply taxing everything! To judge the value of the Carbon crap and trade tax that has been operating here in Ontari-owe for 5 months- simply aks yourself and neighbours WHAT HAVE YOU CHANGED in response to the tax? I wager that NOTHING has changed!)
(And why should there be any change? People working night shift who must travel after public transit has shut down have no choice but to drive. People living in small towns with no public transit cannot alter their carbon foot print. Civil service Hog and those on the Sunshine List have no need to change their lifestyle as govt has been topping up their salaries and pensions using carbon crap taxes- thus ensuring that those with the largest carbon foot prints will continue to spew carbon at the old rates!)
(We will continue to heat our homes as before otherwise we risk frozen pipes in winter. We will continue to use air conditioning due to the increasing heat of changing summer weather. Our grocery stores will shrug and put up the cost of food to cover their increased transportation and refrigeration costs. NOTHING will change due to carbon crap and trade tax except that a few of our poorest people will lose jobs and be pushed onto welfare rolls!)
(To save our environment we MUST make hard choices about what we can do away with! Such as riding lawn mowers that spew as much carbon in 5 minutes as a modern car on the highway for 30 minutes! Loss of such a machine will make it hard for Sunshine List types to maintain those huge lawns on 3 or 5 or 10 acre estates in Newmarket- home owners there may have to let the land revert back to a wild treed state- and trees are a handy carbon sink for greenhouse gases! But Hogs don’t like to be ordered about or inconvenienced!)
(Other items such as Muskoka Lakes `bubble systems`- those electrically powered air compressors that agitate the water around costly cedar docks at fancy summer homes-running ALL WINTER to ensure ice does not damage the dock! Nothing but an electrically powered alteration of the natural order of ice in winter- at UN-necessary environmental cost! But again, Hogs don’t like getting orders from govt- Hogs GIVE orders and they are entitled! How dare any peon of the private sector suggest that those with the largest carbon foot print might be mostly to blame for environmental change?)
(Or why not tax huge motorboats if revenue is needed? Hang out for a while at Big Chute Marine Railway and watch the huge gas guzzlers chug onto the canal! Twin 500 horsepower diesels or is it 800 horsepower each? And how many liters to fill up? 1500? 2500? And how many gallons to the mile for such a floating palace? Boats are fun things but do they have to travel at such blazing speeds- while on holiday? How much fuel consumption is too much for these Hogs? )
(And maybe we should look at restricting atv`s and snow mobiles and sea-doos as well. What price to the environment to bomb around on such a gas guzzling toy? Oh sure- they are fun- but our environment is burning and we have to call a halt some place? Do we limit gas guzzling toys in the hands of Hogs or do we force people living in places with unsuitable public transit intro bankruptcy in the hypocrite LIE-beral name of saving the environment?)
(And the really huge issue is air travel- whether hauling passengers or freight. Air planes are the dirtiest way to move anything- bar none! Scientists quoted in Cdn Geographic magazine claim airplanes produce 75 percent of ALL the pollution related to travel- that includes trains, buses, cars, ships, trucks- anything that is hauling either cargo or passengers. You can get to Florida by train and save a lot of fossil fuel in the bargain! It takes more time to travel by train but our environment is burning and hard choices must be made.)
(Ordering stuff online and getting next day delivery is nice but it would save fuel and our environment if less cargo was flown to you on planes and more was sent by truck. Yes- you might have to wait longer for delivery- perhaps even a week- but hard choices and burning environment are a stark choice! With the added bonus that making such hard choices will ensure our economy does not completely collapse in the process!)
