British Columbia Introduces North America's First Full-fledged Carbon Tax

Yesterday the Government of British Columbia passed a bill that will phase in a carbon tax on all fossil fuels including gasoline, diesel, natural gas, coal, propane, and home heating fuel.   Beginning  this summer the rate starts at $10/tonne of carbon-equivalent emissions and will rise by $5/year for the next four years.  By 2012 the rate for gasoline will be 7.34 cents/litre.  This is projected to raise $1.85B over three years, two thirds of which will come from business.  The money raised will not go be used for program spending, but will be returned in some form to individuals and businesses.  Very innovative attempt to get British Columbians to cut their emissions. 

Apparently all the remaining US presidential candidates support some form of cap and trade, which according to Wikipedia means that "a central authority sets a limit or cap on the amount of a pollutant that can be emitted. Companies or other groups are issued emission permits and are required to hold an equivalent number of allowances which represent the right to emit a specific amount. The total amount of allowances and credits cannot exceed the cap, limiting total emissions to that level. Companies that need to increase their emissions must buy credits from those who pollute less. The transfer of allowances is referred to as a trade. In effect, the buyer is paying a charge for polluting, while the seller is being rewarded for having reduced emissions by more than was needed. Thus, in theory, those that can easily reduce emissions most cheaply will do so, achieving the pollution reduction at the lowest possible cost to society." Apparently the major oil companies and other companies are preparing for this believing cap and trade to be inevitable.

Comments

[Adam Nott]

I agree with your observation that it is an "innovative attempt to get British Columbians to cut their emissions." Take a look at our two blog posts at
http://www.davis.ca/en/blog/Renewable-Energy-and-Sustainable-Development-Group which discuss the budgets other impacts that will help green the economy, as well as a recent post on the US cap and trade system.