News, Trends & Analysis
Posts tagged Carbon Tax
Agree? Lowering Income Taxes While Raising Pollution Taxes Reaps Great Returns
Apr 12th
by on APRIL 8, 2010
As economic decision makers—whether consumers, corporate planners, government policymakers, or investment bankers—we all depend on the market for guidance. In order for markets to work and economic actors to make sound decisions, the markets must give us good information, including the full cost of the products we buy.
Unfortunately, markets largely ignore the indirect costs of goods and services, thus grossly distorting the structure of the economy. The market price of burning coal, for example, includes only the direct costs, those of mining the coal and transporting it to the power plant. By neglecting More >
First Carbon Tariff Will Tax CO2 at the Border
Jan 1st
Written by Susan Kraemer
Published on January 1st, 2010
The first carbon tax to reduce the greenhouse gases from imports comes not between two nations, but between two states. Minnesota has passed a measure to stop carbon at its border with North Dakota.
To encourage the switch to clean renewable energy Minnesota plans to add a carbon fee of between $4 and $34 per ton of carbon dioxide emissions to the cost of coal-fired electricity, to begin in 2012, to discourage the use of coal power; the greatest source of greenhouse gas emissions.
State officials in North Dakota are mounting a legal battle against Minnesota. More >
France Rejects Carbon Tax
Dec 30th
Two days before going into effect, France’s Constitutional Council rejected a tax on carbon emissions because of too many exemptions for major industrial polluters, reports the New York Times.
The council also said the bill, backed by President Nicolas Sarkozy, threatened to make tax collection unfair, primarily raising the cost of fuel for vehicles and heating, reports the New York Times. The tax was set at 17 euros ($24) for each ton of carbon dioxide.
In particular, the council opposed the ruling that 93 percent of industrial emissions, including the emissions of more than 1,000 of France’s top polluting industrial sites, would More >
