Carbon Tax! Carbon Tax, Where have you been?

At the Canada 150 conference, the carbon tax idea got regenerated by Michael Phelps. He said that only when carbon is priced, will people reduce their consumption. I always liked the carbon tax idea. It’s just that when people hear the word “tax,” they scream and run for the bomb shelter. Of course, that makes it easy for the other parties to demonize it, as the Conservatives did to Stéphane Dion. However, even the big oil companies are starting to back this initiative.

Leading Quebec environmentalist Stephen Guilbault said a consensus in favour of carbon taxation is forming, with even oil giant Exxon showing signs of coming around. “At this point I can’t see who except Stephen Harper can still be opposed.”

Exxon Mobil is the world’s largest oil company and even it supports a carbon tax. It’s easy and cheap to be set up, and it’s much harder to evade than Cap-and-Trade. Soon, people just won’t be able to ignore the benefits of a carbon tax. It cuts emissions, increases revenue which in turn can lower income taxes. Everyone wins (except for the big companies). The only problem stopping a carbon tax is the fear of the people.

In a significant shift in stance, Exxon's chief executive, Rex Tillerson, told an audience in Washington that he considered a tax to be a fairer route to curbing emissions than a cap-and-trade system of pollution allocations.
"As a businessman it is hard to speak favourably about any new tax," said Tillerson. "But a carbon tax strikes me as a more direct, a more transparent and a more effective approach."

http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2009/jan/09/exxon-wants-carbon-tax
http://www.montrealgazette.com/business/Liberals+hear+call+carbon/2735658/story.html