Australia Thinking About the Future

In the Last Australian election just months ago the Labor party was tied in the election results with the Liberals, and after some co operation the Green party and some other ind pendants decided to support Ms. Gillard to create a Government. Since then People have been motioning that in order to keep the Green party with her she needs to put a carbon tax in place. Now I like that idea very much, because it is way better than the former Prime Minister's plan Kevin Rudd who was trying for a carbon trading system with a latter on addition of a carbon Tax. Now the Labor party is looking into the idea of a carbon tax, and might be going for it. This i find great now in a long while a another country could join the Carbon tax countries. Countries like India, South Korea, Finland, Denmark, Netherlands, Sweden, Norway, Switzerland, Costa Rica and in States or provinces like Maryland, California, Colorado, British Columbia and Quebec. I hope to Australia on that list shortly.

OECD Supports Carbon Taxes

A new report from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development says that environmental taxes are good! Their paper says that these kinds of taxes encourage innovation while discouraging polluting the environment. And this is coming from and organisation focused on developing the economy. This is even more proof that carbon taxes will not hurt the economy; in fact, this report proves the opposite. A carbon tax will improve the economy by innovation in new technologies and the refinement of old ones. The benefits to a carbon tax are clear: it's cheap and easy to set up, predictable from year to year, decreases pollution, and encourages innovation. What other tax does all this? The time has come for a carbon tax.

Environmental taxes -- such as carbon taxes on CO2 emissions -- are an effective way to clean up pollution while lighting a fire under technological innovation, according to a new report from the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development.

The report, which considers case studies from Japan, Korea, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and Sweden, is unabashedly enthusiastic about environment-related taxes.

Read more at the Globe and Mail.

No Cap and Trade!

Good news and bad news from Washington DC. Good news is that there will be no cap and trade initiavtive in the U.S, because the energy bill will be changed. The bad news is that the reason it was changed is because there are not nough votes for the bill to pass. I think this is in total good news considering the U.S will not have a fony cap and trade system that just let's polluters keep polluting. I think the U.S could do so much better with a carbon tax. Obama has even talked about putting a price on pollution, but I doubt that if they can't pass a cap and trade legeslation then how will the pass a carbon tax legislation.

"Many of us want to do a thorough, comprehensive bill that creates jobs, breaks our addiction to foreign oil and curbs pollution," Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid told reporters Thursday.

Harry Reid should realize that a carbon tax system does all of that and more. First a carbon tax will curve pollution as it puts a price on it. It will also reduce oil cosuption as diffrent sorces of energy that are renewable are cheper. With the extra money from the carbon tax the money can go to lowering income tax that will employ more people.

climate truth.

 People came up to Washington DC , and told the US government that they need to have a climate bill based on true science and not denials. They brought an ice sculpture that has the globe on top and is under an ice sculpture that says "climate deniers". As the day went on the ice sculpture kept melting till the globe fell off the ice sculpture.  I think they're message was clear. They want clean jobs on clean renewable energy. They talked how the climate is changing , and how the US with their current climate bill has to be on stopping climate change. Now I don't support a cap and trade bill, but I support a carbon tax. Let's face it the U.S needs money what better way to get then from the big oil companies that are getting those big tax cuts. I say they could save billions of dollars that can go to spending on clean energy, and helping stimulate the economy even more or just reduce the deficits.

watch ice sculputure here

Die Cap and Trade!

Cap and trade legislation in the US has already passed the House and is now going on to the Senate. It had a ton of trouble just barely passing the House in a very watered-down form. I'll actually be happy if it gets defeated. Cap and trade is a waste of time and money. A carbon tax combined with income tax rebates is much better for the environment, people and the economy. I hope that in the not-so-far future, Stéphane Dion's Green Shift makes a comeback in Canadian politics. The one who pioneers it will have to explain it much better so that we will better understand how it will help us. Our taxes get cut, while our emissions get reduced. Everyone wins except big polluters.

Other than maybe Jason in Friday the 13th, nothing has supposedly died and come back to life more often than climate legislation and carbon cap-and-trade. A year ago, thanks in part to fierce opposition from business interests led by the Chamber of Commerce, the cap-and-trade bill cosponsored by Henry Waxman and Edward Markey just barely passed the House of Representatives, 219 to 212. As Eric Pooley writes in his great new book The Climate War, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi had to wield a mean whip to get her members in line for the vote. (Just eight Republicans voted for Waxman-Markey, and 44 Democrats opposed it.)

Read more at Time Magazine.