| Jicale said: As long as the carbon taxes actually go towards helping the problem and not filling bank balances. For instance they could spend the taxes on planting trees- As trees grow, they help stop climate change by removing carbon dioxide from the air, storing carbon in the trees and soil, and releasing oxygen into the atmosphere. http://www.arborday.org/trees/climatechange/ Pretty obvious reasoning. When it comes to solar panels I can give a solid opinion. My bought my house December 2013 in Mildura, Australia. This is a very sunny location and very normal to hit over 40 degrees Celsius (104F). The house came with 15 panels already on the roof. Yes, during summer the panels work well giving me credit on the power bill but the current cost on buying and installing panels wouldn't be worth it. So again it comes back to what are the taxes being used on. They should be used to lower solar panel prices and/or planting trees but I somehow feel a few people are just getting richer and very little of the money is actually being used. |
In the U.S (at least on the federal level) it is very difficult to keep directed funds towards their original intent. The best example is our social security (public retirement trust fund) which has been pillaged by the federal government in times of surplus to fund other pet projects (basically other federal departments owe "debt" to social security, but that is like saying one Walmart "owes debt" to a Sam's Club. I am unsure how such things work in other countries.
Solar panels (if they aren't taxed to death) should be relatively affordable in less than a decade, without government intervention. Oil prices have hit an all time low here, but that is because of the domestic boom side-stepping OPEC. Unfortunately certain states (and countries) have put debalitating taxes on them, which is the real problem. At the same time natural gas companies get plenty of government subsidies, which is another problem.
I think if these issues alone were solved it would go a long way without any carbon tax necessary.
