Hi Robert, I also live in British Columbia and I believe the carbon tax is good for the environment. It is a little bit like putting a tax on cigarettes. It is penalizing for bad behavior and rewarding for good behaviour. What I hope is that the money will not go into general revenue but will go towards promoting alternative energies and green jobs. Terry Dyck> Date: Thu, 13 Mar 2008 12:23:38 -0700> From: [EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: sustainablelorgbiofuel@sustainablelists.org> Subject: Re: [Biofuel] Confessions of an 'ex' Peak Oil believer> > Keith Addison wrote:> > <snip>> > >Then there's this:> >> >http://www.csmonitor.com/2008/0228/p04s01-wogi.html> >North America Gets Its First Carbon Tax> >The Canadian province of British Columbia hopes to change consumer > >behavior - and raise revenue - by taxing virtually all fossil fuels, > >including gasoline and home-heating fuel.> >> >Thin end of the wedge.> > > >> > I've wanted to contribute to this discussion, but it's been > difficult because I've been busy. I'm skeptical of abiotic oil only > because the whole debate seems to focus on "either / or" position. Oil > IS found in sedimentary basins associated with geological deposition, > just as the western geologists say, but if the Russians, who are also > smart people, have discovered an abiotic source, why can't both be > true? We have entire planets smothered in hydrocarbons, do we not?> > On the other hand, I grew up in Los Angeles and recall THOUSANDS of > wells pumping out of the ground as a child. The vast majority of those > have since been capped because of an important physical property that > seems to be lost in this discussion: Once it requires more energy to > remove the resource than can be recovered in the oil itself, it becomes > a losing proposition--no matter how abundant it may be.> > Some of the sedimentary basins DO appear to slowly refill, while > others do not. Isn't it possible that both phenomena exist?> > As for carbon taxing, it's a little disingenuous of the BC > government to do this and claim it's all in the interest of the > environment. There is a lot of discussion that the carbon tax is REALLY > just a matter of filling provincial coffers, even though the scheme is > described as "revenue neutral." Most of our energy is hydroelectric, > which produces no carbon emissions at all, so this is often perceived as > a way of keeping energy-rich Alberta from dominating the energy market > in B.C. In addition, the "carbon tax" favors "carbon neutral" energy > schemes, such as wood-fired electricity generation. It's a means of > dealing with our vast pine-beetle problem by jump-starting investment in > "wood to energy" plants in the central interior of the province.> > The tax is supposed to influence consumer behavior, but it won't > make enough of a financial impact to force wealthy people like me to > turn the thermostat down, insulate the house better, or drive less. As > long as we're structuring the economy on unlimited growth, the only > thing a carbon tax will do is create opportunity for people to make > money on the problem, without really solving the problem itself.> > Personally, I think we need to re-evaluate how we build our cities, > grow our food, organize our communities and move ourselves around. A > tax that forces people to use less of something they need favors the > wealthy, for whom its impact is insignificant. The fact that B.C. will > be giving rebates to "poor" families (trust me, even I will qualify for > this!) means that it's not going to do very much to change energy > consumption in this province.> > robert luis rabello> "The Edge of Justice"> "The Long Journey"> New Adventure for Your Mind> http://www.newadventure.ca> > Ranger Supercharger Project Page> http://www.members.shaw.ca/rabello/> > > _______________________________________________> Biofuel mailing list> Biofuel@sustainablelists.org> http://sustainablelists.org/mailman/listinfo/sustainablelorgbiofuel> > Biofuel at Journey to Forever:> http://journeytoforever.org/biofuel.html> > Search the combined Biofuel and Biofuels-biz list archives (70,000 messages):> http://www.mail-archive.com/biofuel@sustainablelists.org/ _________________________________________________________________ Your chance to win great prizes with Windows Live Mail and Rogers MobileMail. Click here to learn how. http://g.msn.ca/ca55/207 -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: /pipermail/attachments/20080314/8b30f033/attachment.html _______________________________________________ Biofuel mailing list Biofuel@sustainablelists.org http://sustainablelists.org/mailman/listinfo/sustainablelorgbiofuel
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