Joel
This is a very interesting response. Would you consider posting it as a
comment to the actual site?; the more responses an article gets the
more the zine editors take note.
I hope others on the list will respond, too.
Here again is the link.
Thanks!
Jeanne
http://www.earthzine.org/2009/07/20/politically-possible-tax-for-reduction-of-fossil-fuel-usage-in-the-us-and-worldwide/
-----Original Message-----
From: Joel and Sarah Gagnon <[email protected]>
To: Sustainable Tompkins County listserv
<[email protected]>
Sent: Fri, Jul 24, 2009 10:19 am
Subject: Re: [SustainableTompkins] Breakthrough article on carbon tax
Sylvester Johnson
A very interesting article. I was already convinced that a carbon tax
has
compelling advantages, and this article effectively compares this
option to
the cap-and-trade alternative being considered.
The one issue that seems to me to be the sticking point for any
effective
action to curb carbon emissions is the argument that taking action here
without others doing so puts us at a competitive disadvantage that will
cost us jobs and eventually lead to our economic demise. The need to
deal
with others gaining market share and subverting the efforts of
participating nations to reduce emissions seems crucial to me. The
article
suggests doing that with border tax adjustments, essentially tariffs
imposed to compensate for the environmental subsidy of
non-participating
nations. There are potential obstacles in trade law. It should be
obvious
that these should be dealt with in any international treaties
committing us
and others to a carbon tax or other scheme to reduce emissions so that
participating countries are explicitly given the authority to impose
import
duties on non-participating countries. I would suggest that calculating
item-specific duties that would take into account the magnitude of the
subsidy would be administratively burdensome. Instead, a simple duty
could
be levied based on the maximum subsidy likely to be present in goods
and
services from the non-participating countries. The fact that taxing at
that
level would result in overtaxing many products would serve as
additional
incentive for the non-participants to join the family of participating
nations.
Some will no doubt argue that a tariff or duty to help assure
participation
in a global carbon tax will inhibit trade. Compared to no carbon tax
and no
duty, that is no doubt true, but if we are ever to take effective
collective action to address climate change, we need to put in place a
system that rewards the virtuous and penalizes the miscreants.
We can't afford to allow the environment to subsidize the
industrialization
of the emerging nations. While it is tempting to argue that we did it
and
it is now their turn, the globe will not withstand that scenario. We
shouldn't have done it but did and got away with it; a repetition would
be
disastrous for all of us.
Joel
At 09:18 PM 7/22/09 -0400, you wrote:
An article Sylvester submitted several months ago has finally been
published on the online magazine Earthzine
Jeanne
>From Sylvester
Breakthrough article on carbon tax
The effort that has been made by the City and Town of Ithaca and the
County of Tompkins to support the enactment of federal tax on fossil
fuel
usage
is getting national recognition. The article "Politically Possible
Tax for
Reduction of Fossil Fuel Usage in the U.S. and Worldwide" has been
published in Earthzine.org, on the OpEd page at
_http://www.earthzine.org/2009/07/20/politically-possible-tax-for-reduct
ion-of-fossil-fuel-usage-in-the-us-and-wo
rldwide/_
(http://www.earthzine.org/2009/07/20/politically-possible-tax-for-reduct
ion-of-fossil-fuel-usage-in-the-us-and-worldwide/)
. This publication
of IEEE, "the world's leading professional association for the
advancement
of technology", is widely read among leaders in the environmental
field.
Because the article speaks common sense truth to political power, the
article will probably prove controversial. In order that the
publishers are
encouraged to maintain it online, please check it out. If you find
points
that
you agree with, please enter a comment below the article.=
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_______________________________________________
For more information about sustainability in the Tompkins County area,
please visit: http://www.sustainabletompkins.org/
RSS, archives, subscription & listserv information for:
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http://lists.mutualaid.org/mailman/listinfo/sustainabletompkins
Questions about the list? ask
[email protected]
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_______________________________________________
For more information about sustainability in the Tompkins County area, please
visit: http://www.sustainabletompkins.org/
RSS, archives, subscription & listserv information for:
[email protected]
http://lists.mutualaid.org/mailman/listinfo/sustainabletompkins
Questions about the list? ask [email protected]
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