British Columbia Introduces Smart Carbon Tax
by Michael Graham Richard, Gatineau, Canada on 02.20.08
The finance minister of British Columbia, Canada, has just introduced a new "escalating carbon tax" that will affect most fossil fuels. They are not the first in the country - that would be Quebec with its ridiculously low and non revenue-neutral carbon tax - but their plan has a better chance to make a difference.
The carbon tax will start on July 1 at a rate based on C$10 per tonne of carbon emissions and rise C$5 a year to C$30 per tonne by 2012. It works out to an extra 2.4 cents on a liter of gasoline, rising to 7.24 cents per liter of gasoline by 2012. The carbon tax on diesel and home heating oil will start at 2.7 cents per liter and increase to 8.2 cents per liter over the same five-year period. But the beautiful part is that the money, "C$1.8-billion over three years, will be returned to taxpayers through personal income tax and business tax cuts." This makes putting a price on carbon politically acceptable, and it leaves people with more of their hard-earned cash to switch to low-carbon technologies.
British Columbia has a goal of reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 33 per cent by 2020, and this should help it reach that goal.
To coax British Columbians to start thinking green, the government will send every resident a one-time $100 Climate Action Dividend in June. Ms. Taylor said the province hopes British Columbians will use the $100 to help adopt greener lifestyles.Lower income British Columbians will receive an annual Climate Action Credit of $100 per adult and $30 per child to offset the cost of the carbon tax, she said. [...]
The tax incentives aimed at keeping the carbon tax “revenue neutral” will be dispersed as follows: the bottom two personal income tax rates will be cut by 2 per cent in 2008 and 5 per cent in 2009 on the first $70,000 in earnings; effective July 1, the corporate tax rate will drop to 11 per cent from 12 per cent; effective July 1, the small-business tax rate will be cut from 4.5 per cent to 3.5 per cent.
We certainly hope that this will show other provinces, states and countries that there is a way to create a framework that aligns a healthy environment and people's wallets. Putting a price on carbon is a very good way to do that, as long as it is revenue-neutral and that you don't increase people's tax burden (that will just create a huge backlash and politicians will reject the measures, leaving you with no results in the end).
::B.C. budget creates a carbon tax
See also: ::Counter-Point: 4 Reasons Why Recession is BAD for the Environment, ::3 Big Ideas to Avoid Recession AND Green the Economy, ::Boulder Colorado USA Enacts Carbon Tax
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That's quite cool! finally a real step in the right direction. You can't control everything specifically, but by increasing the price of the fuel, you give the incentive to use less fuel and spend your tax cut money on a more efficient car or whatever. That makes clean energy more competitive. Sweet
Yes because higher gas prices have proven that people will use less.
They should rename this the Oympic Tax...you lefties are just gonna soak this up
This does nothing to help anything..this is a GLOBAL problem, not a BC issue, and dont we all know that TAXES dont provide solutions!!!! Sorry i would rather have solutions
"Yes because higher gas prices have proven that people will use less."
Actually, it does. Look at the size of cars in Europe or Asia vs. the US.
Even Canada vs the US shows a difference.
"this is a GLOBAL problem, not a BC issue, and dont we all know that TAXES dont provide solutions!!!! Sorry i would rather have solutions"
Of course, but if we do nothing until everybody agrees to take a step at the same time, nothing will ever happen.
This will show other states that it's possible and it works, and people who already have very efficient vehicles and homes will just get a tax cut.
Great...I'm going to take my $100 bucks and buy a deluxe cycling jacket so I can ride my bike to work more often during the rainy season.
Sweet deal
BC is great for this start but should look in the mirror and see how many problems their hydroelectric dams have caused. Its a bit of the pot calling the kettle black. Their dams are a lot more destructive to the environment than this tax will help.
I understand the need to do something about the environmental impact we have by using fossil fuels. What I am in dissagreement with is just throwing a tax on fossil fuels, and thinking this is going to help the situation. We have no choice but to purchase gasoline, as it is the main fuel used in allmost all automobile's, including the hybrids.We also have very little choice in what we heat our home's with, as most home's use natural gas as a main heat source for their home and water. I realize we can lower our consumption by taking various steps, such as buying more fuel efficient cars, increasing insulation in older home's, switching to on demand heater's for our water etc...All of this cost's a significant amount of money. What I think we need is some choices on the fuels we use. More pressure needs to be put on the auto maker's to make zero emmission car's. Some may argue that they are increasing their emmissions standard's, but the reality is they are still using a modified version of the original piston driven engine from the 1800's. I know with all we have acomplished in the last 100 years, litterally going from the horse and buggy, to surfing the internet in the information age, we can push to come up with alternatives for fossil fuels for transportation. In this proccess we should be able to find an alternate fuel source for our economy as well.
A gas tax credit is not going to help families when they are buying those very expensive groceries is it? Many homeowners are maxed out on their credit and this is going to hurt them big time especially when it comes to buying the bread and butter. How is a hundred dollars over a year later going to help those poor families feed their children and themselves who already going hungry on income assistance. 65% of children taken by ministy of families is from single moms on assistance who are unable to feed their children or house them. And this is not going to help and as I'm certain placing those kids in care is not the answer either but another problem just like the carbon tax. And sending everyone money is nice but I'm not feeling really postive on how this cash is going to make a difference to the air we breath especially when BC is busy building record number of new highways? And then there is that Oil and Gas Exploration which is Not Good for the Environment either and setting a very bad example. There is no plan just a cheque in the mail for a hundred dollars to residents of BC to the tune of 55 Million to help protect the environment. And that is where it ends as loose change in the pockets of British Columbians and what was that about again? Maybe next time send us each a $10,000 as its a big job and you want us to keep on top of it.? So where do you get an energy efficient car for $100 Mr. Cool ?