Quebec unveils carbon tax
Canada’s The Globe and Mail is running a story Quebec unveils carbon tax.
Quebec plans to adopt tough vehicle emissions standards and will become the first [Canadian] province to levy a “carbon tax” on oil and gas companies as part of an ambitious plan to fight global warming.
The tax will raise about $200-million a year over six years, provincial government officials said yesterday, and will finance a $1.2-billion Green Fund to make reductions in greenhouse gas emissions called for under the international Kyoto accord.
Environmental groups welcomed the measures, but a petroleum industry spokesman said the tax will be passed on to consumers.
Will that tax go into general revenue, to pay for new roads, wars and so forth, or will it really go directly to projects that are reducing CO2 emissions? I know they say the money will fund a massive ‘Green Fund’ but, call me cynical, I can’t see any government, no matter how well intentioned, letting $1.2 billion get away that easily. This is why I prefer carbon credits over a broad green tax. Money from the sale of carbon credits goes to those groups, large and small, who are actually reducing CO2 emissions. — DS
Technorati Tags: Canada, climate change, CO2, eco, emissions reduction, energy, environment, global warming, Kyoto Protocol, Oil Industry, politics
