[Terrapreta] why we must relate to cap and trade

[Duane Pendergast]

Hi Lou,

 

I think a lot of the early enthusiastic talk on cap and trade here in Canada
ten years ago came from an industry perception they could benefit
financially from cap and trade. That hope gradually faded and there is now
more talk in Canada about the possibility of imposing revenue neutral carbon
taxes. In fact the provinces of BC and Quebec have imposed carbon taxes.
These are so small as to be meaningless relative to the increasing prices of
fossil fuels. The BC carbon tax starts at 1.5 cents per litre. Quebec's is
even less. Gasoline has gone up more like 30 cents/litre since the tax was
announced.  The province of Alberta has imposed a subset of cap and trade
with large industry required to pay into a fund for any emissions beyond a
specified level. I actually mentioned the Alberta scheme as potential
funding support for terra preta research in the following article.

 

http://www.computare.org/Support%20documents/Publications/Soil%20from%20Oil/
Soil%20From%20Oil0001.pdf

 

My phone is certainly not ringing off the hook as a result of the article.

 

Dr Mark Jaccard is one of the foremost Canadian promoters of a carbon tax in
preference to cap and trade. I think he is having considerable influence. 

 

http://www.rem.sfu.ca/faculty/jaccard.htm

 

The leader of our opposition Liberal Party is said to be toying with a
carbon tax as a plank in the next election campaign here. It will be
interesting to see how that appeals to voters as they see the price of fuel
climbing already.

 

Frankly Lou, I'm hoping the climate skeptics are right that CO2 warming is
not as drastic as some claim. They claim global temperature has been flat
lining for ten years. Recent hedging of bets by the strongest of enthusiasts
is evident and confirmation they agree with the lack of temperature
increase. Even NASA is suggesting the Pacific Decadal Oscillation may mask
or even reverse C02 warming for 20 to 30 years. My roses will certainly not
be blooming by May 21 this spring as they have in recent years.

 

Cheers!

 

-----Original Message-----
From: lou gold [mailto:lou.gold at gmail.com] 
Sent: May 14, 2008 9:01 AM
To: still.thinking at computare.org
Cc: Terrapreta
Subject: Re: [Terrapreta] why we must relate to cap and trade

 

Duane,

I know what you are talking about. 
But the 10 years of talk-but-no-action 
occurred in the context of denying that 
there is a climate problem. Now that is 
changing and the talk will move toward 
cap-and-trade versus a carbon tax. I 
believe (as a practical assessment of 
the current state of climate politics) 
that cap-and-trade -- though difficult -- 
may have more political currency during 
a recession than a new carbon tax. 

Do you think otherwise?

hugs,

lou

 

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