Hang On, Just One Second

I read Lynn McDonald's condemnation of Jack Layton's stand on carbon taxes and I agree with her critique. Can you sense a but? But, I think she totally cops out with this sentence:

The particulars of Stéphane Dion's carbon tax plan are beyond the scope of this short comment.

I agree with your reasons behind the slap at Jack Layton. He is doing Canadians a disservice by condemning carbon taxes out of hand, but I really, really want a knowledgeable left-wing analysis of the Liberal proposal. It is what is on the table and while I am sure the Star has no problem printing a condemnation of Layton's attack on it, I would be more interested in getting your take on it. As it is, the article makes it look like you are tossing in your chips with the NDP and encouraging others to abandon them for the toxic embrace of the Liberal Party. If by any, tiny, chance You see this, send me an email. I would be glad to put up any essay you care to write about Stephane Dion's plan. Don't leave us all thinking that the Liberals have suddenly found virtue. That is just too laughable a conclusion to believe.

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Layton Talks Carbon Tax

Jack Layton outlined his ideas about tackling GHGs yesterday:

Canadians believe that it’s high time we place a price on carbon.

While many, like me believe that the most effective way to price carbon is through a cap-and-trade system where the big profitable polluters begin to pay their fair share, others suggest a carbon tax.

Advocates of a carbon tax suggest that by making the costs for certain things more expensive, people will make different choices.

But Canada is a cold place.

Heating your home is not a choice.

Already, far too many seniors on fixed incomes, single-parents, renters, people who live in the far north – are forced to choose between putting food on the table or heating their home

I don’t want to make that decision even more difficult.

Instead of making it more expensive to heat your home while consuming the same amount of energy and emitting the same amount of pollution, I want to help make it more affordable to heat your home – by helping to make it more energy efficient and pollute less.

We can do it through a national energy weatherizing program. The costs can be absorbed by ensuring the big polluters start paying their fair share.

This is a decent start for Layton. He needs to explain the NDP position on the carbon tax, because people like me see it as necessary. I agree that home heating is problematic. A blanket carbon tax on home heating might be a step too far, at least in the short run. Also, I like his idea of retrofitting homes to make them more energy efficient.

However, I have a problem with Layton's complete dismissal of a carbon tax. I think it is part of the mix. Yes, we need cap and trade. Yes we need to stop subsidizing the oil industry with billions of tax dollars and yes we need a carbon tax (at least on gasoline to start). It seems to me that none of these approaches should be mutually exclusive.

We should have a carbon tax on gasoline because consumers of gasoline are contributing to GHG production. We need to change consumption patterns and a carbon tax on gasoline should be considered as a way to accomplish this change. We should combine that with a cap and trade system where the big polluters pay for their pollution. Finally, the revenue from these programs should go into a fund to pay for improvements to public transit and initiatives like the national housing retrofit program. The idea of "revenue neutrality" is really a non-starter for me because as Layton says, that is really just moving expenses from one pocket to another (and if the government is not getting any more revenue then it can't fund things like mass transit and home retrofit programs).

I understand that the NDP does not want the Liberal Party to get any traction out of its carbon tax proposal, but there are plenty of legitimate problems with the Liberals' proposal to pick on, without dismissing the whole idea. A carbon tax is an idea whose time has come.

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