On Fri, Feb 6, 2009 at 11:58 AM, <[email protected]> wrote: > I would also note that while a general carbon tax is also taken as the > opposite to carbon trading, that isn't so. (Here I am referring to a carbon > tax taken as a major measure in itself, and not simply a minor supplement to > regulation.) They are both based on the idea that, so long as a proper price > can be found for carbon emissions, market mechanisms will provide a solution. > That simply isn't so. I critique the carbon tax in > "THE CARBON TAX: Another futile attempt at a free-market solution to global > warming", available at > < www.communistvoice.org/42cCarbonTax.html >. > > - Joseph Green
Actually many critics of Cap & Trade are aware that it. like a carbon tax, is a form of carbon price. But even if we agree that a carbon price is not the be all and end all of phasing out greenhouse gases, most of us think it one part of the solution. Look, if we want to phase out greenhouse gas emissions, public investment and efficiency standards have to be the leading means of accomplishing this. But unless you think that will work overnight then there will a period during the phaseout when greenhouse gases will continue to be emitted. Is it automatically sensible that the price for doing that should be zero? And if the price for doing that should not be zero, then should it not be charge in a way that actually reinforces regulation and public investment by encouraging (however poorly) whatever additional reductions it may motivate? One other point in most sectors, even though I think a carbon price would be a good thing, we can do without it if we have to. Because there are clear efficiency standards we can use for regulation. In building, emissions per person and per square foot. In transport emissions per passenger-mile and per ton-mile,. In power production emission per kWh. But in industry there is no real measure. Ultimately what industry produces is measured in dollar value, and that comes right back to a carbon price. You could put in standards per value added, but that would give a hell of a break to things like insurance. And really that is carbon price anyway, just highly distorted. Incidentally Larry Lohmann is by no means an a carbon price enthusiast. _______________________________________________ pen-l mailing list [email protected] https://lists.csuchico.edu/mailman/listinfo/pen-l
