when John Tierney actually presents a good idea (see http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/15/science/15tier.html). It's a carbon tax that automatically rises with the temperature of the earth. It was proposed by Ross McKitrick, an economist at the University of Guelph in Ontario. If the earth gets hotter, the global warming skeptics are proven wrong and we pay higher taxes; if it doesn't (fat chance!), the scientists and environmentalists are proven wrong and the tax doesn't go up.
The problem with the proposal is that McKitrick and Tierney want to start the tax at a very low rate. It's just as hard to get past the Big Oil-fueled opposition as a regular carbon tax. It probably won't rise fast enough to stop or reverse global warming. By the way, McKitrick summarizes most of the problems with cap'n trade, the Obamaniac's alternative to any carbon tax: "the carbon tax would be more effective at reducing emissions because it is simpler, more transparent, easier to enforce and less vulnerable to accounting tricks and political favoritism." It also doesn't involve a financial market that can be gamed. -- Jim Devine / "Segui il tuo corso, e lascia dir le genti." (Go your own way and let people talk.) -- Karl, paraphrasing Dante. _______________________________________________ pen-l mailing list [email protected] https://lists.csuchico.edu/mailman/listinfo/pen-l
