Where’s the benefit from carbon pricing?
LETTERS
Ms. Lavallee’s letter of Sept. 6 informed us that “Carbon pricing has shown it works.” My first reaction was to think that either she is delusional or she lives on another planet.
She did not provide any evidence for her statement, only projected fearmongering. In the real world, Germany’s carbon trade, for the last 10 years, has not saved one gram of CO2 despite their green expenses approaching $1 trillion. Australia just fired their prime minister on the basis of his infatuation with renewables that have destroyed the electricity industry in that country. I can go on and on, but I will save this for another letter.
For now, let’s examine the mechanisms of “carbon trading” and “carbon Taxes” for everybody’s benefit, especially advisers of our governments — both federal and provincial. We need to know if any carbon is saved from the environment with these schemes.
In “carbon trading” schemes the renewable technologies are seemingly issued a certificate of credit for every MWh that they have produced without emissions of CO2. Then, industry that releases CO2 to the atmosphere purchases these certificates. This way the polluting industry buys permission to pollute legally. The bureaucracies are happy because all their industries meet their standard. Politicians can posture as protectors of our globe. But wait a minute. How much are CO2 emissions actually reduced? Accountants will tell you that +1-1=0 benefit for the environment. Hard to understand how this works. Follow the money, instead, to find out who is lobbying our gullible politicians.
“Carbon taxes” that the government collects finance subsidies to renewables (they call it “investment in infrastructure”). That is the second money trail. Now let’s look at the carbon trail. A few hundred dollars annually for carbon tax will not be a deterrent to middle- and high-income individuals. Most will absorb it and carry on as usual. The ones that will be deterred are the poorer sector of our society. But our government refunds this expense for lowincome citizens — thus removing the incentive to save on CO2. Here again, how much CO2 is saved and what does the environment gets out of all this?
So, what was Ms. Lavallee’s incentive for this letter? She is not living on another planet. She sent this letter from Ontario — a province that is just cancelling its carbon trading program. I’m left to wonder.
Cosmos Voutsinos
Lethbridge