British Columbia Rethinks Its Pioneering Carbon Tax

[xchrom]

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/energy/2012/05/120503-british-columbia-reviews-carbon-tax/


British Columbia's greenhouse operations, like this one in the northern city of Prince George, are among the businesses that received aid to ease the impact of the province's carbon tax, which the government now plans to review.

British Columbians are feeling a little lonely in their bid to save the planet.

Five years ago, the Canadian province enacted a bold set of climate change policies designed to reduce its greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions dramatically. At the time, B.C. lawmakers assumed the United States would follow suit with federal climate change policy. To the south and east, a coalition of seven U.S. states and four Canadian provinces were establishing the Western Climate Initiative (WCI), with a regional carbon cap-and-trade system.

The home of the Spirit Bear, which already has more land conservation area than any other Canadian province, was leading the way in protecting the atmosphere.

Then, U.S. progress on federal climate policy skidded to a halt. And the WCI began to falter. Six states withdrew last November, leaving just California and four Canadian provinces still participating. With its general election one year away, the government of British Columbia, headed by the Liberal Party (known to be more conservative than its rival, the New Democratic Party), is now questioning the future of the climate initiatives it enacted.

"I think it is safe to say that we expected more jurisdictions to be coming up and joining us in this kind of public policy," said Terry Lake, British Columbia's minister of the environment, in an interview. "That hasn't happened."

Front and center in the debate is the province's carbon tax, which has been stepped up every year since 2008, with the final legislated increase set for this July. Carbon tax proponents say that to meet its ambitious targets for GHG emissions reductions by 2020, British Columbia will need to increase the tax dramatically.

[arikara]

1. It was all just a cheap excuse for another money grab from the 99%

after they kept lowering the income tax rates they had to make up the shortfall somewhere else. The BC liberal government doesn't care a bit about the environment or they would not have signed over hundreds of thousands of acres of crown land to the forest companies, allowing them to clearcut it without replanting and ship the raw logs to china. No benefit to the province whatsoever, no jobs, nothing... but somebody's brother is making out like a bandit. The clean air act was just an excuse to bring in the billion dollar smart meter boondoggle where people's power bills are doubling, tripling or even more with the same consumption and government is denying a problem. Bastards.

[xchrom]

2. i think -- i hope more canadian duers chime in on this.

it's hard to know what's going on from down here.