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TechnoratiCarbon Tax: Open Wallets Help Open Minds
Motorists here and throughout British Columbia are paying more at the pump after a planned rate increase to the province's much-debated carbon surcharge on gasoline.
The jump to 3.6 cents per litre from 2.4 cents went into effect on July 1, marking the one-year anniversary of the levy. Increases also cover diesel, natural gas, coal and similar fuels.
No one wants to open their wallet even wider when they refuel, but it's worth considering why the tax was implemented.
The B.C. government says it created the "revenue-neutral" surcharge - the first of its kind in a North American jurisdiction - to prompt individuals and businesses to question their reliance on the conventional fuel sources that scientists have linked to global climate change.
As a strategy to raise more public awareness about carbon emissions and encourage new behaviours, the tax has its critics. But given how hard it is to ignore a pinch in the pocketbook, many people will hear the carbon tax's message about the importance of environmentally sustainable modes of transportation.
And looking around the mid Island, there are more and more signs that message is timely. The local governments in North Cowichan and Duncan are establishing bylaws that will open the roads to zero-emission vehicles, and a group of green-minded Cowichan residents is working to start a car-sharing network.
Love it or hate it, the provincial government's carbon tax is at least a reminder of the environmental cost of each tank of gas.
4 Comments so far
Show AllMark Delucchi and others have studied the true costs of cars for governments vs revenues and found that at least in the US cars and trucks only pay 25% of their actual costs.
This is taking into account not only gas taxes, vehicle registration fees but also sales taxes and other indirect government revenues from cars and trucks.
There are huge hidden costs for cars and trucks in terms of highway patrols, land use wasted for 12 lane highways and huge parking lots, ambulances for auto accidents etc.
A link to a number of these well-researched studies can be
found here:
http://www.streetsblog.org/2007/09/20/delucchi-study-finds-that-us-motorists-do-not-pay-their-way/
Therefore in the US at least gas taxes should be quadrupled to even begin to level the playing field for cars vs transit.
Don't overlook the fact that this article was written in Canada, a country with reasonably good public health care and more or less good public transportation. (I live in Ottawa, where it's quite possible to live carless, but I have been told that public transit is not as good in other Canadian cities.) A tax on gasoline, being a consumption tax, is inherently regressive, but its effect is mitigated by public relief of other expenditures. Americans have built a society in which being carless automatically means being destitute. Until that changes, a tax on gasoline would effect a negligible decrease in carbon emissions at great social cost.
I'd like to suggest that carbon taxes might actually help solve some of the problems you mention. A few cents per gallon (or litre) can be used to finance improvements in public transportation. Even if going carless isn't possible, there are many other benefits if people just reduce the amount they use their cars; less pollution, less congestion and gridlock, less stress on everyone. BC should be commended for having the vision and guts to stick with this controversial but effective method of reducing pollution.
Now this approach makes sense. Want to reduce the consumption of gasoline? Add a direct tax to each gallon. $.25 added to a gallon in the US would lead to a bit more oversight of the manipulation of the market in any case.
Unlike WAxman/Markey which is dishonesty squared, if you want an energy tax....tax energy.