'Earth Hour'

[No. 13 Baby]

KKK spotted observing Earth Hour!

[JayB]

Is it simply, every little bit helps or are we talking more radical things such as a carbon tax on energy consumption?

 

Seems like there's a pretty big spectrum between doing nothing and empowering the state to enforce a centralized emissions rationing scheme... I think it's possible to envision using liberal means to create a state of affairs where cranking up the heater to 82 degrees in the winter is seen as being as foolish as stoking a chimney with a stack of 20s, or as socially acceptable as taking a dump on your neighbor's lawn.

 

Any thoughts on our pending steps down that road? As of July 1 the BC government will be collecting a carbon tax at various rates on different forms of energy. But they've designed it to be revenue-neutral, so the projected revenues from the carbon tax will be off-set by cuts to personal and corporate income taxes. I think it's an interesting approach. Taken to its extreme, the carbon tax or energy tax could be increased annually and income taxes reduced by an equivalent amount until income taxes are completely eliminated. The economic drag caused by the high energy tax would be offset by the stimulus of eliminating personal and corporate income taxes. I don't know if anyone has studied the net economic impact of taking it all the way to that point. At first glance it intuitively looks like it should be about a wash, but it's possible that such a policy could be positive for the provincial economy.

 

If you view taxation as a deliberate disincentive to engage in certain behaviours, or as a punishment for same, I'd rather be punished for burning gas than for earning a living, particularly if I could minimize the punishment by the simple expedient of not wasting energy.

 

There's a fair bit of opposition to the scheme, particularly in the interior where heating and transportation costs are already higher and the income tax cut likely will not make up for the added energy costs. Snoboy driving around the Kootenays in a big orange Unimog comes to mind.

 

I'm more inclined to approve, in part simply because I think it's an intriguing approach to taxation policy. In theory, it's a good way to go. Of course, my income tax savings will more than offset my increased energy costs, so if it turns out to be a mistake I'll at least pocket a little $$$ before it all gets overturned.

 

At first glance, the only thing I'd toss in would be language that mandates revenue neutrality, which I can see coming under considerable pressure when funds are tight.

 

Other than that, it seems like technologies that make it easy for people to monitor both their energy use, and it's cost, in real time would be useful. Seems like this tax might provide an additional incentive to do that kind of monitoring. I think it's easy enough to do the math when you are filling up your car, but not quite as easy to determine the effects of adjusting the temp on the freezer, running the porch-light, etc.

 

Monitoring each and every appliance might be a bit much, but I've heard of other approaches that have actually been implemented elsewhere. One utility allowed its customers to pre-pay for their power, and provided them with meters that allowed them to follow how much energy they had left. I vaguely recall them pricing power in a way that gave incentives for using power during off-peak hours, etc.

 

 

 

[murraysovereign]

My recollection is that the legislation specifically requires revenue neutrality. And smart meters have been mentioned also, perhaps they're to be mandatory in new construction (?) or something like that, phasing them in over a period of time. With those, you would be billed based on hourly consumption and the rates would vary through the day. Not sure if that's been legislated or just in discussion, but it's certainly on the horizon.

 

I'm generally in favour of transferring the tax burden from the earning side to the consumption side of the equation. And if it can also provide some incentive for people to reduce their energy use at the same time, so much the better.