So Chris Huhne is going to announce a new tax on coal and gas generated electricity, is he?
But, umm, we\’ve already got a method of dealing with that, the European Union\’s cap and trade system, the EUTS.
We don\’t need both: either will do the trick.
So what\’s going on?
We don’t need either.
“What’s going on?”
Well, the government is short of money.
As usual in these circumstances, any old political excuse to tax more is politically ‘good’.
Best regards
The ETS doesn’t work. It’s now in its third iteration, and the price of carbon is still way below even the Stern price. It’s a fairly standard example of what happens if a dominant negotiating partner has a vested interest in giving significant amounts of pollution tokens to its own industries, thus flooding the market.
Maybe it has more to do with actually lowering future Carbon Capture requirements according to an article in yesterday’s Guardian @
http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2010/dec/15/chris-huhne-energy-greener-for-less
This may be because the Government do fear that unless they give power generators a signal that it is OK to build new coal fired power stations to a less exacting pollution standard the
lights might go out.
For a quick resume of the main issues see
‘The Decline Need for UK Produced Coal’ and ‘The Coalition Government’s Energy Policy and the Minorca Application @
http://www.leicestershirevillages.com/measham/mopg-briefing-notes-series.html
….We don’t need both: either will do the trick….
Only if the trick is actually to cut carbon emissions for the cheapest possible cost
The more I look at this AGW shtick the more it takes on the aspect of a religion.
This isn’t about saving the planet. This is about how tall the spires on cathedrals should be.
Reading today’s Delingpole just now (anti-Huhne, anti-carbon-tax, not that the details matter – he’s brilliant as always), I was struck by a thought.
The UK government used to tax windows: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Window_tax
Best regards
The UK government used to tax windows
Yup. This is why you see a lot of stately homes with windows bricked up.