Kyoto all over again. In 2003, Kyoto was set to close down all industry, including big Natural Gas users like Cement plants, and some power stations. Oil Refineries and Upgraders shivered in fear, and then reality hit when Australia said it would do nothing that would hurt its economy. Eventually, it fell apart.
Right now the do gooder world leader wanna be's at the UN and in Ottawa are simply setting the stage for another failed agreement. But this time, there is a vested interest in all Governments of the developed World to keep this game going: Easy Tax Money.
It is relatively expensive to administer an Income Tax system, which people can see and feel every increase. It is hard to sell tax increases to the tax paying Public.
But you can always vilify polluters, who are killing the planet anyway, and then punish their bad behavior, on a straight consumptive tax system that is easy to administer. Rationalize it that fuel taxes are for your own good, and who can argue against that?
Alberta started out with a "revenue neutral" system of carbon tax, meaning we will give grants to the green energy converters paid for by the bad energy users, and Government takes nothing for itself. For 2018, the ability to monitor the money has now been lost as it will go to "General Revenue". Will we ever be able to say that all that was collected was properly spent? Will anyone be able to say that the grants did not go to some crony of the Politicians or to fund a pet project in one specific riding? No.
Remember that the only person who can stop the tax grab is the politicians who started the tax grab in the first place. Trouble is there are so many levels of Government in on this, with countless good reasons to spend the tax money on, that the driving public has become the enemy that the Government desperately needs.
What would happen if at the next election this was the front and center issue? Perhaps that is the message to get the Politicians to back down on the tax gouge.
But it will not happen as long as everyone falls for the smoke screen of Climate Change.
Drewski
Outrageous fuel taxes really are a symptom of the disease.