Carbon Tax is Gaining Momentum - What to Expect

a reply to: dreamingawake

Corps get tax-breaks to produce, and create more polution. You pay for it.
Gubmint listens to corps' lobbyists, during office-time that you are paying for.
Too much pollution? You gonna pay more taxes!

In a true capitalist environment: those three would not exist.
We have neither a democracy, nor a capitalist environment.
We have an Corporatocracy, and you're paying for it.

Update: The bill didn't pass the state senate. 👍

a reply to: dreamingawake


Sane minds prevailed?

There is no real way to tax yourself to prosperity. Here in the AK we had a governor do the opposite and removed oil taxes from oil companies. The reasoning was, "They will invest the money back into exploration". Well guess what really happened?? Yup, they pocketed the money. Now our state has been facing a budget deficit ever since. And they still don't want to put the taxes back because, uh, I don't know.

First, the airplane business is super huge in Washington. They also pollute into the atmosphere. You cannot just hike gas prices, raise electricity rates, and tax pollution, without doing something about the airlines. And that is where the OP idea falls flat and probably why the Senate did not pass it.

Second, you let the dirty industries fail. Yes, that means coal fired plants. Nothing can be done about it now so let them fail. They were already failing before a certain administration started making a stink about it. And guess what? They are still failing. Coal is dead. Long live coal.

Most importantly, energy storage is needed at the grid level. PUD already realized this and installed some batteries in Snohomish. That needs to be looked at, and seriously considered for not just the rest of Washington state but the entire west coast. The company doing this is from Washington and the whole "carbon tax" thing is actually counter productive to what they are doing and how/why they need to succeed as a company.

Lastly, the port needs to addressed in any kind of "carbon pollution" feel good taxes. It is one of the busiest in the nation. Cargo ships are one of the big polluters in the world. It is on the verge of happening, but technology is on the way to coat the hulls and cut down on the amount fuel the cargo ships use. In the really, real world, that become cheaper products and an incentive to further reduce pollution on the cargo ship's end. But see what happened to AK when those "barriers" were removed.

The bottom line sucks for the environment. But you cannot tax your way to less pollution you have to be punitive. Even then, greed takes over and the fines are paid with no real change in behavior happening.

The only real change would come from a entire switch to supercritical CO2 turbines for electricity generation. Oh, and energy storage at the grid level. Luckily, the department of energy just issued a decree about energy storage that makes it less of a hindrance to adopt. These changes are coming this year and next to follow. Kick back and enjoy the show!

carbon taxes are pointless unless you plan on taxing people for breathing, pooping, farting, burping, garbage, eating, smoking, using fire, mining, logging, manufacturing, etc to keep it going once government becomes dependent on it because they always do when new taxes are created.

honestly a carbon tariff on all corporations foreign and domestic would be more effective without putting pressure on the general public.