Carbon Tax smoke and mirrors

Raving Canuck’s Guide to the Trudeau Government’s Carbon Tax Smoke and Mirrors
by Graeme Gordon

"Naturally the Liberals won’t admit that this thing is meant to pump money into their coffers, so they’ve employed other methods of convincing the public that it’s a good thing."

An excellent guide.

As usual B.C.'s carbon tax, being the first in North America, is cited by various "experts" (proponents of carbon taxes) to be a fine example of the effectiveness of such taxes in reducing carbon emissions.  This has always struck me as a highly dubious claim for a number reasons:

1. StatsCan multi-year data show no significant differences in the pattern of fossil fuel consumption between BC and provinces without a carbon tax (the other nine). 

2. Fuel prices are notoriously inelastic.  Demand is relatively impervious to price changes. People use what they gotta use. 

3. BC's carbon tax (2.4 c/L in 2008 - 7.78 c/L in 2018) is utterly swamped by market price fluctuations. So, even ignoring point 2, trying to attribute consumer demand changes to the carbon tax is extremely difficult. From GasBuddy:

Liberal economist: "Conservatives are stupid and selfish"

Peter Foster: "Why can’t we anti-market, conservative dinosaurs understand carbon taxes are super amazing?"

According to a column in Tuesday’s National Post by Stephen Gordon (“Conservatives need to learn”), conservatives with both the upper-case and lower-case “C” are guilty of failing to regenerate themselves intellectually by thinking more like their opponents.  

... according to Gordon, the benighted right is, in particular, failing to grasp the benefits of “carbon pricing.” But surely Gordon, a professor of economics, knows the difference between a market price and a tax. Has he forgotten that it was a conservative, Preston Manning, who promoted the Big Lie of not calling a carbon tax a tax? ...

Why is the BC carbon tax myth not dead and buried?

Terence Corcoran: Time to bury B.C. carbon tax myth

The B.C. carbon tax is now enshrined as a world famous economic miracle, thanks to some handy promotional papers by a few Canadian economists and a gullible media. ...

... the World Bank is using the B.C. model as a handy selling point for carbon taxes

... It is time to put an end to the B.C. carbon tax success story. If anything, the tax has been a non-event in the economic lives of the people in the province.  ...

And what motivates many large companies and institutions to promote this myth?  Money, of course, big money [h/t to Michelle Stirling in the comments to Corcoran's piece].

Carbon Taxapalooza

Last Monday Terence Corcoran declared Carbon Taxapalooza Week:

We hereby declare this to be Carbon Taxapalooza Week. The objective is to acknowledge and deplore the great stampede of provincial governments to tax the hell out of fossil fuels.

On Tuesday, Canada’s Ecofiscal Commission, a self-appointed group of allegedly market-oriented economic policy wonks, will release a report calling for the provinces to adopt “carbon pricing” to help Canada tackle climate change. [Here's the full list Ecofiscal "commissioners".  It includes Preston Manning, Jean Charest, Paul Martin, Bob Rae, Peter Robinson (Suzuki Foundation CEO), etc.  With that rats nest of progressives and eco-illiterates what could possibly go wrong?]

Until now, Ontario hasn’t had much interest in carbon pricing ... But now, having exhausted a range of bad policies, Ontario’s Environment Minister, Glenn Murray, is pushing to adopt another set of allegedly less bad policies.

 Peter Foster: The way backwards on carbon policy:

... On Tuesday Canada’s self-appointed Ecofiscal Commission released a study, The Way Forward, that amounts to a recommendation for policy chaos in pursuit of the ever-more dubious cause of fighting catastrophic man-made climate change. ...

Peter Foster: Chris Ragan, market beautician:

You can always tell a fan of Big Government by the way he or she addresses the Invisible Hand, Adam Smith’s metaphor for free markets. ... This week, McGill economist Christopher Ragan, chairman of the self-appointed Ecofiscal Commission, came up with a more subtle put down - “Sometimes the Invisible Hand needs a manicure, and the way is to improve market signals.”

See also, Dennis Ambler at The SPPI Blog: A nest of carbon vipers

Vast sums of money, influence and power are involved in carbon mitigation schemes, and yet there is never any mention in the media of these massive and lucrative conflicts of interest. They appear quite content swallowing the diversionary tactics pushed by the likes of DeSmog Blog and Greenpeace ExxonSecrets with their claims of “oil- company funded deniers”.  It is doubtful that mainstream journalists ever bother to look behind the scenes at these people, yet it is all available on official websites.

The great carbon tax grab and BC's bogus green claims

Terence Corcoran:

Just as consumers start getting used to the idea of lower gasoline prices, putting billions of dollars in their pockets for spending on other things, politicians are conspiring to grab it back ... a long list of economists and celebrity policy wonks eager to provide support... Preston “Don’t call it a tax” Manning, The Globe and Mail’s editorial board, assorted think tanks ... Obama advisor Lawrence Summers ... Glen Hodgson, chief economist at the Conference Board of Canada ...

... The carbon tax issue is no small policy shift. This is big statism in a green cloak, filled with policy inconsistencies, economic nonsense and out-of-control rationalizations.

... Carbon taxes are piled on green taxes piled on congestion taxes on top of regulations and other direct interventions. ... Worse, none of these taxes will do anything to improve the environment or curb carbon emissions...

Far left radical Saul Alinsky once wrote "never let a good crisis go to waste". Obama's far left fixer, Rahm Emanuel famously repeated it.   So, now, with a "crisis" in falling oil prices, opportunistic political weasels and wonks of all stripes are rationalizing a tax they hope can be imposed with minimal objection.  And once imposed it'll stay there after oil prices rise again. It's time for tax payers to show up en-mass on all their doorsteps carrying tar, feathers, torches and pitch-forks.

The B.C. carbon tax: Gordon Campbell's Liberals imposed a carbon tax in 2008 and have long held it up as a glowing success in  lowering BC's carbon footprint.  Terence Corcoran puts the lie to that load of junk economics:

... B.C. gasoline consumption is actually higher today than it was in 2008, both in absolute and per capita numbers. B.C. is therefore today producing more carbon emissions than it was the day the carbon tax was introduced.... Economics 101 is still the law, and the B.C. case for a carbon tax does not exist.

Preston Manning's appalling proposal

Peter Foster explains:

It sounds so simple. “We” need a fiscal system that produces more of what we want – good, clean jobs — and less of what we don’t want, which is “pollution.” Let’s call it an “ecofiscal” approach.

...  we need a carbon tax. But since taxes have such a bad name, why not change the name to a carbon “levy”?

... Mr. Manning, who heads the Manning Centre for Building Democracy, is also an advisor to the new, self-appointed Canadian Ecofiscal Commission, which aspires – like a cloister full of medieval scholastics – to set a “just price” for industrial emissions and thus fine tune a woefully inadequate market(ish) economy.

See also, Terence Corcoran: Why the call for bigger and better carbon taxes is about to escalate

... A decade of bad policy, including Canada’s disastrous National Energy Program, followed the first OPEC crisis. The challenge in 2014 is to avoid making a new series of policy disasters.

The push for taxes on "carbon"

Progressives have been ramping up the rhetoric for a "tax on carbon" or, euphemistically, "pricing carbon".  The usual suspects  have been doing so for some time and more recently it came from a less predicable quarter, Preston Manning.

It's worth reminding ourselves of the reasons to push back:

Finance Minister Joe Oliver: the "multibillion-dollar tax on everything"
Lorne Gunter: "Heaven help us ..."

BC, the first jurisdiction in North America to impose such a tax, is frequently held up by carbon tax pushers as a shining success.  Aldyen Donnelly points out why that and related claims are a myth:

... BC Ministry of Finance budget documents show, clearly, that total demand for the B.C. carbon-taxed products grew faster after the carbon-tax was introduced than over almost every other similar timeframe between 1992 and 2008.

Preston Manning - a traitor to his former conservative self

It would be interesting to know what has caused Preston's about face on conservative principles he so clearly championed as Reform leader. Advocating the use of weasel words to dupe the public into accepting a carbon tax does not sound like the Preston Manning I once voted for. Though we have to acknowledge that he has been spouting the sustainability mantra for several years.

Something happened to bring about his apparently new-found enthusiasms for more taxes, bigger government and Orwellian propaganda. It can't be evidence for the threat of man-made global warming - that has become nothing but weaker over the past two decades. Though since it figures in his push for a disguised carbon tax he's using it exactly as eco and far-left radicals do - as a tool to sell the public on an agenda they wouldn't otherwise support.

So what is it that motivates Preston's uncharacteristic, anti-conservative new stance? Why has he turned traitor to his former principles? "Green" seems to figure strongly. Maybe we should follow the money. Where does the Manning Centre get its green? Maybe it's from Big Green - eg. gigabuck foreign foundations like Tides, Rockefeller, Hewlett, etc.
[Update: Ezra notes that Manning is a member of the Pembina Institute Advisory Council. You can't get much more progressive and radically environmental than Pembina which has links to Tides and the Suzuki Foundation. See also.]

Whatever it is, it's sad.

Sign Ezra's petition.

UN Agenda 21 - global, totalitarian “sustainability”

To highlight Cheryl Gallant's excellent effort towards raising awareness of the threat posed by UN Agenda 21, I'm bringing forward (with updated links) my January, 2012 post on the subject:
 

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A Democrat speaks to a Tea Party meeting about how UN Agenda 21 is being foisted on a largely unsuspecting public and subverting individual rights:



From the UN web page for Agenda 21:

Agenda 21 is a comprehensive plan of action to be taken globally, nationally and locally by organizations of the United Nations System, Governments, and Major Groups in every area in which human impacts on the environment. ... [Agenda 21 originated from the 1992 Rio Conference, thanks to Maurice Strong.]

Canada and Agenda 21:

Canada has signed or ratified at least 45 multilateral environmental conventions and agreements and is signatory to numerous agendas for action (e.g., Agenda 21, the Habitat Agenda, the World Summit on Sustainable Development [WSSD] Plan of Implementation, and the Kyoto Protocol) ...

Local community involvement:

Originally known as the International Council for Local Environmental Initiatives (ICLEI), today the group simply calls itself “ICLEI—Local Governments for Sustainability.”

In 1992, ICLEI was one of the groups instrumental in creating Agenda 21. The group’s mission is to push local communities to regulate the environment—and it’s having tremendous success. [Note that 30 Canadian member communities are listed]

British Columbia is using its carbon tax to bribe communities to get on its "Climate Action" programme:

“The Climate Action Revenue Incentive program will be a new conditional grant equal to what local governments pay in the carbon tax, with only one string attached – to be eligible, communities must sign onto the Climate Action Charter and commit to becoming carbon-neutral by 2012,” said Premier Campbell. “If communities do that, and publicly report on their plan and progress in meeting that goal, they will be eligible to receive a grant equal to 100 per cent of their carbon tax costs.” [Big surprise: all 176 BC communities signed on.]

Justin Trudeau's NEP II - just like dear old dad

Ezra Levant:

... His dad called it the National Energy Program, and claimed it was for national sovereignty reasons, or whatever excuse worked with the media of the day.

It’s 2014, so the excuse now is “the environment.”

Trudeau announced his plans for a carbon tax last year in Calgary — at the Petroleum Club no less. It was a shocking announcement — but not a single other media outlet reported it, except a brief mention on the Globe and Mail’s website.  ...

More from Lorrie Goldstein and Eric Duhaime.  And here's a video of Lorrie Goldstein with Faith Goldy.

Global bureaucrats with climate agenda like "a pack of hunting animals ... no conspiracy is necessary."

Peter Foster praises Aussie PM Tony Abbott and PM Harper for their "resistance to the economically destructive global climate agenda":

... Mr. Harper pointed out that economically-damaging solutions were not supported by any government; it was just that Canada dared to be a little more “frank” about the issue. So, now, is Australia under Prime Minister Abbott.

... more good news in the proposal from Mr. Abbott, who has scrapped his country’s planned carbon tax, to try to put together a coalition of “centre right” governments that might turn the tide against climate hysteria.  

... At every turn, nimble activists have outmanoeuvred the allegedly all-powerful oil companies, who have appeared both sluggish and defensive. Part of the ENGO success comes from framing themselves as David vs. the industrial Goliath (despite that big money lurking in the background). In fact, little David is a front for a power-seeking agenda which is supported by those global bureaucracies, such as the International Energy Agency and the International Monetary Fund.

... For anybody who suggests that this represents some paranoid view of a global conspiracy, no conspiracy is necessary.  Bureaucrats do not need literally to conspire, that is, plot, any more than a pack of hunting animals needs to sit down and discuss tactics before descending on its prey.

Canada praises Australia for ditching its carbon tax

Statement by Parliamentary Secretary Paul Calandra on Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott's Introduction of Legislation to Repeal the Carbon Tax

Ottawa, November 12 2013 — Today, Paul Calandra, Parliamentary Secretary to the Prime Minister, issued the following statement on behalf of the Government of Canada on Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott’s introduction of legislation to repeal the carbon tax: “Canada applauds the decision by Prime Minister Abbott to introduce legislation to repeal Australia’s carbon tax. The Australian Prime Minister’s decision will be noticed around the world and sends an important message. 

“Our government knows that carbon taxes raise the price of everything, including gas, groceries, and electricity. Prime Minister Abbott has said that, in Australia, the repeal of the carbon tax will reduce the average household’s cost of living by (in Australian dollars) $550 a year, take $200 off household power bills and $70 off gas bills.
“Our government has reduced greenhouse gas emissions while protecting and creating Canadians jobs – greenhouse gas emissions are down since 2006, and we’ve created 1 million net new jobs since the recession – and we have done this without penalising Canadian families with a carbon tax.”

The Guardian and its readers, however, were appalled:)

... Canada has dropped any remaining pretences of supporting global action on climate change by urging other countries to follow Australia's example in gutting its climate plan.
... Australia is the developed world's worst polluter per head of population, but Canada, under the Harper government, is close behind at 16.2 tonnes .

Well, at least it's a small signal that things may be shifting in the right direction.  But the Harper government has also signalled that it will mirror whatever action the Americans take on the climate front.  And the Obama "Climate Action Plan" appears to include every crazy CAGW alarmist premise and myth out there.  It sure doesn't include any contingencies for the what to do about global cooling.

[Via]

BC's many Nobel pretenders

Donna Laframboise, on the 9000 people who helped the UN IPCC "win" the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize:

... When the IPCC was awarded half of the Nobel Peace Prize back in 2007 (Al Gore won the other half), its chairman profoundly over-stepped his authority. Writing to IPCC-affiliated academics en masse, Rajendra Pachauri proclaimed: “This makes each of you Nobel Laureates.”

This, of course, led to many claims by individuals (or by their organizations on their behalf) to be Nobel Prize winners or Nobel Laureates. British Columbia has more than its fair share:

In March 2013, The Walrus magazine published an article it said had been written by a “Nobel laureate” and a “Nobel economist.” But Mark Jaccard, who teaches at Simon Fraser University, has never won a Nobel prize — not in economics or any other field.  

... [Jaccard] is a special advisor to the BC environment ministry’s Climate Action Team. An official web page claims that eight members of that entity were awarded the 2007 Peace Prize. When we stretch the truth so extravagantly, this is where we end up.

It got so bad that the IPCC was prompted to issue an official statement (Dec 2012) to try to stop the practice:

... The prize was awarded to the IPCC as an organization, and not to any individual associated with the IPCC. Thus it is incorrect to refer to any IPCC official, or scientist who worked on IPCC reports, as a Nobel laureate or Nobel Prize winner. ...

As an aside, if anyone has any doubt as to where the BC government stands on the issue of "climate change" it's "Climate Action Plan", "Climate Action Team" and its carbon tax are hints that it brooks no skepticism.

The CBC and The Economist promote green huxster's "report" on BC carbon tax

University of Ottawa professor Stewart Elgie founded an organization called "Sustainable Prosperity",  "a national green economy think tank/do tank ... in the pursuit of a greener, more competitive Canadian economy."   [Note that Preston Manning is listed as a steering committee member.]

Sustainable Prosperity recently published Prof Elgie's upbeat "report" on BC's carbon tax - "An Environmental (and Economic)Success Story" promoted first by the CBC and yesterday by The Economist.

Given Elgie's green activist orientation it behooves one to read his report with some skepticism as it is likely to be tainted with substantial confirmation bias (and worse).  Both Elgie and his report are critiqued by Hilary:

Ottawa based Stewart Elgie – not unlike IPCC-nik and recently elected British Columbia Green Party MLA, Andrew Weaver – has a history of putting advocacy carts ahead of evidence horses. ...

And here's a commenter on The Economist piece:

... BC per capita energy use has been declining since 1978. The post CTax rate of decline is actually been SLOWER than the 2000-2007 trend (the CTax was announced and introduced in 2008)for the package of CTaxed goods, and most of the individual commodities in the package. ...

... BC's economy has always been less carbon-intensive than the rest of Canada's (due to its large hydro resource and two of the most densly populated major urban areas in the country) But comparisons of BC's fossil carbon energy usage and the rest of Canada's show that BC's relative advantage was much better every year from 2002 through 2007 than any year after the CTax was introduced.  ...

... Second, over 85% of the post-Ctax reduction in BC energy use was reductions in industrial energy use. This reflected the historically unprecedented shrinkage of BC's forest products and paper manufacturing sectors ...

... the driver of post-2007 energy demand reduction in BC has been de-industrialization. Manufacturing employment in BC has fallen 26% since the CTax was introduced, while the Cdn national average has been a 15% decline.  ... etc.