CBC.ca has a backgrounder on the carbon tax concept from August 2006 - responding to Ignatieff's mention of the idea and Quebec's announcement of its carbon tax. The backgrounder covers the basic idea, some pros and cons, and gives examples of current use and proponents.
Link
My comments: An alright introduction to the idea, but it lacks meat and makes some strong unsubstantiated claims - the biggest being that "most economists are skeptical of the merits of a carbon tax" - my sense is that most (environmental) economists see it as the most efficient and least distortionary way to bring the GHG externality back into markets. A few relevant points it makes are that (a) oil prices are already high enough to be changing consumer behaviour at this point and (b) that additional carbon taxes could be inflationary in the short term. Fair enough, but even today's dollar a litre gas prices won't make a substantial dent in our GHGs, and those prices aren't necessarily here to stay.
Wednesday, January 31, 2007
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