Carbon tax

With all the talk about climate change and the provincial premiers' conference, I thought I'd weigh in on one issue within the climate change issue: a carbon tax.

I'm not going to address the question of whether or not human activity is causing climate change. It's a very complex subject that I haven't studied in much depth, so for the sake of this post, I'll boldly assume that the majority of climate scientists are right. (A side question: since evangelical Christians are typically taught to be skeptical of the theory of evolution, and sometimes the big bang theory and modern geology, does that make us more prone to doubting other theories--not contradicted by any common biblical interpretation--believed by the majority of scientists? Is our desire to trust God actually making us think we're smarter than everybody else? That seems arrogant, and arrogance doesn't jive well with Christianity.)

So, is a carbon tax a good idea? Some say it would unfairly pick on Alberta's oil industry, but I'm sure the demand for oil won't go away for a while, and it seems selfish to value the economy of our little province over the livability of much larger parts of the world holding many more people. And it might work better than existing regulations. Right now in Alberta, companies are expected to cut their emissions (or is it emissions intensity?) by a certain amount or face fines. If that's the main incentive to reduce emissions, there's less incentive to cut emissions further. Yes, many emissions cuts come from saving energy, which is an incentive itself, although maybe not a big enough one, considering how emissions keep increasing. And some ways of cutting emissions may not save money at the same time. If we tax all emissions, then there's always an incentive to cut emissions further.

Of course, if we're shifting taxation criteria more toward emissions and away from income, we'll need to make sure this system isn't tough on the poor. But I'm pretty sure we could come up with something.