The NY Times notes the problem with carbon taxes, but just cannot give up on them
‘Yellow Vest’ Protests Shake France. Here’s the Lesson for Climate Change.
Vincent Picard describes himself as a “militant ecologist.†But when protesters took to the streets to express their rage over a planned increase in France’s fuel tax, Mr. Picard joined their ranks.
He acknowledges that the tax might encourage the conservation considered critical for a healthy planet. But with the nearest train station 35 minutes away, he has to drive to work every day.
“I am conscious that we have reached the end of fossil fuels and that we have to modify our habits,†said Mr. Picard, a 32-year-old pastry maker from northern France. But, he added, “You have to continue to live.â€
The gas tax is part of an effort started by France in 2014 to regularly raise the tax on fossil fuels to fight global climate change.
The so-called Yellow Vest (not sure why this is “so-called”, as they are using the French phrase for this themselves, and wearing yellow vests) protests against the tax increase have become the biggest obstacle yet to such attempts to encourage conservation and alternative energy use. The protests point to the difficulties facing nearly all industrialized countries committed to pulling the world back from the cliff’s edge of catastrophic climate change.
Darned citizens! How dare these middle and lower class citizens, many who became lower class because of the carbon taxes and other Statist policies, fight back against Big Government!
There is little doubt among scientists and economists — many of whom are in Poland for the current round of climate negotiations — that putting a price on carbon is essential in the effort to reduce fossil fuel dependence. The question is how to design a carbon tax, and how to cushion the blow for the most vulnerable.
See? That’s an acknowledgment that carbon taxes hurt people. Not the rich who push them, mind you.
But successfully passing carbon taxes is an increasingly delicate balancing act, with the biggest single obstacle still the pushback from the fossil fuel industry and its supporters.
Well, of course the fossil fuels industry would push back. And, pretty much everyone who uses fossil fuels in one fashion or another is a supporter. All those 10K+ who are attending the UN global warming conference in Poland? Most are fossil fuels fans, having traveled there in some type of fossil fueled conveyance. And, we see that the people who get nailed with the taxes are now obstacles, as we see from above, where the Yellow Vest protesters are being blamed.
Canada, for example, recently offered rebates to offset a planned carbon tax, helping people adjust to the change. But conservatives have pledged to undo Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s plan, saying it could cause economic damage, and only six of 10 provinces are going along with it.
Because people realized these taxes would hit them right in the wallet and they wouldn’t see that money back.
If nothing else, the maelstrom in France showed that the political challenge of how to create incentives for people to move away from fossil fuels requires much more than raising a tax on gas at the pump or subsidizing solar panels.
You understand what this is, right? A belief that our political “masters” should tell us how to live our lives.
Of the 34 billion euros, or $39 billion, that the French government is expected to raise this year from the fuel tax, less than a fourth is earmarked for measures that could help people of modest means transition to less-polluting transportation, said Daniel M. Kammen, a professor at the University of California at Berkeley who specializes in energy policy.
Surprise?
Much more of the fuel tax proceeds, Mr. Kammen said, could be used to lower the prices of electric vehicles, including taxis, to help make them more affordable for commuters in areas without public transportation. Or they could be used to develop more charging stations or subsidize big batteries to enable taxis to do long trips.
Among the forms of help that economists point to are offering subsidies to encourage people to use less-polluting forms of energy, and expanding transit networks rather than closing them.
Got that? While the big shots who pass these policies will continue to move around in their own personal fossil fueled vehicles, or super expensive electric vehicles, the mids and lowers will get to ride in taxis if there are no buses and such! No personal vehicle for you!
What France’s experience has made clear, analysts say, is that fuel taxes work best as part of a more comprehensive plan that tries to offset the disproportionate pain felt by lower-income workers who can least afford the changes.
In other words, the taxes hurt the mids and lowers. But the elites won’t give up on them, just look for other ways to nail people.
