Yesterday the EPA moved forward with the pronouncement that Greenhouse gases were a threat to public health. They overturned 8 years of inactivity by the previousl administration, in recognizing the threat of global warming…
It is hoped that the prospect of the White House taking action could push Congress to come to an agreement.
In the post below, I posted Delaware’ CO2 emissions from the year 2006, as compiled by Delaware’s Energy Office. These corporations will no doubt suffer some economic ill effects if Carbon Taxes go into effect..
You will no doubt hear how your electric bill will rise if we began to tax carbon…
Here is how you have to look at it… You have to look at your energy bill and health costs as one lumped together expense… If you pay more for energy, but drop your health bill down to zero, your overall financial stature will be improved…
That is how this must be seen… As long as your total health and energy bills combined, do not grow, you are holding at the same level… If total of both grow, you are worse off; if the total of both drop, you are better off….
Therefore those families living around Delmarva’s power plant near Fox Point, need to consider the asthma medicine they spend on all their children when they pay their electric bill.. If, they can by God’s grace, eliminate that asthma medicine due to the fact that they need it no more, then their family’s income-after-expenses will grow…
That is how Carbon taxes must be viewed..
Now those who actually read Chapter 4 of the Kavipsian Theory of Economics, already know how Carbon Taxes benefit the United States economy… You know who you are..
For the rest of you, here is a refresher….
On the global scale, Carbon taxes will be levied as are tariffs today… For instance, if the United States refuses to sign on to the Carbon tax arrangement, then those other countries buying our products, tack on a tariff to cover the Carbon tax we did not collect.. That makes our products as high or higher than those of other nations…which on a global scale, hurts us economically.
On the reverse, if we enact a carbon tax upon our power plants and other sources of carbon, then we can trade with other nations doing so because our tariffs cancil out.. We don’t pay an excess.. Our prices are more competitive..
Developing nations, who do not tax their carbon, must pay our tariff on their products coming into our country. This makes them more expensive, and less competitive against our own manufacturing, despite the difference in the costs of labor…
So as the largest consumer, if the United States moves quickly to the forefront of this policy and begins to tax carbon before others can catch up, we gain an economic advantage, even though our carbon energy costs will rise by that taxed amount…
If you were an investor, doing manufacturing within the United States, now appears to be cheaper than offshoring all factories.. What’s the point, when the economic advantage of manufacturing offshore, has just been negated?
Speed is essentual.. Those nations playing catch up do not see a competitive economic advantage… The US due to our size and wealth has the potential to lead, and in doing so, creates a better marketplace for investors to put their money here…
So as some decry that raising the cost of energy in a bad economy will dampen growth, you can now inform them that doing so, brings investment back into the US… It also raises the costs of other nations imports, making our own products more competitive…
And it does all this, while dropping our medical bills at the same time….
3 comments
Comments feed for this article
April 19, 2009 at 3:04 pm
KIlroy
“If you pay more for energy, but drop your health bill down to zero, your overall financial stature will be improved…”
You are saying when my electric bill goes up my out pocket employee contribution to my healthcare cost will go down?
The Carbon Tax will be just another profit center for the feds. Why not put the CEO of these polutting companies in jail? That will end it real quick!
Passing the cost on to the consumer does not pentalized the poullers.
April 19, 2009 at 4:42 pm
kavips
No, it would be nice if health insurance rates went down, but what actually does go down, are environmental related illnesses…
That creates cost savings on its own…
As for jailing CEO, you have to prove intent.. And, that leaves open the door for “accidents” as those of us who have been following refinery safety logs, are well aware… The accidents occur are so the CEO’s cannot be blamed for direct pollution… Proving the accidents are done on purpose requires brave people…. who are also independently wealthy…..
Not many of those around….
April 20, 2009 at 10:33 pm
kavips
Ok, So Gary Stockbridge shows up before John Kowolko’s House Energy Committee, wearing a baseball cap made out of coal…..
John Kowalko: What is that on your head….
Gary Stockbridge: It’s my Carbon Cap…