When it comes to taxation, government has mastered the art of defining schemes and dependence on revenues from anything and everything it deems a sin; and taxes last a mighty long time. Recall how the income tax was supposed to be temporary. Now advocates are pushing a Cap and Trade system over a straight Carbon Tax. Either way, all carbon seems viewed like a mortal sin.
Truth is there are no mortal or venial energy sins, just sins of opportunity deemed by government to be taxed. Despite all the green rhetoric by government officials, the real purpose of the any energy tax legislation goes way beyond automotive technology, better mileage and clean air for all. It appears the law’s crafters want to create a new source of government control so it can increase revenues via taxation. Whether it's a straight tax or cap/trade, carbon is merely the excuse for the tax. The issue here is that the objects of the tax are always people and businesses.
In economic terms, a Carbon Tax or a Cap and Trade could kill the industrial growth of our economy which is already on its back; and that might mean the transfer of even more manufacturing jobs to the developing world. Aside from government’s loving stares at electric vehicles, the tax strategy could be a good intention by some, but with a strong dose of short-sightedness. It will certainly make conventional energy much more expensive, at a time when we have falling personal incomes, limited corporate profits and high unemployment.
All that talk to get us away from oil is partly a ruse. Sure, we need to get off of oil, but "peak oil" doesn't mean no oil at all, as if our wells are totally dry. Besides, there are plenty of ways to transform our country without taxation. How about giving people a tax break? Why not be positive, with government-revenue neutral approach? That won’t happen, and here’s why.
Whether we have a straight Carbon Tax or a Cap and Trade, the process of designing a new tax especially reflects a political end game, a massive scheme in socio-economic engineering. This one makes automotive technology look like a grade-school science project. The anti-carbon project really started when the green heads kidnapped the ultra-liberal wing of government to advance their fears of climate change, aside from the fact the planet has seen multiple climate changes long before man ever walked the earth.
Even if justified, that mantra is being used for political purposes beyond saving the planet. Can you say, "Opportunists?" The anti-carbon mantra gave certain liberal senators and congressmen a golden opportunity, a venue for government to get more control for their social programs. Perhaps that’s why Speaker Pelossi literally jumps out of her chair in giddy applause whenever President Obama speaks.
And maybe that’s just what the architects of these laws really want - total control. For sure we know they want to tax productive enterprises and ultimately make the bulk of our population dependent on their handouts. That not only makes people more compliant and easily controlled, it stimulates and feeds their main fetish – bigger government.
There is a time for every purpose; a time for government to act, and a time to get out of the way. When it came to monitoring the economic excesses that slammed the economy, the SEC and others surely obviously got out of the way. Did you ever ask why?
Now, Cap/Trade is going to be in your face and behind your back; a revenue and power grab by the government, making carbon taxation a form of civil war by other means. Truth is we will have taxation and plenty of it for decades to come. And perhaps that's why Cap/Trade is preferred by some, because it doesn't have the word "tax" in its header; meaning, it's hidden.
Now imagine a region that doesn’t have ample wind, hydroelectric or geothermal resources. It will be impossible to meet the base-load electricity needs of their region reliably and with cost effectiveness. Still, the advocates of Carbon Tax and Cap/Trade will drive the poorer regions toward brownouts and desperation, still envisioning a world full of ultra-long-life batteries which do not exist. They will also envision windmills and solar farms like Iowa has corn stalks, even in places where wind and solar rays may be minimal.
If you build it, the government will always come and tax it, regardless of how you name it. Perhaps that’s why the government pushes re-chargeable plug-in hybrids. Anti-carbon advocates know owners have to get their electrons from somewhere, and they will have to pay for it dearly. So, rather than seeing cheaper automotive expenses, expect higher costs. For sure, the replacement cost of Lithium-ion batteries alone will break the back of any man or woman with a job; let alone a person who doesn’t have one. Think total cost of transportation, not just kilowatt use.
Further expect to see the construction of a lot more natural gas-fired power plants in the coming years, although that is good in the eyes of T. Boone Pickens. However, they are more expensive than coal-fired plants, and more air polluting than nuclear plants which is the main power system in France.
Now here’s the irony: It’s not going to be coal which will be taxed out of existence. It will be us that depend on power, because all energy taxes, straight or Cap/Trade, will eventually be passed onto homeowners and consumers by businesses.
Examiner Final Comment
Unlike old soldiers, taxes do not die; neither do they fade away. So, don’t be fooled into thinking the Cap/Trade system or the Carbon Tax is only going to tax the dirty, coal-burning power plants for a season. Whatever becomes law will eventually tax the cleaner-burning, natural-gas power plants as well. Furthermore, it’s just a matter of time until the wind, the sun and the geo-thermal energy from the earth will be taxed, too.
Comments
Dear Rush Limbaugh, I mean Frank...
I think you’ve a thoughtless mouth piece for the Club for Growth. Corporate America and all that is wrong with this world.
"It is difficult to get a man to understand something when his salary depends upon his not understanding it" - Upton Sinclair
The "growth" phase of mans ride on Earth is over. Get it? We now need to learn to live with less and less. Not more and more.
"could kill the industrial growth of our economy which is already on its back"
If you can't breathe that will really kill industrial growth.
at least limbaugh will come right out and say, “i can’t say anything about that, [ a recent blogosphere appeal to boycott GM ] they're a sponsor...”
Germany fought WWII with gasoline from coal.
America has 1/4th of the deposits on the planet and could eliminate dependence on foreign oil.
Reducing trade imbalance would keep money, technology and jobs here in US. It is estimated that every billion in trade deficit equals 13,000 jobs lost. Plus we could quit sending billions to countries that sponsor terrorism.
But the EPA recently determined CO2 is a pollutant.
Isn’t it interesting that Cap and Trade insures the status quo for OPEC.
The Concept of CO2 Cap and Trade is Absurd
The real reason Cap & Trade is being foisted on the world is it creates a 3 trillion dollar commodity market for you guessed it: hot air. Finally politicians have found a way to put a price on their most abundant resource! And for politicians there is no downside as nothing has to be actually produced.
The real beneficiaries are the rich special interest who will get wealthier setting up and trading in this new commodities market. But citizens will pay more taxes to operate new regulatory bureaucracies and more for goods as business passes the cost along.
And all this is based on the premise that operating automobiles is resulting in global warming. Question: did Fred Flintstones truck fleet cause the last period of global warming or is global warming a cyclical event that is more affected by sun spot cycles. The Earth has had multiple tropical and glacial ages over the millennia. The most recent news is that the oceans of the world will be cooling for the next 25-30 years.
Furthermore, it is my understanding that the most prevalent hot house gas is water vapor. Should citizens of earth try to stop the rain cycle?
And if we are going to implement Cap and Trade who will decide what the optimal CO2 carrying capacity of Earth is?
And there are questions about how to implement financial controls and reliably audit such a system. Will every person and business on the planet be issued C02 permits? Is the permit an asset a business can liquidate when it goes out of business? If a business in California goes out of business and sells its CO2 permit to a company in England, will a new company in California have to find another seller to open his business and replace lost jobs? After all, if there is an optimal CO2 carrying capacity then an increasing population of people and businesses means a lower standard of living and reduced CO2 allotment for each new person or business.
Upon their death can Mom and Dad leave their CO2 permits to their children? Should Mom and Dad be limited to having two children?
What about the countries that do not subscribe to Cap & Trade. Will multi-national companies export new construction and jobs to 3rd world non-subscribing countries? And the flipside, will the people of the Amazon miss out on new opportunities because an American company bought 1000s of acres to be left unused to acquire carbon sequestration credits.
Dear "so left I am right:"
Opinionated, yes I am. Thoughtless, no. Actually, you ASSUME I'm against green. Quite the contrary. I just challenge hypocrites who use green issues to support the tax-spend agenda. And, by the way, human growth is NOT over. The Creator does NOT have an energy limitation; nor does HE expect us to live like paupers. We just need to learn to be good stewards over little things. And I do NOT get paid a salary to believe what I say and write.
“The Creator does NOT have an energy limitation;” but the Earth does have physical geological limitations... And some really bigs ones are almost here. Sorry. To be saved, you can bank on your God. You can bank your Country or you can bank on your food growing skills. The choice is freely yours. Can you guess which I bank on?
What would it be worth to you, to say, all by yourself physically push your car 350 miles or for five years, whichever came first? Pushing everyday without days off for rest or for bad weather.
How much would you feel you should be compensated for that?
$500,000? $1,000,000?
What would a tank of gas cost to do the same thing? $50…
“A tank of gasoline in a car holds enough energy to equal approximately five years of one person’s rigorous manual labor.” - Peak Oil Community
So you see, when oil become less and less available, which it will, we will all have to preform “rigorous manual labor” to survive, to “live like paupers.”
Read online about the EPA Employee blowing the lid off of Global Warming Myth and this being supressed by the ZeroBama Administration. Cap and Trade is, as Author Frank says, is just a way to tax and punish all evil Americans who are using up all the energy under the guise of "Green". The only green this Administration is concerned about is good old green "folding money". BIRC or Brazil, India, Russia and China will IGNORE all this and continue to spew out toxins into the atmosphere and pollute the plant. Here is a quote for you that makes just as much sense as yours.."Time flies like an arrow, flies like Bananas" Groucho Marx. AND I will fight when "Daddy (Obama takes my Mustang away:...paraphrase Beach Boys. I'd rather be RIGHT than Left (in the dust).
Here is a perfect example of the problem. The “American Entitlement Syndrome.” if the world can’t produce enough oil for right=right to drive his mustang then it’s the left’s fault.
You see, as long as we fight, the right and the left, “they” get all the folding green stuff. We are to busy yelling at each other to notice they have taken all our wealth! Can’t you see that? My screen name is meant to say i am so far to the left I'm almost back at the right... I hate most everything pres-O-dent has done. Yes, that’s right. Sure many are still memorized but i am a realist. I am not a centrist. I see what is going on. I see what is coming and i fear people like right=right... They are and will be looking for a scapegoat and it isn’t someone with opposing views, it’s corporate america, the richest of the rich that really run the show.
My criticism of Frank still stand and it is my opinion that many in the media are nothing but corporate mouthpieces whether they realize it or not...
If someone is truly committed to reducing global warming or eliminating pollution then they would be advocated abolition of the polluting or offending sources. Period. Cap & Trade was designed solely for legislative capitalism. It is for the benefit of political and corporate elites so they may get rich on the people less informed and significantly less powerful. This is a trillion dollar corporate welfare scheme.
Dear Far left, good to see you are seeing the light! The left are a bunch of morons. First we were going to die in another ice age, now it's a death by heat. Which is it? Ever think that MAYBE in it's billions of years that the earth learned to take care of itself? Did you see the glacier growing in Argentina? Yep, that's right....growing!
Cap & trade is a tool they can use to get more of our money & expand government until we are ALL sucking on the government tit! They love that & are encouraging dependence by making us all equally poor. THEY are the RICH ones, not CEOs!!
As we'll suffer from another tax, the truth is, cap & trade won't do a damn thing. It will make us dependent on foreign governments for energy (like China that is ignoring warnings & "building" plants) because it will be cheaper! Want to reduce carbon? Grow more trees like China is doing! The power plants could just BUILD more plants under a sister company name for when they max out or just shut down = no power!
One last thing MR. So far left I am Right.....If the growth phase of man's ride on earth is over, please don't reproduce! We don't need any more CO2 or dumb people! Save the room & fresh air for foreigners that greatly out number us!
We don't need to do anything. There is no threat! It's fake and suckers are paying BIG bucks as they watch the little square box that tells them to go get 'green' goods at more than triple the cost!
As far as earth goes, the same cycle that created the great lakes when NO cars or smoke stacks were around....is going through another phase. Nothing we do or have done will change it. People, don't sacrifice....welfare recipients and foreigners don't. They keep making more babies & we're the suckers that are going without. WAKE UP! I'll make a deal. I'll make some sacrifices when the rest of the world stops testing bombs that create WAY more heat than anything we can do!! I'll contribute beano since farts are said to cause 'global warming'. LMAO
Cap and trade is apparently the end point of all the anti-nuclear coo-coo-ness. I could understand labor oppositon to mine-mouth coal plants and nukes. Deep mine fed coal plants run out of fuel within 45 days if there is a rail strike or a deep mine strike. The very-far left hates capitalist nukes up front.
Germany is an example of this. Up to recently, German government subsidized domestic coal to the equivalent 100 kg/tonne-C. Also Germany voted to phase out atomic power. All this happened when natural gas from Russia was cheap and reliable.
Similar situation existed in California before 2000. From 1980 to 1999 oil and natural gas became so cheap nobody built coal or nuclear plants. Problem is that nobody will drill for (now) $4/MMBtu natural gas.
World energy policy is hostige to "anything but nukes." Be careful what you wish for. Result is impending "renewable energy" environmental disaster. Cap-and-trade adds economic disaster.
Got something to say?
Examiner.com is looking for writers, photographers, and videographers to join the fastest growing group of local insiders. If you are interested in growing your online rep apply to be an Examiner today!