It will then turn out to be completely uneconomical to use fossil fuels at their true price, as it should’ve been.
Renewables are ALREADY out-competing fossils joule for joule and learning curves are only making that delta bigger over time. The US has seen a spate of utilities buying up coal power plants just to shut them down because it is so uneconomical to operate them, yet still we have politicians vowing to support coal just because they like it / to own the libs.
The issue is that there are people who want to use fossil fuels. Many nations’ entire economies depend on it. So they’ll keep doing it. They’ll sell and use the fuels in places that don’t tax them, if they have to. They’ll literally build demand. They’ll push to get every molecule out of the ground and sold, even as returns diminish.
Not to even get into the conservative lunatics who want to keep using them on principle, even knowing they are an economically bad deal.
Even if you could get a carbon tax passed in the US (which is a giant, giant, giant “fat chance”), it’ll have more leakage than the tattered Depends worn by all of our politicians.
Meanwhile, like with any tariff, the people hurt most by this carbon tax won’t be the producers. Saudi Arabia is not going to agree to pay our taxes. Instead, it’ll be the end consumers. Regressively, with the poorest and most vulnerable consumers who cannot afford to immediately electrify hurt the worst.
The philosophy of the IRA is the way to win this fight. Invest, incentivize, and do it progressively. Building a constituency all the way.
Removed by mod
No problem, we can tax it at 20’000 % or whatever is the correct amount.
It will then turn out to be completely uneconomical to use fossil fuels at their true price, as it should’ve been.
Same goes for wasting freshwater and waterways/groundwater pollution. The tax needs to reflect the damage.
Market mechanisms will still work, we just need to prevent companies from externalising the cost of the damage they are causing.
Renewables are ALREADY out-competing fossils joule for joule and learning curves are only making that delta bigger over time. The US has seen a spate of utilities buying up coal power plants just to shut them down because it is so uneconomical to operate them, yet still we have politicians vowing to support coal just because they like it / to own the libs.
The issue is that there are people who want to use fossil fuels. Many nations’ entire economies depend on it. So they’ll keep doing it. They’ll sell and use the fuels in places that don’t tax them, if they have to. They’ll literally build demand. They’ll push to get every molecule out of the ground and sold, even as returns diminish.
Not to even get into the conservative lunatics who want to keep using them on principle, even knowing they are an economically bad deal.
Even if you could get a carbon tax passed in the US (which is a giant, giant, giant “fat chance”), it’ll have more leakage than the tattered Depends worn by all of our politicians.
Meanwhile, like with any tariff, the people hurt most by this carbon tax won’t be the producers. Saudi Arabia is not going to agree to pay our taxes. Instead, it’ll be the end consumers. Regressively, with the poorest and most vulnerable consumers who cannot afford to immediately electrify hurt the worst.
The philosophy of the IRA is the way to win this fight. Invest, incentivize, and do it progressively. Building a constituency all the way.