Republicans (and Democrats) set to solve all our problems with a Carbon Tax

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The republican party has launched a plan that will keep them in power for decades. The Climate Leadership Council launched a plan/proposal on February 8th to solve not only the climate change issue but to improve the economy AND national security. There is nothing the democratic party or an emerging third party can do to top that. Hang it up, we're about to become a one party state. (Ya I know, we already are.)

THE CONSERVATIVE CASE FOR CARBON DIVIDENDS

"Co-authored by a who’s who of conservative elder statesmen, this statement is the first time leading Republicans put forth a concrete, market-based climate solution."

https://www.clcouncil.org/

That's "market based", the same thing the republicans are saying about the health "care" plan. The market determines things and we all know how well that works for the Serfs.

They've got James Baker, Henry Paulson, George Schulz and ya, a who's who of "conservative elder statesmen". A bunch of rich old white conservative assholes. They explain their motives:

"replacing the Obama-era climate regulations with a carbon dividends program starting at $40/ton would yield far greater emissions reductions, and meet our Paris commitment."

The great thing is this plan won't benefit the rich because:

"this recent analysis from the Treasury Department, the bottom 70% of Americans come out ahead under a carbon dividends program."

That's right, a republican program that will address climate change AND the bottom 70% of Americans will come out AHEAD!

"Come out ahead". Think about that one. It's like, you'll be behind but
in the end you'll come out ahead. Uh huh, right.

"With the ongoing weakness of the global economy, an ideal climate strategy would double as a growth strategy. A climate dividends plan can assist in three important ways. First, a gradually increasing carbon tax would send a powerful market signal that encourages technological innovation and large-scale substitution of existing energy and transportation infrastructures. Second, rising fossil fuel costs would offer companies the predictability they lack in today’s energy market, encouraging longer-term investment. Third, dividends would have an important stimulatory effect by putting cash in the hands of the end consumers most likely to spend it."

It'll be like Christmas, man.

Everyone should know the only way to solve this existential "crisis" is to implement a tax program. Everyone wins, even the planet.

Who knew the same people who helped rape the world and bring us to this point would be the ones to save us. With a tax.

And if you believe that, I've got a Wall to sell you on the southern border.

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Big Al's picture

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Or was that a Clinton Democrat idea?

Either way, I remember Republicans fighting it tooth and nail.

The real objective is to get rid of the regulations. $40 per ton of carbon is peanuts.
Less than 12 cents per gallon of gasoline. Gasoline fluctuates more than that daily. It would double the wholesale price of coal, however. Somebody else can figure the cost of a therm of natural gas. Oil men will regard this as a flea bite. It won't play in Appalachia.

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I've seen lots of changes. What doesn't change is people. Same old hairless apes.

Big Al's picture

@The Voice In the Wilderness much in common they have. I don't know, I'm sure it originated from the Rand corporation or Heritage foundation or something like that. The ruling class thinktanks doing their thinking about how much they can screw the rest of us and make it sound like they're doing something good.

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@Big Al

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I've seen lots of changes. What doesn't change is people. Same old hairless apes.

@Big Al thanks for that earworm Big Al. sheesh Huffman (D-CA) Introduces Bill to Replace Gas Tax with Carbon Tax on Fuels on topic sort of. It is the approach to compensate (waay too late) for all the hybrids in California depleting the Transportation Fund. Like they never thought that would happen, using less gas at the pump after standards were raised? By them? Planning much? Hm, nice segue, mind if I divert discussion to water for a minute?

It is the same union of evil, in my view. Bad ecology-destroying evil, not good. Stupid smart people trying to control nature, the weather. mmph. Keep going we'll have 200 ft. high dams, and no fishes whatsoever, except the artificially inseminated. Thank goodness I never had kids, they wouldn't believe my stories growing up. All gone now, or on it's way gone. Thanks Ds!
Rep. Huffman promises he’s pushing for changes at Lake Mendocino
Huffman making an obvious attempt to secure water rights for his corporate paymasters. Lake Mendocino's primary purpose is flood control, as is Oraville's, and many other reservoirs. Flood control. Huffman wants to upgrade the state's storage capabilities, promote agriculture to primary usage. One day I'll try to find how much food is grown in his district, it ain't much. Wine-grapes are not food, neither is cannabis. They are not "agriculture" that feeds people so don't say bread basket that is bullshit.

“Just know that it is a huge priority, but that it has been a hard project to pencil out in the past,” Huffman said, explaining that if the Corps continues to view the facility’s main purpose as protecting the surrounding area from floods rather than as a water-storage facility, it will be difficult to convince it to spend the money needed to raise the dam.

“Ordinarily, when the Corps looks at surface storage projects, it can only consider the economic benefit of flood protection, but we want them to consider what a vital water resources project Lake Mendocino is,” said Huffman, adding that “in the last cost-benefit analysis (of raising the dam) we were able to get them to incorporate some of those (water storage) benefits, and hopefully that makes raising this dam look good economically.”

Because not only do “agricultural communities up and down the Russian River” depend on the water released from Lake Mendocino, but Huffman said the quality of that water is crucial to the wildlife dependent on the river.

“Because of the way the release valve has been constructed, we get muddy water released from Lake Mendocino,” said Huffman. “We think if we raise the dam, we can also put in a new release valve” that will lead to clearer water being released.

Man he is a smooth talker. I watched him run the three and a half hour meeting on Prop64 implementation, the sausage getting made is pretty pretty gross. Bye bye small farmers, hello Monsanto. Thank California Democrats, a bunch of Clinton clones. yuck

love when the bass says nuh-uh! it don't mean a thing

PEACE

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The initial costs will be passed onto the consumer, then they will conveniently forget to reduce their prices when the savings kick in.

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We have to stop using climate destroying products. Everybody needs to be well-informed of the enormous hidden costs that will slam us all. Until that happens, I'll take any encouragement for carbon neutral products.

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Beware the bullshit factories.

Lily O Lady's picture

will of TPTB is making itself known.

That's why who the idea originally belonged to doesn't matter.

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"The object of persecution is persecution. The object of torture is torture. The object of power is power. Now do you begin to understand me?" ~Orwell, "1984"

detroitmechworks's picture

About your tax on Chickens. It makes perfect sense to me.

If people have taxes on chickens, in means that they will have fewer ones to take care of and be a drain on their resources.
Mr. Fox himself will have NO benefit, since he doesn't own any chickens.

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I do not pretend I know what I do not know.

Cant Stop the Macedonian Signal's picture

a while ago--

it's gonna be absolute fodder for those who want to smear the environmental movement on a "You liberals want to tax us to death" basis.

Sometimes I wonder if that's what it's for.

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"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha

"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver

Cant Stop the Macedonian Signal's picture

though of course all of it falls short of what would be actually effective.

The "Who Owns the Sky?" model, where people get citizen shares and dividends off of it, kind of like a cross between the petroleum shares citizens of Alaska get and the Green Bay Packers' ownership model, has some benefits.

Problem is, I would have given this a hell of a lot more credit in 1985. Or 1995. Or even 2005. The hour is too late for capitalism to come around again gladhanding and pretending to be the good guy.

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"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha

"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver

And nothing is pretty much what we have in place. Waiting for consumers to do the responsible thing in our self interest economy isn't going to happen, ever.

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Cant Stop the Macedonian Signal's picture

@Blueslide Consumer-based strategies, in isolation, won't work anyway. The fossil fuel industry has guaranteed, extremely wealthy, markets that are willing to sink billions of dollars into them even if none of us eats another bite of meat or drives another mile on gas. The world's militaries and corporate agriculture could keep the Kochs in coke for the next seven generations.

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"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha

"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver

@Cant Stop the Macedonian Signal I agree but carbon taxing is a start as good as any. Lots of environmentalists plus economists of all stripes support carbon tax.

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Big Al's picture

@Blueslide There's a disconnect there people need to be aware of.

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Or rather, Republicans are pretending to be like me, now. I wrote something on Daily Kos back in 2006 that proposed pretty much this idea. It got all of 3 comments.

Imagine if the Democrats jumped on this with all 4 feet and called for an immediate vote on it. Imagine if Republicans actually waited for passage of it before repealing every environmental law on the books. Imagine unicorns.

Btw, I consider this piece the most critical aspect of the entire proposal:

All the proceeds from this carbon tax would be returned to the American people on an equal and quarterly basis (emphasis added)
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