Tuesday, July 21, 2009

Post Carbon Economy

The Centre for Climate Change Strategy, which is advising the Obama administration, recommends the following policies:

* Carbon taxes
* Dramatically increase state gas taxes
* Vehicle taxes based on gas mileage
* Subsidize inefficient "renewable" energy sources
* Electricity fees to subsidize energy "efficiency"
* Green energy requirements (Renewable Portfolio Standards)
* Require "Smart Growth" city planning
* Mandate "green" principles in states' K-12 curriculum
* Mandatory percentage of gas taxes to inefficient mass transit
* Surcharges based on vehicle fuel efficiency

This is not a list of choices, they see that all of these need to implemented at the same time. Nor all of these are in the CLimate Change Bill now at the Senate - but several are. Who says this will not lead to a major change in the way the US operates?

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

The pessimist in me sees something more frightening than the recent derivative meltdown. The derivative market simply deleveraged after a political edict (houses for everyone) ran it's natural course.

The carbon market is entirely a political construct. Should the GW theory shortfalls become generally known and accepted, the subsequent unwinding of GW trillions in capital investment and financial futures markets could cause a real mess.