[JohnRPollard]

Originally Posted by jackdale

John - what is your view on a carbon fee / tax?

I have always felt that Cap and Trade was a scam designed to line the pockets of investors and industries with deep pockets that could hire armies of lobbyists and politicians to shape the legislation and treaties to their financial and political advantage. The whole thing reminds me of those "everybody gets a share" schemes concocted by the character Milo Minderbinder in Joseph Heller's Catch-22.

But let's assume for argument's sake that MMGW exists and carbon emissions are the primary cause. The single most effective way to curtail carbon emissions is through conservation of "fossil" fuels. You can start conserving tomorrow morning -- you don't need legislation or treaties to do that. You and anybody else that believes in MMGW can make the pledge to not drive your cars one single mile more than you walk or ride your bike each year. Heck, I'm a skeptic, and I do that anyway. It's like your own personal cap and trade, with offsets no less.

But are there enough true believers?

I think the answer is: There are not enough true believers that are willing to modify their behaviour, no matter how loudly they cry for action. They want somebody else to fix the problem they helped to create and to which they continue to contribute. Turn down the thermostat? But it's cold out there.

Again, assuming for argument that carbon emissions are the cause of climate change, and assuming that even the MMGW zealots won't sell their mansions or change their behaviour, then the only other way I know of to ween people of fossil fuels is to raise their costs.

But I would not be in favor of any tax on end users unless the proceeds of that tax were allocated exclusively toward early reduction of U.S. national debt AND a balanced federal budget were in place that continued to pay debt obligations at the same rate as previous budgets. In other words, the tax proceeds could not be looted by congress for pork nor substituted for the normal, on-going debt payment -- it would need to be used in addition to it to achieve accelerated, early repayment of national debt.

Call it the Al Gore Carbon and Fossil Fuel Tax. All proceeds of which would go to the JohnRPollard National Debt Reduction Program. See now, carbon emissions go down, and so does the national debt. Everybody gets a share.