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What's The Point of a Carbon Tax Rebate?
Townhall.com ^ | January 8, 2019 | Cal Thomas

Posted on 01/08/2019 11:51:21 AM PST by Kaslin

DUBLIN, Ireland -- The Irish government is proposing rebates to a carbon tax it recently imposed to households that comply with what it considers "low-carbon lifestyles." The rebate, according to Prime Minister Leo Varadkar, might be in the form of a check, an increase in welfare benefits or a tax credit for people who live the way the government thinks they should.

Some believe that if implemented, the rebate could reduce tensions seen in many parts of Europe, but especially in France, where the "yellow vest" movement that began as a protest against President Emmanuel Macron's big tax increase on gasoline, since rescinded, made a gallon of petrol among the most expensive in Europe with the tax accounting for more than half the cost. I'm doubtful. People don't like their governments forcing them to accept a lesser lifestyle because of an ideology some believe has yet to be definitively proved, while the elites continue to live as they like.

So strong is the faith of the climate change cult that McDonald's, the world's largest purchaser of beef, is considering "meat alternatives" because of alleged environmental damage from traditional farming methods, according to a story in the Financial Times.

In the United States, Chuck Todd, host of NBC's "Meet the Press," resembled the media in totalitarian countries when he announced that henceforth he would not give air time to climate change deniers. Todd says that's because climate change is "settled science." The many legitimate scientists with knowledge and experience in climate who disagree are to be isolated in an ideological gulag for not toeing the party line.

Roy Spencer is a meteorologist, a research scientist for the University of Alabama in Huntsville and the U.S. Science Team Leader for the Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer (AMSR-E) on NASA's Aqua satellite. Writing for the Global Warming Policy Forum, a London-based think tank, Spencer says "2018 marked the second straight year when global temperatures declined and that last year was the sixth warmest year globally since El Nino peaked in February, 2016."

Plastics may soon eclipse climate change as the latest "crisis" only government can solve. Here, as well as in other parts of Europe and the U.S., there's a war on plastic straws. Starbucks plans to stop using plastic straws in all its restaurants, the proposed ban going into effect by 2020. They'll still use plastic lids, though, because the lids, supposedly, are widely recyclable. This illustrates the stupidity behind many of these tree huggers. It's all about feeling good and "making a difference," not about truth.

Forty House Democrats and at least three prominent Senate Democrats are backing a "Green New Deal" touted by Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, (D-NY), a freshman member of Congress. It would, reports The Washington Examiner, "eliminate virtually all fossil fuels from the electric grid and force everyone in the country to buy from power companies selling only renewable energy."

In a recent appearance on Fox News Channel, Marc Morano, the creator of climatedepot.org, said of the New Green Deal: "We're going to treat now carbon dioxide a trace essential gas -- humans inhale oxygen and we exhale CO2 -- as somehow akin to the Nazi party and World War II initiative, which is what they are claiming. The Democrats and climate activists want a mobilization like World War II."

As the Irish Times writes, recent projections by Ireland's Economic and Social Justice Institute found that the carbon tax would have to increase substantially -- from 100 euros per person annually to 1,500 euros if the country is to meet legally binding targets for reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 2030.

Let's see how that will go down with the Irish, who have only recently begun to emerge from a long economic recession.


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Editorial
KEYWORDS: climate; climatechange; fraud; globalwarminghoax; media; sleepertrolls; taxesareabouttaxes
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1 posted on 01/08/2019 11:51:21 AM PST by Kaslin
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To: Kaslin

The points would be that above average CO2 emitters would see a tax increase overall and below average CO2 emitters would see a tax decrease overall.


2 posted on 01/08/2019 11:54:27 AM PST by Brian Griffin
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To: Kaslin

The West is not content with committing suicide slowly.


3 posted on 01/08/2019 11:56:19 AM PST by ChildOfThe60s (If you can remember the 60's....You weren't really there)
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To: Kaslin
The rebate, according to Prime Minister Leo Varadkar, might be in the form of a check, an increase in welfare benefits or a tax credit for people who live the way the government thinks they should.

HMMMmmm…

Miss Daisy; will that be all for today?

4 posted on 01/08/2019 11:56:19 AM PST by Elsie (Heck is where people, who don't believe in Gosh, think they are not going...)
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To: Kaslin

Of course, in Europe fuel taxes are already high and people are as fuel efficient as technology and their need to get to work allows.

SUVs and big cars in Europe are rare, even among the rich.


5 posted on 01/08/2019 11:56:45 AM PST by Brian Griffin
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To: Kaslin
The rebate, according to …

Normal folks call this BRIBERY.

6 posted on 01/08/2019 11:58:43 AM PST by Elsie (Heck is where people, who don't believe in Gosh, think they are not going...)
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To: Kaslin

The point would be redistribution of wealth.


7 posted on 01/08/2019 11:59:16 AM PST by ConjunctionJunction
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To: Kaslin

Low Carbon lifestyle. Cash payments to those who promise to breathe less?

(It’s CO2 that you have demonized, not Carbon, jerks! Can’t you at least get that straight?)


8 posted on 01/08/2019 12:00:23 PM PST by I want the USA back (Voltaire: To learn who rules over you, simply find out who you are not allowed to criticize.)
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To: Kaslin
If you lower your carbon use, you have paid less carbon tax. That is the point of the carbon tax, to make it more expensive to use more carbon.

As this article asks, if you rebate the carbon tax, what good did the tax do in the first place?

(Ignoring for the sake of argument that we don't need to reduce our carbon footprint in the first place.)

9 posted on 01/08/2019 12:00:51 PM PST by Yo-Yo ( is the /sarc tag really necessary?)
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To: Kaslin

There’s also the problem that not all CO2 emissions are equal.

A ton of CO2 from coastal China goes right up to the Arctic.

A ton of CO2 from a car in Iowa is largely absorbed as it blows east, in a matter of days.

A ton of CO2 from an airliner at cruising height lingers in the atmosphere for years.


10 posted on 01/08/2019 12:02:17 PM PST by Brian Griffin
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To: Kaslin

“the latest ‘crisis’ only government can solve”

The Third World is the best place since they don’t have as much invested in legacy systems.


11 posted on 01/08/2019 12:05:04 PM PST by Brian Griffin
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To: Kaslin

“the latest ‘crisis’ only government can solve”

The Third World is the best place since they don’t have as much invested in legacy systems.


12 posted on 01/08/2019 12:05:15 PM PST by Brian Griffin
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To: Kaslin

Just more G’ment confiscation.
How else are they going to pay for for all the other confiscated money they misspend?


13 posted on 01/08/2019 12:07:49 PM PST by Leep (Leftist are neither liberal or democratic. Neither are they pro American.)
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To: Kaslin

“the electric grid” has a ~50% efficiency.

The typical SUV has a 10% efficiency.

They’re messing with the best system.


14 posted on 01/08/2019 12:08:52 PM PST by Brian Griffin
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To: Kaslin

Without Carbon you aren’t alive, dummies of the Emerald Isle. Carbon combines with carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, and nitrogen to form the complex molecules required for life.


15 posted on 01/08/2019 12:09:10 PM PST by I want the USA back (Voltaire: To learn who rules over you, simply find out who you are not allowed to criticize.)
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To: Kaslin

Isn’t it rather obvious that this entire exercise is ridiculous? For example, France is not going to save the entire Earth from calamity. Next, giving people loopholes on the tax part of this fiasco isn’t going to save the Earth. China and India are the worst polluters and they are exempted from everything.


16 posted on 01/08/2019 12:22:09 PM PST by Williams (Stop Tolerating The Intolerant.)
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To: Kaslin

Great, the Irish could get a big government rebate for strangling their children.


17 posted on 01/08/2019 12:46:38 PM PST by Navy Patriot (America NEEDS Mob Rule, another European and Mid East World War and a universal Draft)
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To: Kaslin

I used to have a fun way of explaining its purpose. I carried some twenty dollar carbon tax credit bills that looked like regular 20s except they had Al Gore’s picture on them.

When I had a good crowd of Climate Voodoo co-Religionists around me I would offer to explain the whole climate crisis. Once my group was listening I would ask who had a twenty dollar bill.

Once I had an affirmative, I would introduce myself as Al Gore and tell them I was going to exchange their twenty for something of much more worth.

I would take their twenty and give them a well displayed 20 dollar carbon credit.

Once exchanged I would pat my hands together and put their twenty in my pocket.

They would look puzzled when I said nothing further. I would say, “Well don’t you understand.?”

“You have a 20 dollar carbon credit and you feel much better about yourself and your care for the planet. Al Gore has your twenty dollars and he feels much better about himself.”

Never failed to get begrudged laughter or smiles from a majority of the group.

I would then explain the wealth that Gore had amassed in the Carbon Credit business.


18 posted on 01/08/2019 12:49:44 PM PST by KC Burke (If all the world is a stage, I would like to request my lighting be adjusted.)
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To: Brian Griffin

All go into the atmosphere and mixed.


19 posted on 01/08/2019 12:50:04 PM PST by TexasGator (Z1z)
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To: TexasGator

with so many trillions at stake for the gloBULL warming(?) cowboys - what’s a little bribe here and there to get people onside?


20 posted on 01/08/2019 1:19:19 PM PST by MAGAthon
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