Posted on 09/05/2007 11:43:51 AM PDT by northmoor
How to Gain A Climate Consensus
By George P. Shultz Wednesday, September 5, 2007; A21
We in the United States -- and we as global citizens -- live in what is, in many respects, a golden moment. Economic growth is globally strong, and, if security threats can be contained, this expansion, with some ups and downs, can be sustained.
Strong growth means increased use of energy at a pace that can strain the capacity to supply what is needed at a reasonable price. This highlights two urgent questions: how to use energy without producing excess greenhouse gases that create disruptive conditions on a global scale; and how to reduce the threat to national security from excess dependence on oil.
The greenhouse gas problem is more broadly recognized today than it was during the Kyoto Protocol negotiations. Moreover, the protocol is running its course, so a new treaty is needed. That treaty should have a different structure -- one that ultimately achieves universality.
The use of economic incentives (caps and trading rights, and carbon taxes) is essential to avoid disastrously high costs of control. The cap-and-trade system has been highly successful in reducing sulfur dioxide emissions by electricity utilities in the United States. That system relies on a scientifically valid and accepted emission-measurement system used by a clearly identified and homogeneous set of utilities.
In many respects, a straight-out carbon tax is simpler and likelier to produce the desired result. If the tax were offset by cuts elsewhere to make it revenue-neutral, acceptability would be enhanced.
The writer, a distinguished fellow at the Hoover Institution, was secretary of state from 1982 to 1989.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
The very idea of a carbon tax is ludicrous, but there is no such thing as an offsetting tax cut.
Taxes never die. It is not allowed.
The only thing allowed is more taxes.
and we as global citizens
I think this diningushed mutt is part of Kellog/Brown/Root in California.
I consider him part of what’s wrong with America.
RINO politics at its worst - corrupt and braindead.
Those who advocate taxes, especially dedicated taxes need to be watched warily. Although a tax might be said to be for a specific purpose, in reality it all ends up in the same pot.
I have yet to figure out how taxing "carbon use" will make it go away. And, by his stellar logic, if this new tax were offset by a corresponding tax reduction (yeah, and monkeys will fly out of my butt), then would we not have the funds to just pay the taxes anyway and keep on consuming? These people are truly dilluted.
One more way for the progressive libs to screw the taxpayer for more money extracted at the point of a gun. This whole notion is just another way to force the little people in compliance so the Al Gore’s and Hollywood sickos can maintain their ridiculously extragant waste of energy-rich resources.
The man is 86 years old. It’s possible that he did not even write this.
Wanna guess which organization would collect those taxes.
Read what the un has in store for the world when it comes to taxing. And shultz agrees.
Only the poor can drive.
Liberals come in all stripes, but tax and spend comes in only one, you gonna pay.
Moron.
Repeal the 16th Amendment and replace it with a tax on oil and I’m with him.
Do you think the companies or stockholders will pay those taxes or would they pass them on down to the consumer?
The consumer. But it’s better to tax pollution than it is to tax income. As Ronald Reagan said, “If you tax something, you get less of it.”
Lawrence Solomon's "The Deniers" (a series of articles on the view of scientists who have been labelled "Global Warming Deniers"):
Other References:
Antarctic Temperature Trend 1982-2004:
This map (left) shows key areas of Antarctica, including the vast East Antarctic ice sheet. The image on the right shows which areas of the continent's ice are thickening (coloured yellow and red) and thinning (coloured blue). © (Left)British Antarctic Survey, (Right)Science
It would be nice if they scrapped taxes altogether. We could keep what we earn. *sigh* In a perfect world I guess.
"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." - Manuel II Palelologus
It’ll happen.
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