Carbon [deleted tax, replaced with] Price - amended

[j959]

not meaning to get overly political but i just remember back in '88 when I was 10yrs old (yep, over 20yrs ago - i'm old) and we did a project on both the 'greenhouse effect' and the ozone layer.

the world sorted out the ozone layer by everyone banning the use of chloro-fluro-carbon (CFC) gases and i remember reading a news report 2-3yrs ago saying that it seems the ozone layer has been saved and the 'holes at both poles' in the ozone layer are pretty much repaired now.

unfortunately, it seems the world has collectively dropped the ball re the 'greenhouse gas' thing and carbon pollution.

I don't know the mechanics of the carbon tax and I can't say that I support the current tax itself not knowing the precise details of how it works, but what I would say is that economically it seems a no-brainer that you should include the cost of pollution to society and the world or you're going to get in trouble down the track ... and for that reason I support the broad principle of having a mechanism for including a price for carbon (man I sound like Malcolm Turnbull with that last statement ...)  ;)

so you youngsters (and those not so young), we may see whether in 20+yrs time whether this may have been a turning point in history for the environment, we can only hope.

disclaimer: i don't consider myself a greenie and am not a member of any political party, though I would consider myself centre-left leaning (i joke about being a 'capitalist socialist') if anything but suffice to say I don't trust either of our 2 major political parties as far as i could throw them.  ;)

[Justin Bieber]

I know the carbon tax briefly as I may have to mention it in my exam tommorrow (For economics).

To try and deter big polluting companies from emitting greenhouse gases, the Government are planning on taxing the 500 biggest ones $23 per tonne of CO2 emitted (I believe). This in turn while make these price rises to likely be passed onto consumers who will have to pay more. Electricty made from coal creates alot of greenhouse gases so this means electricity prices will go up for those who use coal-powered electricity. Government will be giving a slight tax concession or some financial help to all consumers as these prices rise.

Combined with the strategy to provide subsidies to Research & Development in the area of Renewable energy, long term should see the price of electricity of Renewable energy come down relative to the price of coal-powered (polluting) electricity. This would encourage consumers to opt for the more environment friendly source of electricity if it the cost difference isn't as much as before compared to coal-powered (which is much cheaper right now).

[pyronerd]

The only benefit it could have is that it may encourage people to look at renewable energy more, other then that the money will just go round in circles :-X A thing that a lot of people have overlooked though, is that it will hurt exports. The big companies paying this tax will up their prices to compensate, which won't have much of an effect here as people will be compensated for by the government, but when the big exporters have to raise their prices, which will kill their international competitiveness, which in turn will hurt our economy

[nas]

Wait n see what happens now to my elect bill as have a 3kw system & my bills have been pratically non exsitent for the last 2 Years.

[j959]

i just think it is a no-brainer to factor the cost of pollution into the production value of whatever goods and services are produced - not to include pollution as a cost effectively gives a free hit to trash the environment ...  :o

[Wes Mantooth]

bjorn lomborg is normally known as a bit of a out there greenie and isn't liked by too many. but his article in the australian (blurgh) was actually reasonable. he did not say the carbon price would be useless but he seemed to think it would be better straight out investing in renewables - you won't be able to follow it up because they charge to read certain articles. but i agree with the carbon pricing.

[bomberboy0618]

I did the carbon tax for an essay and i agree with lomborg. We need to make green energy as cheap as possible asap.

[j959]

my brother-in-law told me that it is actually just a transitional arrangement for a couple of years after which the government is introducing a carbon emissions trading scheme.

so all this political rot about it being a tax and will kill jobs etc, seems like a fair whack of scare-mongering.
i'm not saying it won't have an affect on prices, because that is actually the whole idea (to factor in the cost of the pollution into pricing) but to make it out as the 'end of the world' is highly irresponsible imo ... govt's problem is that they are useless communicators.

i don't know the details of the system but most of my friends and colleagues don't seem to know the basics of it at all, which is a concern for the environment generally ...   :'(