Wednesday, June 04, 2008

More on the Economics of Carbon Taxes & Cap and Trade

The article that I linked to yesterday seems to have stirred quite a stinky storm. It seems that there are - *gasp*shock* - quite a few people with conflicting opinions. A divisive topic on the Internet?! Say it ain't so! Some of the posts responding were a bit disingenuous at best though.

My favorite was when the poster stated that the carbon tax or cap and trade would only work if the technology to replace or upgrade the carbon emitting industries were developed. Umm. Y'know. That's the point. It's to shift investment into either mitigation - *grumble* - or nuevo tech development for replacement of the offending $TECH.

If they don't materialize, yeah, we have problems, but based on what I've been following, it will not be an issue. We were and are on the cusp of many exciting bits of tech development that are going to shift our society in good ways. It's just a question of making that shift and the carbon tax/cap & trade plans are the economic way of making it happen faster than the pure market can.

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