Suzuki Foundation weighs in on carbon taxing

One legitimate apolitical perspective on carbon taxing:


From the David Suzuki Foundation:
Carbon tax makes sense for Canada -- U.S. has had one for years
June 15, 2006

OTTAWA – Canada should consider a broad array of tools to reduce climate change and pollution, including “polluter pay” initiatives such as a carbon tax, says the David Suzuki Foundation.

“A carbon tax is just a fair way of ensuring that polluters pay for their waste, so those costs aren’t passed on to the rest of society through damage to our health, environment and economy,” says Pierre Sadik, senior policy advisor for the David Suzuki Foundation. “Right now, polluters just dump those costs onto the average taxpayer.”

The idea of a carbon tax stirred up controversy in the House of Commons this week, but Mr. Sadik points out that the United States has already had a carbon tax for years, called the “Superfund.” Money collected through this modest tax on oil revenues is used to clean up toxic waste sites across the U.S.. Germany and the United Kingdom also have forms of a carbon tax.
“These initiatives all have different names, but essentially they are carbon taxes,” says Mr. Sadik. “The fact is – they work. They reduce pollution by ensuring the market reflects the true costs of these emissions on society.”

Polluter-pay initiatives like a carbon tax can be structured so that they don’t single out resource-rich regions of the country. Instead, they can be introduced wherever heat-trapping pollutants are emitted across the country.

“The revenue earned could help reduce the burden of pollution on our public health care system,” says Mr. Sadik. “And it could be used to finance new pollution-reduction technologies.”
Mr. Sadik notes that oil companies in the United States and Europe have still posted record profits, in spite of those jurisdictions having some form of carbon tax.

“There’s no reason why our federal government shouldn’t look at this kind of polluter-pay tool for Canada,” he says.

For more information, contact:
Pierre Sadik
Senior Policy Advisor
David Suzuki Foundation
Ottawa 613-594-5845 Cell: 613-799-8626

If I might save my Conservative commenters the trouble, their argument is as follows:
The Conservative Party of Canada's Communications Department knows something about this that the Suzuki Foundation does not.

I suppose I should extend that preemption to certain Liberal leadership partisans as well.