That would be fine, as long as you don’t have a 12 cylinder Bentley sitting the the garage that you drive the 3 blocks to work and put on another 500 miles shopping on weekends. Seriously, it can’t be as simple as your proximity to work. The reality is that you are getting a tax credit if you don’t drive. Those of us driving are paying gas, property and motor vehicle fees that all go towards general funds in Federal, State and local governments. If you don’t drive you don’t pay those taxes. Now put appropriate taxes on gas etc that only go towards transit problems (including mass transit), and that will mean that if you drive you are penalized for it. How would we prove you were walking to work and not taking a limo on your tax credit? And just think how complex that would make auditiing tax returns. People cheat on how much they give to charitys (until this year they didn’t require a receipt), just imagine what they would do to get a tax credit? Sometime in the future hopefully city planners will do things to make it more attractive to live there. There will be a pool of electric cars for you to sign up to take out for errands so you don’t need to have so much garage space, etc. I agree something needs to be done – but a tax credit is definitely not the answer in my mind. 

Technorati Tags: green tax incentives

This is an excellent sentiment, but there is a problem with it. The problem is that publicly held companies (but not privately held ones) are legally required to act in such a way as to maximize the financial returns to their stockholders. Unless environmental protection can positively impact the bottom line for these companies, they are less likely to make the decision to make environmentally friendly decisions. I agree that if Governments gave tax incentives to these corporations, it would be more likely that such actions would positively impact their bottom line. It may not be the most economically efficient allocation of federal monies, but it could get the job done.

Technorati Tags: Business energy tax credit, environmental policy, Green tax, tax policy

The last call was as recent as LAST WEEK”

“China’s Central Bank Renews Call for New World Reserve Currency”
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601080&sid=atQgG1C5Ielw

Google for more. you will find numerous reports (weekly) about it.

then two days later …

The original title of this article was “Treasuries Advance After China Says Reserve Policy Is ‘Stable’” and it has since been changed to “U.S. Treasuries Advance Amid Quarter-End Portfolio Rebalancing “. Hmm. The content changed somewhat as well but still covers it in brief
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601103&sid=al9.Xmi7SwH4

“…Yields fell after Chinese central bank Governor Zhou Xiaochuan said his country is sticking with its foreign-currency reserve policy for now…”

WHY THE SUDDEN REVERSAL? Is it possibly because China will be a major benefactor of cap & trade?

How many of our tax dollars will go to create new jobs and new industries in China?

Here is one reader’s answer to this question:

Consider, for example, what cap & trade does in creating demand for RARE EARTH METALS which are essential for alternative energy technology. As it stands now, we will depend on China to meet the demand to be created by C&T.

“Crunch looms for green technology as China tightens grip on rare-earth metals (May 2009)”
http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/industry_sectors/natural_resources/article6374603.ece

“China’s grip tightens on ‘green’ metals”
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/China_Business/KF30Cb01.html

“… The rare-earth metal neodymium, used in electric car motors and wind turbines, is at the epicenter of the race between wealthy and emerging nations to create green technologies, while poorer countries appear to be relegated to spectator status. … Neodymium is a lanthanoid, at position 60 on the periodic table of elements for the number of atoms in a single molecule. Its production and wide range of uses reflect the competition over raw materials in the area of green technologies. … Unless production of green technologies is supported outside of China by new mining in North America, Africa and Australia, the only place to manufacture them will be China, predicts Lifton, adding that if China decides not to export those rare metals, there won’t be any other place to obtain them. … ”

For those who jump in here and claim the new industries will be created in America, I ask you: what is the incentive for corporations to develop new industries in America when they can pay slave labor wages in Asia and avoid environmental regulation? Let’s be realistic.

And considering the potential for profit to China, does its unwillingness to cap its own emissions disturb you a little and/or even give you a little pause to question the motivation behind cap & trade?
.

Hmmm. Maybe this explains it, in part. Hot off the press:

“IMF Board Authorizes Debut Bond Issuance to Fund Aid (Update1)”
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=ankFTAhAUk68

Read the article – China is purchasing $50 billion. It seems there is no need to call for end to the dollar as reserve. The IMF activating SDRs as currency marks the final nail in the coffin for the dollar. Its only a matter of time.

yes. it has explained why.

Technorati Tags: Cap and trade, Carbon emissions China, China and monetary fund, trade with China

Here are some reader opinions:

With the new breakthroughs in renewable energy and the current “Energy Crisis” you would think that the world super powers would be pushing us more in to renewable energy instead of simply hiking the price of the current resource because of “Green Issues”.

I personally think that they already have a “Plan B” for the oil running dry but they wont do anything about it until they milk every last penny out of the current dirty resources which are easily taxed and regulated.

The US government, for example, recently decided to put all solar projects on hold for around two years while they “Had a think about it” but there was such an outcry they were forced to do a u-turn. Why would anyone spend two years having a ponder over an alternative as sustainable as the sun when the oil supplies are as critically low as the elites claim they are ?

Do you think that the people who rule the world and line their pockets with our hard earned cash will allow their cash cows (oil, gas, coal) to be replaced with something that they can’t levy a simple tax on until they have no option ?
__________

@ “Mark in Time”

The elite are rich because they keep the people poor and that’s an indisputable fact.

The divide between the two can never be closed as the more the poor people become rich the poorer rich people become.

Your quote is an interesting one but I think I read it differently to you.

Money is neither good nor evil, it is food for our greed and that food is given to us by those who will never go hungry, they give us just enough to stop our bellies from rumbling.
_____

@ “yankee_sailor”

” the US government put a hold on solar projects? ”

Yes, they did :

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/main.jhtml?xml=/earth/2008/06/27/easolar127.xml

And they had to change their mind :

http://www.inhabitat.com/2008/07/04/us-puts-the-freeze-on-solar-energy-projects/

Before you say there’s no conspiracy perhaps you should bring yourself up to speed on things that actually make it in to the media.

Big Oil (like the Big Three) are sitting on a vast warehouse of alternative fuels and alternative engines, but what they’ve been lacking is the impetus to dust these things off and put them to use. But that impetus has finally arrived in three distinct forms; three extremely (for them) terrifying forms: high oil prices per barrel; Peak Oil from the Arabian oil fields; Green consciousness.

High oil price per barrel is not something that is going to go away any time soon. The causes are myriad, but one of the factors is the sense of crisis in the Middle East. The Iraqi-American war is tertiary to that; what is really causing panic in the Arabian oil fields is the knowledge that the fields have reached Peak Performance.

Peak Oil refers to the theory that all oil fields will move in a course which roughly describes a hill–it goes up, reaches the plateau (or peak) and then descends. This concept was originally postulated by a Geologist named M. King Hubbert. He said that Peak oil is the point in time when the maximum rate of global petroleum extraction is reached, after which the rate of production enters terminal decline. He predicted that the USA would reach peak production and begin decline in 1970. He was right. Peak Oil production in the Arabian oil fields has apparently been reached, and now begins their decline as well.

But it is Green consciousness which really worries the oil and car people. Once upon a time, the concerns about the environment were tossed aside as the bleatings of “Ecology Nuts”, but in the light of Global Warming and rising greenhouse gases (and skyrocketing oil prices) the idea of a car that gets 50-60 miles a gallon are very tempting. Already, old SUV’s are being called ‘dinosaurs’, and new ones are gathering dust in showrooms all over the world.

You ask, “Do you think that the people who rule the world and line their pockets with our hard earned cash will allow their cash cows (oil, gas, coal) to be replaced with something that they can’t levy a simple tax on until they have no option ?”

Actually that’s the least of their worries. Sheer survival is taking precedence over simple greed.

For the Saudis, for example, they must now put away their toys and deal with the fact that for seventy years they have built their entire culture based on oil, a finite resource. They have bought jets, built palaces, taken long and expensive vacations, but they have virtually no infrastructure! They cannot feed their own people with their land, which is still desert. Virtually all necessities are imported. They have made investments, yes, but nothing which will prop up their country once the oil is depleted! This is one of the factors which is driving oil prices up: they have to make up for lost time and build these things now.

For the Big Three, time is also a precious commodity. As little as three years ago, there was a board meeting at GM in which one member put forth the idea of bringing back the Volt, GM’s electric car. His suggestion was shouted down, and the decision was made to concentrate on SUV’s instead. Now, GM is working overtime to bring back the Volt, and literally spending one billion dollars a month (!) to incorporate hybrid technology into their current manufacturing centers in order to stay alive. If GM (and other US manufacturers) wish to survive, they need to adapt.

Sixty-five million years ago, a comet slammed into the Yucatan peninsula and brought about a worldwide climate change. Within a few short years the entire world was changed, and the lumbering dinosaurs which had ruled for so long died out. In a like fashion, the current climate change and the disappearance of the dinosaur remains (fossil fuels) are necessitating another change in the evolution of transport and the way humans behave. Those who adapt will go on; those who refuse to change will perish. Such is the way of the world.

Perhaps evolution is the biggest conspiracy of all.

Technorati Tags: energy policy, fossil fuel, oil companies and renewable energy, renewable energy

Here’s the opinion of one reader:

As far as I know, there isn’t one right now, but I suspect now that we’ve signed Kyoto, there’s a chance it could be introduced as an incentive to help us reach our targets.

Technorati Tags: Green tax, Kyota agreement

One respondent says: Go to the IRS website
http://irs.gov
at the search icon type in your question

We say:  Check out the Recovery.gov site. Click on “Where is the Money Going?” and then narrow down to specific areas on the map.  The data is broken out by whether the award was a grant, loan or contract and lists the name of the agency or company, the amount awarded, the number of jobs created, a description of the job and how much of the job is completed shows up in the details.

Technorati Tags: green grants, green loans, green stimulus, green tax incentives

Cap-and-trade gives pollution reductions a value in the marketplace, the system prompts technological and process innovations that reduce pollution down to or beyond required levels. This point is not theoretical; experience has shown these results. An active cap-and-trade market enables those who can reduce pollution cheaply to earn a return on their pollution reduction investment by selling extra allowances. It enables those who can’t reduce pollution as cheaply to purchase allowances at a lower cost than the cost of reducing their own emissions. It enables all participants to meet the total emissions cap cost-effectively. And it gives all emitters incentives to innovate to find the least-cost solutions for total pollution control.

Technorati Tags: Cap and trade

They are one in the same from the Residential Energy Property Credit (Section 1121). Assuming you’d qualify, you can receive a tax credit equal to 30% of the cost, up to $1,500 max. In other words, you’d have to spend at least $5,000 to receive the max credit.

Technorati Tags: energy tax credit, green stimulus

The $100 Climate Action Dividend (green rebate) cheques will start arriving in the mail for every BC man, woman and child in the province. Residents who have filed an income tax return for 2006 or 2007 or Canada Child Tax Credit Benefit will be automatically registered for the dividend.

Technorati Tags: Climate Action Dividend, green rebate in Canada

Here’s a response from a reader:

http://uk.news.yahoo.com/pressass/20080710/tuk-government-stands-firm-on-road-tax-6323e80.html

The government’s thinking is about 16 years too late / behind public opinion.

There are many other options available such as issuing compulsory coloured stickers for vehicles which indicate their class thereby helping to advertise / spread awareness of the need to reduce emissions to help save our beautiful planet / shame those who refuse to switch to green/er vehicles.

Taxing does work but only to some extent – the well off don’t care how much road tax is, probably don’t know what the cost is now, they have several vehicles and are probably aiming at owning more cos they can’t think (bit like Jeremy Clarkson whose job depends on promoting more of the same old…)

Yes, the government also see the need to go Green as a convenient way to make money = shame – they are missing the most obvious way/s to go green

Technorati Tags: green tax in the UK