Carbon Tax vs. Gateway
During the current BC election campaign there has been much discussion about the carbon tax. Some environmentalists have even endorsed the Liberal party based on the tax. But how does it stack up to other climate-related policies? Based on numbers in the modeling done by the Carbon Tax Center, I estimated that the BC Carbon Tax would reduce greenhouse gas (ghg) emissions by 570,000 tonnes annually at the current rate and by 901,000 tonnes by 2012 when the rate is raised to $30/tonne. I used a model developed by the Sightline Institute to estimate emissions from the Gateway Program. I calculated annual increases of 388,000 - 621,000 tonnes. The Gateway program alone would wipe out one to two thirds of the gains made by the Carbon Tax. During 2001 - 2006 the emissions from Oil and Gas production increased by 1,040,000 per year. The Liberals have committed to supporting this industry so it can be expected that these increases will continue. These two policies (Gateway and Petroleu