The Global Carbon Tax Revolt

[Peter1469]

The Global Carbon Tax Revolt

The French are the latest to refuse to sacrifice growth for green piety.

France’s violent Yellow Vest protests are now about many domestic concerns, but it’s no accident that the trigger was a fuel-tax hike. Nothing reveals the disconnect between ordinary voters and an aloof political class more than carbon taxation.

Other countries are experiencing push back on these carbon tax schemes which his small business, the middle class and the poor the hardest.

As for France, it has a very low carbon footprint for the EU (because most of their electrical power comes from nuke plants).

[Tahuyaman]

The Global Carbon Tax Revolt



Other countries are experiencing push back on these carbon tax schemes which his small business, the middle class and the poor the hardest.

As for France, it has a very low carbon footprint for the EU (because most of their electrical power comes from nuke plants).

Most people realize that the global warming scheme is just a politically motivated hoax.

[Peter1469]

Most people realize that the global warming scheme is just a politically motivated hoax.

I think that regardless of what they believe, if you tax them and make gas extremely expensive they are going to tell the state to $#@! off.

Governments will fall over this. The votes aren't going to shift to the Green Party.

[Tahuyaman]

I think that regardless of what they believe, if you tax them and make gas extremely expensive they are going to tell the state to $#@! off.

Governments will fall over this. The votes aren't going to shift to the Green Party.

People tend to call BS on Governmemt when they tell us everyone's going to die unless we raises taxes.

[MisterVeritis]

People tend to call BS on Governmemt when they tell us everyone's going to die unless we raises taxes.

That is why in this country we lie and say we are only raising taxes on the rich.

[Peter1469]

Another article by SFGate.

The single most effective weapon in the fight against climate change is the tax code - imposing costs on those who emit greenhouse gases, economists say. But as French President Emmanuel Macron learned over the past three weeks, implementing such taxes can be politically explosive.

On Tuesday, France delayed for six months a plan to raise already steep taxes on diesel fuel by 24 cents a gallon and gasoline by about 12 cents a gallon. Macron argued that the taxes were needed to curb climate change by weaning motorists off petroleum products, but violent demonstrations in the streets of Paris and other French cities forced him to backtrack - at least for now.






"No tax is worth putting in danger the unity of the nation," said Prime Minister Édouard Philippe, who was trotted out to announce the concession.



It was a setback for the French president, who has been trying to carry the torch of climate action in the wake of the Paris accords of December 2015. "When we talk about the actions of the nation in response to the challenges of climate change, we have to say that we have done little," he said last week.


Macron is hardly alone in his frustration. Leaders in the United States, Canada, Australia and elsewhere have found their carbon pricing efforts running into fierce opposition. But the French reversal was particularly disheartening for climate-policy experts, because it came just as delegates from around the world were gathering in Katowice, Poland, for a major conference designed to advance climate measures.

"Like everywhere else, the question in France is how to find a way of combining ecology and equality," said Bruno Cautrès, a researcher at the Paris Institute of Political Studies. "Citizens mostly see punitive public policies when it comes to the environment: taxes, more taxes and more taxes after that. No one has the solution, and we can only see the disaster that's just occurred in France on this question."

[Peter1469]

Memo To Congress: French Riots Show Why U.S. Carbon Tax Should Be A Non-Starter

Well, it depends on how Congress does it. If gas taxes only go up slightly and the real carbon tax hits the energy producers, Americans may not take much note. I would expect more action at ballot boxes than in the streets here.

French Riots: They call themselves the "Gilets Jaunes," or yellow vests, in French. They're mostly young, male and extremely angry, and they've been marching in the streets and rioting in Paris and elsewhere, protesting yet another bunch of taxes on gasoline in the government's never-ending battle against global warming. Who says no one cares about climate change?

If you think of the French as people who will suffer any indignity in the name of more government, think again. Many young French, watching their standards of living decline under a socialist president's high taxes, are fed up. This latest round of taxes on already outrageous fuel prices was the proverbial straw breaking a dromedary's back.


"A protest against rising taxes and the high cost of living turned into a riot in the French capital, as activists wearing yellow jackets torched cars, smashed windows, looted stores and tagged the Arc de Triomphe with multi-colored graffiti," the AP reported of Saturday's riots.


Some 263 people were injured, including dozens of police, and the government made hundreds of arrests, after an estimated 36,000 people took to the streets on Saturday. Even unions are upset, seeing possible damage to the economy from the demonstrations.


With a growing awareness it was losing the battle for public opinion, the French government on Tuesday folded, announcing it would "temporarily" suspend its carbon-tax plan, set to go into effect in January.


"No tax is worth putting in danger the unity of the nations," said French Prime Minister Edouard Philippe, announcing the suspension.

[MisterVeritis]

Memo To Congress: French Riots Show Why U.S. Carbon Tax Should Be A Non-Starter

Well, it depends on how Congress does it. If gas taxes only go up slightly and the real carbon tax hits the energy producers, Americans may not take much note. I would expect more action at ballot boxes than in the streets here.

Taxes on producers are paid by consumers.

[Peter1469]

Taxes on producers are paid by consumers.

They are. And they are called hidden taxes. That is why the Euro nations love their VAT. And Dems propose it for the US.

[MisterVeritis]

They are. And they are called hidden taxes. That is why the Euro nations love their VAT. And Dems propose it for the US.

People will see their prices rise.