From: spike66 (spike66@attbi.com)
Date: Sun Dec 01 2002 - 20:36:13 MST
Ramez Naam wrote:
> From: spike66 [mailto:spike66@attbi.com]
>
>>When the Kyoto Protocol was being debated I wondered
>>about the fact that the US government does not have
>>the authority to dictate how much CO2 is produced by
>>its citizens.
>
> The US government has many indirect ways of manipulating US CO2
> production. For example, the more you tax CO2 emissions, the more
> pressure there is to reduce those emissions.
...And the more that administration risks getting thrown
out on its ear in the next election. Fuel taxes are unpopular
with the voting masses because they hit disproportionately
the poorer people. I think thats why they have been avoided
in the past: no one can figure out how to soak the rich.
Regarding Greg's post, the actual mechanism for taxing
CO2 production still is not clear to me, other than fuel
taxes, which again would bankrupt the poor before the
rich even noticed anything was up.
Suppose the US had agreed and whole world signed up to
this absurd proposal. How would it be enforced? If we
didn't meet the goal, who would be sued? Is it Anders?
Im sure the northern Europeans burn more fuel than I do
to keep their houses warm. At the same time, Im sure that
a bit of global warming is sounding pretty good to those
same folks about now. So we already know it will fail.
The question is, who pays. Who receives the funds from
whoever pays?
spike
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