"An initial tax of $10 per ton of carbon content will be assessed on coal, petroleum and natural gas when these fossil fuels are initially removed from the ground or imported into the United States. The tax will increase by $10 each year, freezing when a mandated report by the Internal Revenue Service and the Department of Energy determines that carbon dioxide emissions have decreased by 80 percent from 1990 levels."
An 80% reduction is mighty ambitious. At first blush Rep. Stark's proposal sounds like a bad joke, until you realize he is pretty senior on the Ways and Means Committee, this is serious and our neighbor to the north can give us some indication where we might end up. The $10/yr. tax step up might seem dramatic until you compare it to the current Canadian proposal:
"Introduction of a carbon tax, at a nominal rate of approximately $195 for each tonne of GHGs emitted, that would apply to all GHG-producing activities by the industrial, commercial and household sectors.11 The tax would be payable by businesses and individuals at the point of sale for consumption of fossil fuel energy, as well as on emissions generated by industrial sectors from activities not directly related to fuel consumption (e.g. petroleum refining)." That's from Environment Canada's analysis of Bill C-288.
Of course they use Loonies so in formerly real money it's only $174/tonne. Do the tonne/ton thing= $191. Yikes.
