Heck I'm sure someone can make a rational series of arguments to almost any proposition, but that does not change the fact that a TAX reaches into my pocket and takes money from me.
Governments have been way way too comfortable about taking taking and taking.
I find it reprehensible that these economic instruments are being employed in an attempt to help the market to transit from Coal to "clean", particularly in the face of the Australian Govenment spending billions of dollars "propping up" the industries which we are now supposed to require economic incentive to transit from.
Worth reading are these two documents:
Subsidies that Encourage Fossil Fuel Use in Australia
As well as subsidies to fossil fuel production and consumption, other economic incentives are often built into the structure of the economy, and particularly the taxation system, which encourage greater consumption of fossil fuels. These incentives act as structural barriers to greenhouse gas abatement. Removal of these incentives also has the potential to deliver a double dividend of improved economic performance and greenhouse abatement.
Although public funds are used to provide subsidies, the public is often unaware of the existence and magnitude of the subsidies. One of the aims of this paper is to describe and quantify public subsidies to fossil fuel use and production in Australia to improve the transparency of government funding allocation.
and
Coal subsidies far outweigh funding for renewables
The study commissioned by Greenpeace found in an average year, the Government subsidises coal, oil and gas companies to the tune of about $9 billion.
But renewable industries like solar and wind received $330 million.
so perhaps they could just stop spending my tax money on the "polluters" and let the market work effectively at finding what people are actually willing to spend on their energy and where it comes from.
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