How do you kill an economy—use regulations. How do you create ongoing inflation? Use regulations. How do you harm the middle class, the poor and people of color? You use regulations. And, National Socialist Democrats like Congressman Salud Carbajal is a very good Democrat.
“In addition to spending hundreds of billions on so-called clean energy, which can’t stand on its own merit without government subsidies and mandates, Carbajal believes he has a brilliant solution that offers a carrot in addition to a stick to get America to the goal of carbon neutrality. His brilliant idea? His bill would put a fee on per ton carbon emission that will increase as time goes by to ramp up the pressure to transition to clean energy sources. He claims the bill will cut emissions in half by the end of the decade. Admitting that this would drive up prices for consumers thereby creating even more inflation, Carbajal proposes to use the fees to provide rebates back to the public in the form of a monthly dividend.
Raise taxes. Raise the cost of goods and services—helps the rich, the rest of us need to suck it up.
Congressman Carbajal Doubles Down on Regulatory Overkill
Andy Caldwell, Santa Maria Times, 10/5/23 https://santamariatimes.com/opinion/guest/congressman-carbajal-doubles-down-on-regulatory-overkill-andy-caldwell/article_37e233ae-bc93-5994-822d-75b7b05d9f7c.html#:~:text=Congressman%20Carbajal%20doubles%20down%20on%20regulatory%20overkill%20%7C%20Andy%20Caldwell,-Oct%205%2C%202023&text=Congressman%20Salud%20Carbajal%20has%20announced,market%2Dbased%20climate%20change%20solution.
Congressman Salud Carbajal has announced his plan to introduce “The Energy Innovation and Carbon Dividend Act of 2023″, referring to it as a simple market-based climate change solution.
As expected, he blamed all floods, hurricanes, droughts, and heat waves, along with wildfires, on carbon emissions. The fact that all these effects of nature have been with us since the beginning of time doesn’t dissuade the congressman. Especially considering we only began to use fossil fuels in the last century and a half. Nor does it bother Salud that Mother Nature herself is one of the largest emitters of greenhouse gases via the ocean, volcanoes, and trees (the “Smokey” Mountains are named for the haze that comes off the trees there), not to mention naturally occurring oil and gas seeps off our coast which are the second most prolific in the world.
In addition to spending hundreds of billions on so-called clean energy, which can’t stand on its own merit without government subsidies and mandates, Carbajal believes he has a brilliant solution that offers a carrot in addition to a stick to get America to the goal of carbon neutrality. His brilliant idea? His bill would put a fee on per ton carbon emission that will increase as time goes by to ramp up the pressure to transition to clean energy sources. He claims the bill will cut emissions in half by the end of the decade. Admitting that this would drive up prices for consumers thereby creating even more inflation, Carbajal proposes to use the fees to provide rebates back to the public in the form of a monthly dividend.
I could give you a dozen reasons why this is the dumbest idea I have ever heard. But I will limit myself to three.
First, Carbajal’s proposal is a malignant version of the theory that all boats can rise with the tide. In his version, the billions of dollars in fees to business will be returned to consumers so that in the end everything will be copesetic, except that it won’t be! That is, American businesses would be straddled with this tax but imports from the largest polluter on the planet, China, would not. Thereby, the truth comes out. You can’t levy fees on American producers who are competing in a global economy while allowing producers from other countries to enjoy yet another economic advantage in the marketplace. Moreover, how much more inflation can we bear?
The second reason this is a horrible idea has to do with the fact that California has already been levying enormous fees on businesses via the Greenhouse Gas Cap-and-Trade Program established in 2013 to achieve the goals of the Global Warming Solutions Act of 2006 (AB 32). These programs also claim to create incentives for our utilities and industries throughout the state to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions, improve the efficiency of their operations, and move toward cleaner forms of energy. Since 2013, the state has taxed business nearly $4 billion dollars, not to mention other costs. If Carbajal’s proposal became federal law, that means California industries would be paying twice! Meanwhile, what has been accomplished in CA for all this expense to producers and consumers?
That brings us to the third reason this is a bad idea. The measly 5% reduction in greenhouse gases has been completely nullified by raging forest fires in California. An analysis led by researchers with the University of California has found the 2020 wildfires in the state, the most disastrous wildfire year on record, put twice as much greenhouse gas emissions into the Earth’s atmosphere as the total reduction in such pollutants in California between 2003–2019.
Carbajal would clean the air by making it unaffordable to produce jobs and consumer goods in America! It reminds me of democrats’ plans to tax ourselves into prosperity.
