The Liberal regime of British Columbia has already committed itself too deep to their carbon tax plan to ever come out again, even if they were to find their head mauled inside that dark cave. The opposition NDP, on the other hand, got so little traction with its response, which itself was nothing more than a suggestion to try twisting the head to the left as though that would save things, that they are left with the opportunity to try again. They could propose a truly innovative and effective program that really would reduce citizen’s gasoline consumption, and hence British Columbia’s contribution to greenhouse gas emissions. There are roughly 3.2 million citizens 16 and over in BC—that is, 3.2 million people of driving age. Those 3.2 million citizens on average presently consume a total of about 4 billion gallons of gasoline per year. The stated aim of the carbon tax is to socially engineer through cumbersome and unreliable means a reduction in that overall consumption figure ultimately by 20% or so over the next 10 years. For various reasons as outlined in previous issues of The Republic, the carbon tax will not achieve this purpose. However, what will produce the desired result is a cap and trade system. The government can very simply issue smart cards to the 3.2 million British Columbians of driving age. Each card would be stocked with “permits” to purchase 1,250 gallons of gasoline—the current average annual rate of consumption. Prior to purchasing gas at a gas station, the driver would simply swipe their smart card whose “permits” would be deducted the number of gallons the driver purchases. If the driver finds toward the end of their year they are running out of permits (which about half will find), they may simply purchase more from anyone on an online market where other people—the other half—have extra permits to sell. Perhaps one can do this right in the gas station at some online terminal. This involves no new tax regime, and there is no social engineering required, and nor is it necessary to construct any rules about how much anyone can purchase or what they use them for. If you want to drive a Hummer up and down the mountain every day, go right ahead. The following year, the total number of permits sent out to restock everyone’s smart card drops by just 2%, to 1,225 permits each. Now slightly more than half of BC’s drivers will need to purchase extra permits from slightly less than half of BC residents who have permits to spare. The price of those permits will naturally go up according to free market machinations. The purchaser is free to make a decision about whether and how many permits to buy, and may choose to alter their driving habits to try to reduce the number of permits they need. At the same time, as prices for extra permits climb, other people will begin strategizing on ways to use less permits themselves in order to enjoy selling the permits they don’t use for that higher price. The following year, the number of new permits issued to all smart cards drops again by 2%, to 1,200 each. Again, those who want or need to purchase more must negotiate for them on a market where there are bound to be more people who have figured out how to use less themselves so they can enjoy the benefits of selling their excess permits. After ten years, the volume of gasoline sold in British Columbia will have without fail dropped 20%. We will have achieved the goal we are aiming for without any rules or taxes or anyone being told what they can and cannot do and without the government having to cajole anyone—we will all, in such a system, use our own strategies and choices to take advantage of the free market price of permits or to avoid the rising prices of permits in whatever way we find works for us. Furthermore, no extra money goes to the government, not even in some promised revenue neutral scheme involving the government sending out cheques. The cost of permits is determined entirely by citizens buying and selling them amongst themselves at whatever prices their free collective behavior determines. Even gas station owners who find volumes of purchases decreasing could lower their prices all they want to bring business back, and still, the overall consumption of gasoline in BC will drop all the same by 20% in ten years. Visitors to the province could even be included—they would simply be required to buy on the spot from the online market on the terminal in the gas station permits they need for the purchase of gasoline. We wouldn’t have to stop the program after 10 years. Once we got used to a 2% annual drop in our average consumption, we could continue with it, until, after 20 years, our total provincial consumption will drop from 4 billion gallons to 2.4 billion gallons. And so on. Drivers in rural areas and those needing to drive vehicles for their work may complain it will make their gasoline too expensive. Fine, the government may reduce gas taxes or offer rebates to whatever extent necessary to alley those fears. It doesn’t matter what scheme appeases everybody, since the overall consumption will drop no matter what, which is all that we really want such a scheme to do. The same kind of cap and trade system could easily be extended to natural gas and all industrial uses of materials that emit greenhouse gases. There is no reason, really, why every citizen and company could not engage in the same greenhouse gas emissions permit market across the board and let every citizen and company decide for themselves how many permits they need and how many they want to sell. It isn’t necessarily the case that the price for permits will go up prohibitively high since the higher it goes, the more citizens and companies will find their own ways of cutting their emissions to take advantage of the higher selling prices on the market, bringing the prices down again. With this method, BC could cut its entire greenhouse gas emissions from all sources by half in 34 years and to levels one third what the province now emits in just 50 years, all in a slow, easily managed but reliable and effective manner, reducing total emissions by just 2% a year, and with no rules, no laws, no taxes, no penalties, and virtually no administration. There you have it: a winning program for the election. You don’t even have to admit you got the idea from some weird rag you found under a counter in a dingy Commercial Drive café.
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