A month from now the most audacious reactionary liberalism idea for 2020 will be unveiled. It’s called the Transportation and Climate Initiative (TCI). The driving force behind it is, of course, the perceived pressing need to combat the Menace of Climate Change.
Carbon tax credits are nothing more than modern-day indulgences issued for money by government regulators. There is no “incentive” when a polluter buys a tract of forest to “offset” its toxins. It is merely an illusion, a payoff for the right to sin against the planet.
This translates into roughly a 30-cent-per-gallon tax on home heating and vehicle fuels rising to $1.70 per gallon by 2034 and then on, ad infinitum. If Vermonters didn’t like the first carbon tax proposal, they will like this one even less.
Under the multi-state, northeast regional Transportation and Climate Initiative (TCI), drivers will help pay for “this stuff” — electric cars, charging units, buses, trains, bike paths, etc. — every time they buy fuel at Vermont gas pumps.
When the Vermont Legislature next meets, there’s a good chance a new gas tax will be passed to penalize consumers for their carbon emissions. But is such a measure constitutional?
When the Legislature convenes in January, Vermonters can expect a full-court press to impose added costs and restrictions on many fossil fuel products and benefits. Here’s the latest on five climate change initiatives.
We all know a carbon tax would especially hurt lower-income Vermonters who can’t afford expensive electric vehicles, as well as rural Vermonters who have to make long commutes for work or are unable to rely on public transportation.
This past Friday, Burlington’s Democratic Mayor Miro Weinberger, flanked by VPIRG, announced support for a massive, statewide carbon tax on Vermonters, which would ultimately lead to a roughly $1.70 per gallon tax on home heating and vehicle fuels.
The TCI is a “stealth” carbon tax because it would raise the cost of gasoline for all Vermonters and would give climate activists in the Vermont Legislature the carbon emissions revenue they seek — all without actually having to vote on the record for a carbon tax.
Around our nation, Americans are concluding that individuals have crept into their governing commons, like sheep thieves, to appropriate “common” resources for individual or interest-group enrichment. And nowhere is this more evident than the so-called carbon tax.
Carbon taxes are a cure worse than the alleged disease: They have a minimal impact on emissions and will do next to nothing to affect climate change. In the end, they hurt the very citizens they are intended to help.