An editorial in the Ottawa Citizen today on the BC election and the issue of the carbon tax points out that:

"Instead of trying to create the best possible tax shift for B.C., the provincial NDP has chosen to follow the populist path blazed by the federal Conservatives, and portray the tax-shift as a cash-grab." (my emphasis)

The entire column is here: Watching the West Coast

A high profile group of academics, including Dr. John Robinson, UBC's top sustainability expert and a lead author on three reports by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), co-wrote a column in the Vancouver Sun today accusing the BC NDP of "intellectual dishonesty." The group goes on to compare the BC NDP and their leader Carole James to "'Climate “skeptics' — people who doubt, despite the mounds of evidence, that climate change is a problem worth addressing..."

Robinson and company write:

"Climate 'skeptics' — people who doubt, despite the mounds of evidence, that climate change is a problem worth addressing — are less prevalent today, but they been replaced by purveyors of a new myth: people who tell voters that we can solve the climate change problem without the need for any change in how we live our lives.

In B.C., Carole James and the NDP are these new mythmakers. The BC NDP promise to “axe the tax,” should they win the provincial election, while accomplishing all the same goals with no cost to BC taxpayers, is nothing short of intellectual dishonesty." (my emphasis)

Read the whole op-ed here: Debunking myths about the B.C. carbon tax

"We should tax what we burn, not what we earn. This is the single most important policy change we can make."

- Al Gore, Former US Vice President and 2008 Nobel Laureate

Given the debate over British Columbia's carbon tax, we're highlighting the opinions of some of the world's top leaders on climate change solutions and their thoughts on carbon tax policy. And who better to look to than the Nobel prize-winning former US Vice-President Al Gore.

Gore has long been an outspoken champion of the idea of a revenue-neutral carbon tax that shifts the tax burden away from things like income and small business tax and puts it on the consumption of fuels that emit heat-trapping greenhouse gases.

In a speech Gore gave last summer at the Constitution Hall in Washington, DC, he explained that:

As John Lauhmer at Treehugger explains Gore's carbon tax position:

"I know this sounds cynical. But politicians implementing a carbon tax face a great risk that unscrupulous political opponents will mislead the public by claiming we can reduce emissions without taxing gasoline, conveniently failing to mention that their cap-and-trade alternative should have the same upward effect on its price for the same emissions reductions."

That quote is from an opinion piece in the Vancouver Sun today on BC climate policy and the current BC election, by Simon Fraser University economist Dr. Marc Jaccard.

Jaccard writes:

"A recent B.C. NDP press release states that Canada's National Roundtable on the Environment and the Economy (on which I serve) "clearly supports" the NDP's climate policy proposal to scrap the carbon tax and that I am Premier Gordon Campbell's 'top adviser' on B.C.'s carbon tax. Neither of these statements is true."

While the BC NDP will no doubt try and paint Jaccard, an internationally respected academic on climate policy, as some how in bed with the BC Liberal government, the reality is that Jaccard has worked to advise the BC government for many years, including previous NDP ones.

As Jaccard rightly point out:

"Of course, the NDP did not call me Campbell's 'top adviser' from 2001 to 2006 when I repeatedly criticized his ineffective climate policies of that period. But now that I am applauding his recent climate policies and sharply criticizing the NDP's alternatives, their strategy is to claim I am no longer independent."

Given the debate over BC's carbon tax, we thought we would search about for some expert opinion on carbon emission policy. Few leading thinkers present the issue as an either/or carbon-taxes-or-cap-and-trade option. Most policy analysts favour using both instruments.

An exception is Dr. William Norhaus, the renowned Professor of Economics at Yale University, who recently called for "an internationally harmonized system of carbon taxes."

This, Nordhaus said, would be much more efficient than an international patchwork of emissions caps; small countries wouldn't have to worry about achieving certain emissions levels and the system would be much less prone to corruption or cheating.

Most importantly, Nordhaus said, Taxes, "while hated," are a long-standing and "proven" financial instrument.

The chair of the National Roundtable on the Economy and the Environment (NTREE) dismissed the B.C. NDP's claim today that the party's cap-and-trade scheme would punish polluters and save money for consumers.

Whether you manage climate change with a carbon tax or with cap and trade, "the price is going to be paid for by the consumer one way or another and I don't see that as the major difference between the two systems," Bob Page told CKNW talk show host Bill Good.