If I Were Bitter...
I would take note of New Zealand's recent passage of a "carbon tax" on fossil fuel production and use. I would contrast this bold (if regressive) move with the recent behavior of the US Congress on the energy bill, which amounts to using billions of dollars in tax breaks for oil and gas producers to encourage more conventional fossil fuel production.
I would then get profoundly depressed, because Congress is so far away from taking positive steps on this issue that pretty much all we can do until 2008 is to sit around and read about how quickly the polar ice caps are melting. I would continue to get depressed, because Elizabeth Kolbert has just wrapped up a big three-parter in the New Yorker about exactly this topic.
But I'm not bitter. Even if Congress and the Administration sit on their hands until doomsday, there's plenty we can do. We can follow Daryl Hannah's brave lead and drive cars powered by vegetable oil. Jesus f***ing christ.
Wait- I guess maybe I am bitter...
posted by Matt G @ 8:27 AM
2 comments
2 Comments:
Matt, if it makes you feel any less bitter, the New Zealand government is planning to spend the revenue from the carbon tax on a package of business tax breaks. And this is a *Labour* government.
Of course, that's still better than passing business tax breaks without paying for them at all... so I doubt I've moderated your bitterness after all.
Here in NM, we have given a tax break to a uranium enrichment facility should they decide to locate here. Because Tennessee and Louisiana kicked them out.... We've f***ing sweetened the pot for a bunch of jerks that got kicked out of Tennessee? and Louisiana?
It boggles the mind.... I'm getting a car that runs on venom.
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