A recent post on Linkedin by Jim Pugh
“Everyone here surely agrees that our future must consider both Green power generation but more importantly conservation. We need a voice to sponsor a Bill that will create a “Consumption Tax” similar to the Luxury Goods Tax. This tax would be triggered when a home or business consumes greater than a maximum allowed power on a daily basis. The tax penalty would encourage consumers to opt for more energy efficient equipment and appliances, turn things off instead of stand-by, invest in clean cogeneration technology and be more concious of their consumption habits in general. Taxes collected would be allocated to education, grants for new green technology implementation and tax credits for persons investing in efficiency upgrades to their homes or businesses.”
Some excerpts from comments on this post:
There is a growing number of ideas in this area from various sources worldwide , but fail to get any further than the drawing board due to the control of the fiscal economy by a few global oligarchs.
Spoken from someone who comes from a land of the extreme opposite I understand your words but I speak as an American who truly understands American motivations and disregard for the importance of things like conservation, consumption and the environment unless it impacts their pockets. Resources that are available for fuel all come at a certain cost and the dirtiest of these just happens to also be the cheapest meaning that unless something is done to counter this, we will continue to opt for the dirtiest because it remains the cheapest.
It all boils down to money. Money for big companies and money out of OUR pockets. All energy sources are subsidized. Why not take some subsidies away from the traditional fossil fuel energy sources and direct them to the renewables? This would inherently make traditional energy sources more expensive to consumers so they would consider energy efficiency in greater detail if its costing them more for their lifestyle. Wouldn’t this accomplish the same task? Instead of taxing individuals for their consumption habits, make it more expensive. In either case emphasis would be brought into renewables and move in that direction.
