Our Executive Director, Lois Corbett, sat down with CBC Fredericton Information Morning host Terry Seguin on March 12 to discuss how a carbon tax could be used as a fair and effective tool for reducing pollution in New Brunswick.
You can listen to the entire interview here. We’ve pulled out some highlights below:
- Corbett talks about the history of pollution taxes, which stretch back to the 1920s, when an economist figured out that no one was paying for the high costs associated with industrial and commercial pollution. A ‘pollution tax’ was suggested as a way to make up for this market failure.
- Many jurisdictions around the world have priced carbon pollution. With a carbon tax, a cap-and-trade system, levies, or a combination of all three. British Columbia, for example, introduced a carbon tax seven years ago that both reduced emissions and was revenue-neutral. Corbett noted a similar system could be established in New Brunswick, where the cost of the carbon tax is offset by reductions in other taxes or government fees.
- In Washington State, the government has set it up so revenue raised from the state’s cap-and-trade system – estimated to be about $12-billion a year – will be split three ways: one-third toward the education budget, one-third toward reducing the deficit, and one-third toward clean technologies and rebates to seniors and low-income earners. Corbett called this system a ‘sophisticated and smart approach’ that could be used here in New Brunswick.
The bottom line, when it comes to a carbon tax, it’s important to remember that there are ways to make it fair and effective.