Much like the New Hampshire Democrat desire to cram a 12% tax increase on small business owners in the Granite State (after demanding they close shop), a few movers and shakers behind a regional gas tax hike known as TCI don’t want to wait either.
Related: New TCI Talking Point Begins With “Once in a Generation Opportunity…”
Even though you probably have a lot less, thanks to them.
The Transportation Climate Initiative (TCI) assumes many things, incorrectly, as an excuse to increase tax revenue. The point is to raise gas taxes, significantly, under cover of achieving its stated goals and that this higher tax will reduce CO2 emissions. It is based, once again, on the flawed assumption that this is critical to keeping the planet from overheating. Or, that the politics of Climate Change have anything at all to do with the climate (they do not).
The planet is not overheating. Even if it were, CO2 is not a significant driver (its the sun), and neither is your driving. So, driving up the cost of living and the cost of everything with it under normal circumstances would be immoral. Doing it to those you’ve forced into unemployment or who lost their jobs thanks to the political will of many of the same people is just cruel. (Insert sinister cackle -cue lighting and thunder.)
But massive, inefficient governments never try to cut spending or reduce their burden on taxpayers. It’s your job to pony up more dough to fund their incompetence. If a climate scheme does the trick, so be it. And advocates are motivated. The current political force that forced you to work from home or not work at all has reduced transportation emissions. What better time to make the case than now?
Well, Climatologist and former NASA scientist Roy Spencer, who is not a climate cultist but still believes man-made CO2 matters, has some bad news. By his estimation, taking into account all other factors, the COVID-19 economic ‘Pause’ will have no impact. He estimates that the global concentration of atmospheric CO2 will continue to rise with nary a blip from this economic disaster of global proportion.
Atmospheric levels of carbon dioxide (CO2) continue to increase with no sign of the global economic slowdown in response to the spread of COVID-19. This is because the estimated reductions in CO2 emissions (around -11% globally during 2020) is too small a reduction to be noticed against a background of large natural variability. The reduction in economic activity would have to be 4 times larger than 11% to halt the rise in atmospheric CO2.
To quote Yukon Cornelius, “Wahooooo, nothing!” There’s more of it, which we wrote about a few weeks ago, here.
One more time, the planet proves the point. If none of this shutdown theater makes any difference (it does not), then we’re not the most important thing that’s making the CO2 rise. Maybe not even a significant thing. In which case, TCI is just a scam to milk rubes for cash to feed connected fat cats and their political laundry machines.
Which it is.
| Boston Globe (subscription)
