Elon Musk's Carbon Tax Promo Fails says Friends of Science Society

Elon Musk's video promoting the notion of a carbon tax as a means to mitigate climate change is a ''failure'' says Friends of Science Society, referring to Canada's disastrous experience with carbon tax and inflation. The province of Saskatchewan refused to collect the carbon tax in January, resulting in a 1% drop in inflation; carbon taxes do nothing to reduce emissions as fuel needs are inelastic.

CALGARY, Alberta, Feb. 22, 2024 /PRNewswire-PRWeb/ -- "Elon Musk's Unbelievably Simple Killer Break Down on Climate Change" - a video released on Feb. 03, 2024, which promotes a carbon tax, is a failure, says Friends of Science Society. As reported by the CATO Institute on Feb. 08, 2024, the video's voice over recycles a speech Elon Musk gave at the Panthéon?Sorbonne University in Paris, coincident to the Paris "COP21" Climate Conference in 2015.

Numerous academics and economists back the carbon tax as 'the solution' to climate change, but Friends of Science Society calls this "CarbonTax ? a-philia: Unnatural Love of Carbon Taxes for No Reason."

A large group of green philanthropies, led by ClimateWorks for the most part, have been actively working on establishing global cap and trade systems for decades, as reported in the 2018 paper by Matthew Nisbet in "Strategic Philanthropy in the Post-Cap-and-Trade Years." These billionaire philanthropies have funded environmental charities (ENGOs) as proxies for their cause; a similar phenomenon operates in Canada as reported Dec. 23, 2023 by Philanthropic Foundations Canada about the Trottier Family Foundation's role at COP28, specifically pushing for a cap on Alberta oil and gas production.

As reported in the Western Standard Feb. 06, 2024, the confluence of Big Philanthropy and Big ENGOs driving climate and energy policies constitutes vast influence without accountability.

The principle of a carbon tax relies on the claim that the alleged 'pollution' of greenhouse gas emissions, especially that of carbon dioxide, is the main driver of global warming. By charging a tax on emissions, the increased cost and burden to consumers or industry will force them to choose 'cleaner' alternatives ? or that's the Pigouvian theory.

In fact, fuel-related needs are inelastic and immune to 'sin' taxes, as explained in Robert Lyman's 2019 "The 85 Million Tonne Obsession." Ultimately, "The Carbon Tax: It's Just Not Fair."

As suggested in the Musk video clip, in order to mitigate the price burden on the little people, a 'rebate' is offered.

As reported by the Western Standard on Feb. 20, 2024, when the province of Saskatchewan refused to collect the federally imposed carbon tax on home heating, inflation fell 1%.

Energy economist Robert Lyman has pointed out, Canada, like most Western nations, has layers of GHG legislation, incentives, subsidies, and penalties which are so entangled, it is impossible to measure which, if any, reduce emissions. Canada's Environment Minister Stephen Guilbeault stated in the House of Commons on January 29, 2024 as recorded in Hansard that "the government does not measure the annual amount of emissions that are directly reduced by federal carbon pricing."

Lyman's presentation at Friends of Science Society's 20th Annual Event can be seen here, along with a presentation by Dr. Ian Clark who offers "A Reality Check on Climate Science and NetZero."

Ken Gregory's analysis, using the FUND model, shows there is actually a net benefit of the modest warming said to be caused by carbon dioxide emissions.

Friends of Science Society says Canada's experience with carbon tax and rebate shows the method fails to reduce emissions while simultaneously driving up inflation. Carbon taxes cause heat-or-eat poverty and have created a "Food Prices Crisis." Rebates end up being unevenly distributed, with many young adults living at home getting substantial 'climate money' cheques (aka Climate Action Incentive or Carbon Rebate), while their parents struggle to pay the bills.

Friends of Science Society has pointed out that climate targets cannot be met by Canada as long as vast immigration is allowed to continue, as every new person increases Canada's carbon footprint, especially since most immigrants come from warmer countries like India, China and the Philippines.

According to Friends of Science Society, the misuse of the implausible scenario, RCP 8.5, used by Office of the Superintendent of Financial Institutions (OSFI), Bank of Canada (BoC), and the Bank for International Settlements (BIS), mislabelled as a 'business-as-usual' projection, continues to drive public policy based on the fear of a climate emergency. As explained in a Friends of Science Open Letter on this Discrepancy to the OSFI and BoC, Dr. Judith Curry testified to the US Senate that RCP 8.5 was abandoned at COP26 in Glasgow in favour of the more realistic SSP2-RCP4.5. Dr. Roger Pielke, Jr. has pointed out that the UNFCCC has shown that present emissions are below the SSP2-RCP 4.5 level.

The CLINTEL network of over 1890 scientists and scholars affirm that the Climate Emergency is over. We DO have time. Thus, no carbon tax is required, says Friends of Science.

About
Friends of Science Society is an independent group of earth, atmospheric and solar scientists, engineers, and citizens that is celebrating its 21st year of offering climate science insights. After a thorough review of a broad spectrum of literature on climate change, Friends of Science Society has concluded that the sun is the main driver of climate change, not carbon dioxide (CO2).
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SOURCE Friends of Science Society