this post was submitted on 05 Nov 2023
345 points (94.3% liked)
Technology
59414 readers
3189 users here now
This is a most excellent place for technology news and articles.
Our Rules
- Follow the lemmy.world rules.
- Only tech related content.
- Be excellent to each another!
- Mod approved content bots can post up to 10 articles per day.
- Threads asking for personal tech support may be deleted.
- Politics threads may be removed.
- No memes allowed as posts, OK to post as comments.
- Only approved bots from the list below, to ask if your bot can be added please contact us.
- Check for duplicates before posting, duplicates may be removed
Approved Bots
founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
He should have added the caveat that global price instability is causing most of that pain. The carbon tax is only a small component.
But also, the middle class can afford heat pumps. So they will never be in such a situation.
And also also, turning the thermostat down one or two degrees saves a lot of money and is healthier and more natural.
Sure, some people get spooked, but that's mostly due to fear and uncertainty, not due to facts.
Anyway, the author does make two mistakes: ignorance about nuclear and unrealistic expectations about the future revenue of carbon pricing.
As the price goes up, revenue will go down, as less people emit carbon.
But we see this exact thing happening in Germany right this moment. The Greens got into power as the party with the second most votes, and they get made the boogieman by everyone for everything. Why? Because they moved a ban on new oil and gas heating systems forward, as well as subsidizing carbon-neutral heating systems. They didn't even introduce the ban, they just moved it forward by two years. They were getting sabotaged from the get-go and are facing constant attacks from all sides. The Greens most likely won't make it into power the next election cycle. The conservative bootlicker party CDU will get the most votes and the near-to-full Nazi party AfD will get 30% of all votes. And all that backlash, because the Greens dared to do anything about reducing green house gas emissions.
I'm Dutch, and German energy policy is truly brain dead.
The Canadian policy is much better and more effective.
What's the fundamental distinction if you don't mind?
For one, Canada isn't closing perfectly good nuclear plants prematurely. Germany could have saved a billion tons of CO2 emissions and billions of euros by just letting the last six plants run to their end of life.
Second, Canada didn't risk their whole industry on Russian pipeline gas, which everyone warned Germany against and now the worst case materialized with the Ukraine war.
Third, Germany is pumping in a huge amount of free carbon credits into the EU ETS. And Europeans don't get any benefit of the ETS fees.
The Canadian scheme directly kicks back part of the benefit to citizens, which makes it much more palatable
And fourth, the amount of subsidies that Germany is pouring into wind and solar energy just isn't sustainable. It's better to have carbon pricing and letting markets transition to low carbon energy, paid for by private capital.
Seriously, like how is German energy policy so Hündscheissy? The whole things seems so poorly thought and implemented? I just don't get it
Edit: who's the Einstein who decided to trust Germany's domestic energy policy and future on fucking Russia?
Fixed that for you
You know what saves even MORE money, is even HEALTHIER and even MORE natural? Instituting price ceilings to stop corporations from using global instability as an excuse for blatant price gouging rather than make it the responsibility of the powerless to compensate for the abuses of the powerful.
You couldn't be more wrong
Your link is not about Canada's carbon pricing revenue.
And the rest of your comment is just as inspiring.
My link is about the worldwide trend of corporate price gouging being the main cause of both inflation and record profits. That includes Canadian corporations.
I'm so hurt that my refutation of your nonsense failed to lift you up to the utmost of enlightened rapture. CRUSHED, I say! 🙄
Nuclear is not going to happen. Not without governments deciding to fund plants 100% up front. The economics just don’t make sense.
Not anymore.
You must be living in a different reality.
Even Japan is restarting their nuclear plants, while Fukushima is still in living memory.
Restarting is fast and cheap.
Building takes a decade and another one before you break even. How positive are you that you will be able to operate that plant until the end of its economic life?
Are you willing to bet a few billions on it?
But they have the preexisting infrastructure and support network for it.