This new French carbon tax was scheduled to go into law on Jan1, 2010. The tax was steep: 17 euros per ton of carbon dioxide (USD $24.40). In a stunning move, and surely a blow to warmists everywhere, the tax has been found unconstitutional and thrown out. Originally found here (Google Translation).
Lord Monckton was kind enough to assist me in deciphering the meaning of the ruling and writes:
In France, if at least 60 Deputies of the House and 60 Senators appeal to the Constitutional Council, it has the power to pronounce on the constitutionality of a proposed law – in the present case, the 2010 national budget of France, which contained enabling provisions (loi deferee) for a carbon levy. The Council found that these enabling provisions were unconstitutional on two grounds: that the exemptions contained within the provisions for a carbon levy vitiated the primary declared purpose of the levy, to combat carbon emissions and hence “global warming”; and that the exemptions would cause the levy to fall disproportionately on gasoline and heating oils and not on other carbon emissions, thereby breaching the principle that taxation should be evenly and fairly borne.
The Press release from the French Constitutional Council is here in English (Google Translated) and in original French
Here’s a Deustch-Welle news article on the reversal.
France’s Constitutional Council says the country’s proposed carbon tax is illegal. This is a severe blow to French President Nicolas Sarkozy’s plans to fight climate change.
France’s Constitutional Council has struck down a carbon tax that was planned to take effect on January 1st. The council, which ensures the constitutionality of French legislation, said too many polluters were exempted in the measure and the tax burden was not fairly distributed.
It was estimated that 93 percent of industrial emissions outside of fuel use, including the emissions of more than 1,000 of France’s top polluting industrial sites, would be exempt from the tax, which would have charged 17 euros per ton of emitted carbon dioxide.
French President Nicolas Sarkozy has argued the tax is necessary to combat climate change and reduce the country’s dependence on oil.
However, the council’s ruling is a severe blow to both Sarkozy’s environmental plan as well as France’s budget for 2010. The government now has to find a way to come up with about 4.1 billion euros in revenue that was expected from the tax.
h/t to WUWT reader Dirk H
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Small correction: Deustch-Welle –> Deutsche Welle
Let’s watch for the carbon credit price taking another dive after this announcement.
While we are on a roll. Next case, People of the U.S. Vs The EPA in the Supreme Court?
No hint of this news in the Australian MSM.
Here is some reuters info on the ruling.
http://uk.reuters.com/article/idUKLDE5BS1FB20091229
Methinks people here are opening their bottles of champagne too early…
The Problem:
“The Council found that these enabling provisions were unconstitutional on two grounds: that the exemptions contained within the provisions for a carbon levy vitiated the primary declared purpose of the levy, to combat carbon emissions and hence “global warming”; and that the exemptions would cause the levy to fall disproportionately on gasoline and heating oils and not on other carbon emissions, thereby breaching the principle that taxation should be evenly and fairly borne.”
The Reaction (by the brainwashing MSM & brainwashed public):
“The tax must be even and fair!”
The Solution:
“Tax ALL carbon emissions – tax ALL forms of human life – NO tax exemptions…”
And BTW – this technique of hegelian dialect is being used in a democracy constantly…
“David Ball (22:00:55) :
To the carbon tax: “Now go away, or I will taunt you a second time” 8^]
REPLY: [ Moderator will now take an unplanned giggle break 😉
-mod ]”
As long as they are girlie giggles (A la Thumb Wars).
I wonder when the Trojan Rabbit will be unleashed?
Sadly there is no written constitution in the UK.
The government opposition is too weak to try the French gambit.
Oil-thirsty China to raise Kuwaiti imports by 50 percent
http://uk.reuters.com/article/idUKTOE5BT06Q20091230
“France’s Constitutional Council has struck down a carbon tax that was planned to take effect on January 1st. The council, which ensures the constitutionality of French legislation, said too many polluters were exempted in the measure and the tax burden was not fairly distributed.”
Magic. Absolutely magic. What riles me no end about the proposals to tackle climate change and the vested interests here and there that grab themselves exemptions. If carbon is a threat then laws taxing carbon emissions *must* be applied evenly or they are nothing more than a redistribution of wealth by force that is either socialist or corporatist depending on the direction the money goes. It cannot be founded on science if polluters get exemptions.
Great in principle. But real victorys against the money changers are rare. What appears to be a victory will simply result in an esculation in aggression from them. They have all manner of insidious tricks to use against the people. For a start, from these posts it seems they are threatening the french national money supply.
French government 4.1bn euros short of cash? i.e the french ‘central bank’ may cut off credit to the government.
Everyone here ought to watch the ultimate primer on the history of money and ‘central banks’. A long fascinating documentary, so be ready.
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-2137117051620011430#
A few years down the line, when we are in the depths of a severe case of climate change (the sort you get on the downswing of a climate cycle), do you think they will be encouraging the generation of CO2 with a carbon debit scheme or do you expect by then they will have worked out that CO2 is not the culprit?
It’s Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas
volauvent (02:17:52) :
Unfortunately all of you are wrong.
The tax has been cancelled because there was too many people and companies exempted. So a new project could be even more dangerous for the french industry and for the consumers. And the government could hardly definitively cancel the tax because of the previous positions of Mr Sarkozy on the subject.
You may be right. But the momentum is shifting away from AGW alarmism. It gives extra time to re-evaluate the scientific basis of global warming hysteria.
People need to read the article and understand that it was rejected for not taxing ENOUGH.
It is important to have a Constitution. Its meant to protect the citizens against the elected politicians every day foolishness.
But who could predict it would be neccessary to protect humans against AGW ( Al Gore Warming ) ?
I think Anthony needs to post the sequence of Donald Duck in 1952, when he found the helmet that made him King Of America. And the only thing he wanted to own was the air.
A sigh for a cent, a cough for a dollar. ( Or something like that) Oh that Donal Duck. He was truly a visionaire.
They want to be sure EVERYONE is taxed evenly, THEN it WILL be constitutional??
Vote Quimby (22:31:34) :
> What’s with the little smiley face at the bottom of the page in the bottom left hand corner?
That goes to a .gif file at http://stats.wordpress.com that is referenced with some of the access information about the page. Basically it’s a trick to get usefule counter information to wordpress so they can track information about browsers, OS types, screen resolutions, and a couple other things that give web designers feedback about the sorts of systems they should design web pages for.
Some third party web hit counters use something like it to track page hits – the real ISP provides the page, the third party provides a tiny image and track references to it.
I had one on my ProveIt page that accessed the web server on my home system, and it came along when Anthony copied my page to WUWT. For some reason, I’m still getting hits on it, some 25 yesterday.
LB (00:04:29) :
There is always some idiot completely ignorant of military history who think the French lose a lot. Go read a damned history book before you criticise the Western nation with the greatest military history of them all. Frances military exploits over the past millennia pur Americas trifling little contributions to shame. At least France lost to major military powers, unlike a certain modern power which gets it arse handed to it by third world hell holes.
—————–
Really. And do you speak French or German? The fact that you’re speaking in English is prima facia evidence that the US beat the Germans. Both times.
It is Pierre-Gilles de Gennes professor’s indeed home country.
May the Physics be with you.
@Scott Fox
Not really, it’s because lots of people like farmers and taxi drivers did a lot of lobbying because they didn’t want to pay the tax.
I don’t want to foodfight here, but Galen’s statement is far from accurate.
Actually it was the Brits, Canadians, Irish, Poles, French, Russians, Dutch, etc., etc. and the US that beat the Germans. LB’s point has merit.
I’m American and I do find the post WWII military-venture track record of the US a bit sub-par. Mind you not because of the men and women in uniform, but because of the lousy Washington internal politics.
I think all this French bashing is ridiculous. Look, they at least got it right on this particular CO2 issue. Give em credit when due and leave the insults out.
volauvent (02:17:52) :
Unfortunately all of you are wrong.
The tax has been cancelled because there was too many people and companies exempted. So a new project could be even more dangerous for the french industry and for the consumers. And the government could hardly definitively cancel the tax because of the previous positions of Mr Sarkozy on the subject.
The bigger issue for the French Government is that the rich & big business groups (All exempt) never had any intention of paying this tax, it was just for the poor. There is no way the rich will allow themselves to be included in a ‘Tax for All’ even if the Government wants to.
For those who think that it will give some time to raise scientific arguments in order to kill definitively the tax, I mention that a new project could be ready to be voted in january, the 20th.
The french government has been completely trapped by this decision; the main argument of the council is that industry under the european emissions quotas market would not be exempted. So if the government wants a tax (and it will be very hard for Mr Sarkozy to abandon) they will have to tax the cement, steel , chemical industry; at 17 euros per ton, it would kill these activities within 5 years.
The battle will be very hard in the next months.
That dog did not bark.
Australia signed Kyoto because we were ahead of Kyoto Targets and the [snip] as major players were talking trade blocades, fines and so on.
[snip]