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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Wow, I didn’t realize that the French constitution was superior to the U.S. constitution! If the U.S. constitution had a provision for fair and equitable taxation, the personal income tax would be dead meat!
anna v (22:25:37) :
We live in bizarre times.
It seems that a straight CO2 tax would be OK for the law makers. A head tax , we exhale 1/2 ton CO2 a year.
Oh anna, talk of a head tax, which some will not want to pay? In France, land of the guillotine?
“Off with their carbon dioxide emitters!”
Congratulations to the France’s Constitutional Council!
I am pleased to see that the spirit of democracy and personal freedom is still alive in France.
With kind regards,
Oliver K. Manuel
Capn Jack, you wrote :
“Any frog scientist or scienitst group on this blog before.
None.”
Not like you, of course, since you know everything about french blogs on climate. Maybe you daily put comments in french in their threads ?
Again the moderator has fallen asleep [snip]
[someone else took care of responding to your concern before me. Your concerns are one hundred per cent valid and I apologize for any such mistakes. While it’s no excuse, try and realize that moderators plow through scores of posts at a time scanning quickly. Certain types of things may be missed if they are not a common problem. ~ ctm]
Few years ago the same politicians were explaining France had a distinct advantage through its nuclear plant generated electricity emitting very little GHGs. Then they figured that the Carbon Tax was a way to milk citizens. France is a fiscal hell: even Johnny Hallyday doesn’t live there anymore and di not return…
Sarkozy was elected as an agent of change, against the bureaucracy and was supposed to tranform France into a dynamic country. He is failing miserably.
This is the second time today.
The first time around I was more polite.
So I hope you can understand my frustration.
I’m not ready to celibrate yet.
The ruling was that the tax was not broad enough. While a broader tax will be more difficult to pass, it doesn’t mean that it won’t happen.
This is not a change in French attitude. It is simply a political defeat. We’ve won a battle, but the war continues on…
“HereticFringe (08:09:47) :
Wow, I didn’t realize that the French constitution was superior to the U.S. constitution! If the U.S. constitution had a provision for fair and equitable taxation, the personal income tax would be dead meat!”
Nah, the gov would just tax us all at the higher rates.
The carbon tax issue isn’t over yet in France, or Australia, or even the US. Expect some more wheeling and dealing to go on to get this passed. After all, why cut spending when you can tax the air?
It isn’t new taxes that are needed on anything. What’s really needed is to educate people about the nature of taxation – and get more people to understand that they need to get rid of it altogether. Until people realize that tax is an abridgement of rights, we’ll never make real progress.
It is the mechanism of tax – the power of government to confiscate wealth that enabled this farce to get as far as it did.
As far as dealing with the climate is concerned, whether it’s changing rapidly enough to matter (and I don’t think it is) is not the point. Dealing with climate per se is challenging enough, and the only proper way to deal with climate is via laissez-faire capitalism.
I’m not an anarchist. There is a proper role for government, but only on a voluntary uncoerced basis. No more tax period.
Seems the guillotine came from Yorkshire:
http://www.yorkshirehistory.com/gibbet/index.htm
stephen richards (06:25:42) :
I agree…the war/military has no bearing on the discussion and should be snipped 🙂 This American also happens to remember that it was France that provided aid to the colonies during the Revolutionary War.
I think all this French bashing is ridiculous.
Yes on a higher level, except that what people like me are responding to is much more about American politics and propaganda memes, where the alleged “Progressives” here are always trying to claim “The French” are just oso sophisticated and so on, and we here in America are therefore inferior and must become more like “The French”.
Most of the “Progressives” here don’t even know that France occupied Viet Nam for about 150 years and were finally ignominiously defeated by Ho Chi Minh, even though the U.S. was strongly backing France. That’s partly how we in America got into Vietnam thereafter. They don’t know about France’s use of Nuclear Energy. Lordy, they don’t know much of anything at all about France, including the Vichy and the French resistance.
So “we” then take to bashing “The French” as a political tactic, too, just to tear down American “Progressives” and to defend the America the “Progressives” here want to destroy. We take them on at the bigoted level of their own fantasy meme and “win” even at that level, that’s all.
It’s still amazing, but the “Progressives” here often only live at the superficial level of these fantasy memes, so it’s easy to defeat them – not that a lot of them notice it much because they just then immediately turn to other fantasy memes and infantile tactics more appropriate for deranged two year olds, but it’s good for one on one interactions with these physical “adults” and because we simply must play the political game too. Otherwise, who in their right mind would want to do it except as a kind of humorous jousting?
And “Progressivism” is still a big force for evil, so we keep “bashing” where appropriate on that low level. A lot of people read this blog. It’s never over.
Don’t worry, soon there will be another try, and if it fails, yet another. This is the EU/French way, ask/coerce until you get the “correct” answer, and then stop all further debate.
Carbon tax, is a tax on oil and also everything that is made with or transported with oil. Particularly food production. Oil to run the tractors- to plant and harvest, oil to make the fertilizer, oil to deliver the food. As we have just seen, as oil goes up, so does the price of food, and everything else follows.
This is what government desperately wants now: Inflation. Why? Because they want the value of the bank’s mortgage holdings to go back to 2008 levels so that they do not have to declare the banks insolvent.
It doesn’t matter if the science is right or not.
Citizens should be outraged. The people who worked hard and saved money will find their money evaporated by inflation. The bankers who overextended credit and committed fraud, in the US, England, France and every where else will get away with the biggest scam in history.
I say hurray for any delay of this tax. It buys time to educate the people.
LB (00:04:29) :
“There is always some idiot completely ignorant of military history who think the French lose a lot.”
Yes, there’s one in every crowd.
http://www.albinoblacksheep.com/text/france.html
If they want to get people to drive electric cars, then mandate electric cars. Or just mandate electric cars in big cities. Or give big tax rebates for electric cars in big cities.
If they want people to pay for their excesses, then have a luxury tax, not tax air and food, the necessities of life. Come on peasants. We have seen this before.
If they want to tax manufactures.. I would think long and hard about that. We have already exported most of our manufacturing, and pollution, to China. We have no economy left. Don’t you get it? We produce nothing anymore. There is nothing left but the Ponzi stock market and consumption.
The governments no longer care about science, justice or truth. They do not care about the environment. They do not care about the economy or the people. They care about their banker friends and their own pile of money.
Carbon tax is the final nail in the coffin for the West.
Hear that noise? That is the sharpening of my pitchfork.
Interesting. Invidious Discrimination (unequal treatment under a law that seemingly applies to all except in practice). The same Constitutional argument being made in the USA relative to Cap and Tax and Obamacare.
People in France, Write to your representatives. Send them quotes form this web site. You, and you, and you, can make a change. There was a delay. There is a little more time. Talk to your friends. Turn the tide.
Gregg E. (22:28:55) :
A $712,883 research grant to develop “machine-generated humor.” Project will design artificially intelligent “comedic performance agents”
That device has already been invented!! It’s the Al Gore’s portrait
How does that wish e-mail get so widely circulated? Send this to 10 of your friends and your wish will come true.
yonason (10:58:48) : War against “Global Warming”: Lost?
r (11:15:45) : What business is left then, only Kool Aid manufacturing?… or is it imported from China too?