From The Daily Caller
Michael Bastach 2:26 PM 12/05/2018 | Energy
- France might be ahead of the curve when it comes to climate policy backlash.
- President Emmanuel Macron caved to demands from “yellow vests” over planned carbon taxes.
- More backlash like this could be seen as countries try to phase out gas-powered cars.
The French love a good riot, but the political backlash to the French government’s plans to increase carbon taxes on fuel could be a harbinger of what’s to come in countries committed to the global warming crusade.
Calls from the United Nations and environmentalists for the world to “do more” to stem projected global warming might run up against economic realities. But France could be a taste of what’s to come if more governments try to tax carbon dioxide emissions.
“In some senses the French are ahead of the rest of the world on this,” said John Constable, energy editor at the Global Warming Policy Forum, a U.K.-based think tank. (RELATED: The UN Is Trying To Prime The World For More Carbon Tax Revolts)
Constable told The Daily Caller News Foundation because of France’s heavy reliance on emissions-free nuclear power, the government has to look beyond power plants to achieve its global warming goals. Macron raised fuel taxes already in 2018 to cut down on oil demand, but it’s hard for working-class people to sacrifice their livelihoods for speculative climate benefits in the future.
“France is now heading into the zone where the marginal cost of emissions reduction begins to increase sharply,” Constable said. “They’ve done the easy bit, electricity, and are now beginning to coerce the more difficult sectors such as transport, which of course is already heavily taxed.”
Carbon taxes on diesel and gasoline were set to take effect in January. French President Emmanuel Macron agreed to delay implementing the taxes for six months in the face of protests, but that might not be enough to satisfy demonstrators.
“The extra burden imposed by Mr. Macron has caused something to snap, not demand but the temper of the people,” Constable said.
“Broadly speaking, I would judge that French popular anger is the shape of things to come globally, as climate policies begin to move into more difficult sectors,” Constable said.
France is only the latest country to reject new carbon taxes. Ontario Premier Doug Ford and his conservative coalition were swept into power by Canadian voters in June on a platform that opposed carbon taxes.
Washington voters rejected a ballot measure in November to tax carbon dioxide emissions from industrial sources in their state. It’s the second time Washington voters rejected a carbon tax ballot initiative.
Australian lawmakers voted to repeal their country’s carbon tax in 2014. Former Prime Minister Tony Abbott led his conservative party to victory in the previous year’s elections on the promise to repeal the carbon tax.
However, France’s violent reaction to new carbon taxes is part of the country’s “romantic” view of political uprisings, according to an expert on French politics and history.
“In France the governments understand only violence, and since 1789, people have a romantic approach to ‘Revolution,’” George Chabert, a professor at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology, told TheDCNF. “Apparently, it is working this time as well.”
Carbon taxes were the breaking point for the thousands of gilet jaunes, or “yellow vests,” who took to the streets in late November. But the protests, considered the worst to hit Paris in 50 years, were also fueled by years of pent-up resentment against Macron’s policies.
“Since Macron came to power, he has cut taxes for the rich, ‘simplified’ the Work Laws, cut on pensions, and added billions of euros of new taxes to the working class and middle class,” Chabert said.
“The new ‘ecological’ taxes, most of which was to be used in anything but ecology, are just one more,” Chabert said. “Many new taxes are programmed to come in effect until 2020.”
Many protesters also called on Macron to resign. Yellow vests say Macron is out of touch and centralizing power at the expense of working class citizens.
“Emmanuel Macron is a little boy who has always been told he’s the best, he’s always been idolised. He’s never been told ‘you shouldn’t do that’. The guy thinks he’s God!” Claudio, a 47-year-old Frenchman, told AFP.
“He deserves to have his head chopped off, symbolically,” said Claudio, who refused to give his full name to reporters.
Other protesters compared Macron to Napoleon and the pre-revolutionary Ancien Regime.
“He’s the king. It’s as if we’re in the Middle Ages!” echoed Philippe, a 74-year-old yellow vest leader.
Macron agreed to delay raising fuel taxes in January, but many protesters and political opponents don’t see the issue as settled. One self-proclaimed leader of the yellow vests said “we will not settle for crumbs.”
However, Macron is unlikely to abandon his green agenda. An ardent supporter of the Paris climate accord, Macron pledged to decarbonize French energy use by 2050 and was initially unyielding to protesters’ demands.
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Viva la France et le gilet jaunes!
+100
Oui Oui!
What has been the attitudes of the French people when it came to making the promises of reducing CO2 emissions? What was the general flavor of comments directed towards Trump for pulling the US out of the Paris accords? Is this not what the people of France asked for! Did they think it was free?
The next move will be for the UN to coordinate revisions to the accords whereby countries back off their expensive commitments in exchange for doing something a lot less expensive. That is, instead of spending $100 billion on windmills and raising taxes, they can simply pay $5 billion per year into a reparations fund.
That will be checkmate. Countries have backed themselves into a corner and the only way out will be to do the only thing that the UN actually cares about — wealth transfers.
There is a better than 50-50 chance this is not over in France. Macron caving on the carbon tax may not be an end but a beginning. New demands are being made now and the threat of violent protests coming this weekend is serious enough the government is discussing how to react if Paris burns again.
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-46466268
“According to French media, Mr Philippe will decide on Saturday whether to deploy armoured vehicles to clear roads in Paris if barricades are erected. Such a deployment has not taken place since 1968.”
Putin would probably gladly supply RPGs to the protestors.
Just wait, the French government will discover that Russia is behind it all. Well they will if they take a page out of the lefts playbook here in the states.
Trump and Putin are surely to blame for anything bad which happens in France.
Idiotic technocrats, not so much.
John Tillman
Thousands of ambulances blocked the streets of Paris last week, a largely unpublished demonstration.
Mr. Philippe’s going to have one hell of a problem if they deem it appropriate to do the same on Saturday. His armoured vehicles wouldn’t be able to move and he’s liable to need those paramedics.
Additionally, one police union, Vigi, called for a strike of its administrative staff working in the interior ministry on Saturday, the riot police would be immobilised.
I suspect as they won the major battle of fuel price increases any more protests will be much smaller and quieter.
The president and prime minister however are willing to rely on the armed forces and national security apparatus if necessary. The regime will bill any such move as restoring order and protecting monuments, businesses and lives.
Why do you think the police and army will fight against their own people?
Macron and co want the EU army because foreigners will be far more likely to work to keep Macron in control, rather than side with the people of France.
I don’t know about the police.
The army will obey. Elements of it rebelled when de Gaulle ended the Algerian War, but it historically obeys the President of the Republic.
Napoleon rose to power by firing on Parisian protestors.
The army of the revolutionary First Republic slaughtered hundreds of thousands of French citizens in the rebellions of the 1790s.
Police were apparently out in force today, across the country, and with their own armored vehicles, so no call yet for the armed forces.
Of course French gendarmes are heavily armed compared to other countries’ police.
Just checked the bebe and it appears the festivities carried on well into the night, with Macroon still in hiding. Most likely behind the skirts of his vieille mere. (I hate that my keyboard won’t let me properly spell things in other languages!)
The Green Elite must fall!
Contre nous de la tyrannie
L’étendard sanglant est levé…
Aux armes, citoyens,
Formez vos bataillons,
Marchons, marchons!
Blood thirsty song but a great marching anthem.
Attempts to desanguify it have so far failed.
The blood in the furrows need not be specifically monarchist, Prussian, Austrian, Russian, British or even literal human blood.
Of course the Revolution ended up bathed in French blood. But it became an anthem against tyranny in general:
Well, I’ve been doing my best to get it started here in Oregon.
Not much success, so far.
In Oregon and Washington, at least voters can reject carbon taxes via the Oregon system of direct democracy, ie referendum, initiative and recall.
And Washington voters did just that this past election.
Washington voters rejected Measure I-1631 (a carbon tax). Voters rejected this proposal by 56%. It would have become the first carbon tax in the nation.
The problem is the left just keeps trying until they succeed, as a similar carbon tax was defeated in Washington previously.
That’s what I had in mind.
OR politicians have tried to get a sales tax numerous times, but it’s always voted down.
Now we have to worry they’ll simply put in in place through legislation – which is much more likely. It’s not as if any of those doing so have to worry about being voted out of office.
That’s why my great-granddad and his colleagues in the OR Senate voted for the Oregon system, which includes ballot initiatives. The political class might resist with every possible legal means keeping a measure repealing carbon taxes off the ballot, but unless the OR Supreme Court knowingly violates the law, opponents will eventually run out of shenanigans.
Props to your great-grandfather. I’ll keep my fingers crossed.
He also supported good roads, votes for women and the direct election of US senators, ie the Populist or Progressive agenda.
Direct elecction of senators isn’t looking like such a good idea right now. Constitutional amendment approved same ominous year, 1913, as income tax and the Fed.
What’s the price tag to clean up the toxic site at Solo Power?
A lot more than the money thrown away on it by Portland and Oregon already.
Idiocracy.
In france, we pay thousands of Euros on the price of each new car diesel or petrol. Upto €10000.
Macron claimed he was like General de Gualle when in fact he is the complete opposite. We want him and his cronies out.
The suspension of taxes, probably to July, is not good enough. One of his party was asked by a gilet jaune how much the minimum wage was SMIC. She didn’t know and just started screeching at them. They walked out of the studio.
“liberty, equality, fraternity”
Off with their turbines and battery terminals!!
French diesel price by the end of Nov. had gone up 23% in the year 2018. What irritated many in the country & it’s territories was that at that same point in time a barrel of oil had gone up 14%.
The ongoing protests threatening have roots in other issues than indefensable fuel price trend, which the “yellow vest” delegated commentators raised the last week in Nov. The core demands, as I understand them, are : lower the retirement age, rescind employer tax credits, raise the minimum wage, institute a maximum monthly income limit (€14-15,000) & enforce a rent control. A bit later jumping in with other demands are those insisting on sustainable transportation, no work out-sourcing, solve homelessness, make social security universal, government ministers paid only mininal salary, close nothing (nurseries, post offices, train stations, etc.), & even anti-GMO/glyphosate.
When the price of crude tanked (so to speak), fall in French gasoline price barely budged:
https://www.statista.com/statistics/598028/unleaded-gasoline-prices-france/
Please delete “fall in”. Distracted in mid sentence.
All those social goodies can only be achieved if power is abundant and cheap, which requires a fusion-power breakthrough, which requires—or would greatly benefit from—increased public funding.
Or a pledge from the Obama podium to sling more funds
They should set up a central fund subscribed to by anyone interested in emissions reductions, to fund such.
Hate to nit-pick but the vests seem to be somewhere between yellow and green, which after a bit of research, might more correctly be called chartreuse.
(Don’t even ask me to research what color mauve is).
I know what color recessions are.
But France could be a taste of what’s to come if more governments try to tax carbon dioxide emissions. – Article
Could we just start by taxing all the politicians for emitting CO2 every time they give a speech, on TV or otherwise?
That might cut CO2 emissions drastically in the blink of an eye. The proposal stars, of course, witht anyone who gives a speech at these climate conferences has to pay for the privilege according to the volume of CO2 s/he’ll produce during the speech, as well as the CO2 volume produced by anyone at all who listens to the speech. I think this could produce a sizable cash volume that could be applied to useful things, such as updating housing insulation and improving access to clean water. Just thinking out loud – er, electronically.
I wonder what happened to those American scientists who fled the US because Trump had made it so dangerous and sought refuge in France.
Good question…..at the beach with the other elitists no doubt
Burn the required vests in large bonfires when this is all done.
Send in the Green Terminator to crush the resistance. He’s in Poland right now.
Unfortunately, he’ll be back….
“France is now heading into the zone where the marginal cost of emissions reduction begins to increase sharply,”
Sacre bleu! Marcel assume was just changer ze luminaire bulbs and ze shower heads et dim ze luminaires for ze hour un time per year.
ABC now confirming that the carbon taxes on fuel are not just postponed, but cancelled:
https://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/latest-leading-protest-activist-macron-speak-59624047
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-france-protests-security/france-to-deploy-89000-security-personnel-ahead-of-saturday-protests-idUSKBN1O52BS
At what point did the Gandarms turn against the French monarchy or at least stand down as in the LA riots?
Maybe President Macron could impose a carbon tax on Molotov Cocktails to curtail their use???
He imposed taxes on anything auto, did’nt stop them burning though.
The ‘protesters’ as expressed in the Paris streets were not so much protesters as anarchistic rioters, vandals and criminals. I see no reason to honor them regardless of their asserted claims and gains or economic suffering.
People’s expensive, hard-worked for and won private property was randomly destroyed by bands of vile criminal thugs, and public property was destroyed wherever possible as well.
In 1989 a Polish shipbuilding yard went on strike for over18 months and managed to collapse the political will and authority of the Polish government, and collapse Eastern European support and imposed order of Soviet Union, which then bought down the Berlin Wall and dissolution of the Soviet’s ‘Evil Empire’, and all the communist governments. It wasn’t the only factor but it was a major trigger.
They simply withdrew their labor from a corrupt rotting system.
What these French ‘protesters’ did were vile criminal tactics and a total disgrace to civilization, and I do not want to be associated with their brand of politics or thuggery, no matter what their dismal excuses or policy gains since.
They are in the wrong, just as much as Macron is a deluded fruitcake, and France, and Europe as a whole, is very much the loser from here.
According to my observations all large demonstrations or political movements are subject to hijacking (or attempted hijacking) by extreme fringe elements – even climate change skepticism.
The middle ground is the hardest to hold.
Regards
M
WX,
Most of the violence has been by Communists piggybacking on the peaceful protests by Yellow Vest movement demonstrators, mainly middle and working class nationalists and patriots.
The police and firefighters’ unions have joined the latter in solidarity, recognizing that it is not they who have committed vandalism and uncontrolled rioting.
The regime has tried unsuccessfully to tar all protestors with the brush of destruction wreaked by the few. Among the violent, bad actors might well be agents provocateurs in the pay of Macronistas.
John
I’m french and the situation is not what some of you describe, the violent protesters seem to belong to minority groups of “ultra left” and “ultra right” who disguised themselves in “Gilets Jaunes” to commit destructions.
As I said in other comment, the real “Gilets Jaunes” are in the largest majority peaceful, but the media do not show them because it is not marketable …
Claude
Claude,
Your comment is in line with mine.
The original yellow vest protestors were peaceful demonstrators, except for blocking some streets and roads, not vandals.
Since you cannot build a wind turbine without a heavy investment in steel and concrete, then these necessarily have a large CO2 footprint (even if it may occur elsewhere). So why not tax the windmills instead?
In fact almost everything created by our industrialized nations is built upon fossil fuel use, so he could tax anything he wants, which he should like, as that was probably the main point of the whole exercise.
Hello,
I am French and I am aware of living a period uncontrollable and critical for the moment but important for the next events.
Macron, our president, was elected by default and deluded for a few months.
I said that I did not vote for him and that I deposited a blank ballot in the ballot box.
70 to 80% of the population currently reject it by supporting the “Gilets Jaunes”, but only for questions of insufficient minimum income and for his arrogant and contemptuous speeches that he addresses to the poor French.
The exponential growth of taxes to reduce the CO2 footprint “the gas of life” ridiculous with regard to France (1%) triggered this revolt. (net minimum wage in france = 1173 € = 1333 $)
Nevertheless, the spirits of the French remain predominantly impregnated by the belief in anthropogenic global warming supported by politics and the media.
The realistic climato: https://www.climato-realistes.fr/, of which I am a part, are very few to dispute the assertions of the IPCC.
We organize conferences, create websites, distribute books, etc. … with the help of French, European, Canadian and American scientists to inform our compatriots about certain realities that go against the theories of the IPCC.
I am very sensitive to your comments that I find quite informed and relevant in their majority.
We often visit the website of Anthony Watts whom we thank for his work.
Sincerely,Claude
Excuse me for the Google translation …
Claude,
Thank you for posting your comments. We are glad to have brothers-in-arms in this battle against ignorance, fear, and manipulation.
rip
A French commentator well-versed in English and in American politics:
https://nypost.com/2018/12/07/in-france-les-deplorables-strike-back/
I wonder if the regime will reveal the backgrounds of the “demonstrators” arrested for violence. Earlier this year there were protests and arrests associated with clearing out migrant camps in and around Paris. Migrants and their supporters might have availed themselves of the opportunities presented by massive protests by French citizens to wreak revenge.
As Claude has noted, the worst outrages appear to have been perpetrated by politcally strange street-fellows of the Far Right and Left.
Thank you Rip,
I forgot to mention in my commentary, given the current political uncertainties of France, that I wished, of course, that everything be resolved calmly. It is not won with regard to the day of tomorrow.
As always, the media only retransmits sensational and deceptive images, while the “Gilets Jaunes” are, for the most part peaceful, it is important to specify …
Claude
You have Trump on your side – see his Tweet to his “friend” Macron to return those taxes to the people.
Les Gilets Jaunes look like recovering their government of the people, by the people, for the people, not of the banks, for the banks, by the banks, all 4 of them.
As a great candidate said, Paris talks of the end of the world, the provinces of the end of the month.
bonbon
Exact, the end of the month against the end of the world …
His majesty Macron has been thinking for more than a week to know what he will be able to announce tomorrow. This exercise will be very complicated because it is now unbelievable.
Canada now has its Gilets Jaunes. Of course we have a French connection. However, I think this thing will go global. Its too good a symbol to not go around the world.
https://torontosun.com/opinion/editorials/editorial-yellow-vests-in-canada-you-better-believe-it