Guest essay by Eric Worrall
Green fantasies from Time’s Justin Worland.
How Europe’s Border Carbon Tax Plan Could Force the U.S. To Act on Climate Change
BY JUSTIN WORLAND MARCH 4, 2020
…
On Wednesday, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen presented the European Climate Law, which would bind the bloc to eliminate its climate footprint by 2050 and officially launched the policymaking process to enact a new tax on products from countries that aren’t working to reduce their emissions. Such a rule could leave U.S. companies at a serious—and costly—disadvantage as they compete for business in the EU.
…
The EU’s plan is a significant escalation, but it’s not a complete surprise. The intellectual foundations behind policy, which the EU has dubbed a border carbon tax, have been discussed in policy circles for years. As the EU has doubled down on policies to reduce emissions, and the U.S. and others have lagged, pressure mounted on the bloc to take more sweeping action. “It’s pointless to reduce carbon emissions inside Europe, to then import them from outside,” Bruno Le Maire, the French finance minister, told reporters at the World Economic Forum meeting in Davos in January.
…
Several groups in Washington are pushing for the U.S. to get ahead of the Europeans’ plan by implementing its own carbon tax, along with an adjustment at borders. Such a move would make U.S. businesses more competitive on the global stage as countries increasingly demand more energy-efficient products, advocates say. Supporters of such an approach include a conservative group, the Climate Leadership Council (CLC), which is backed by some of America’s biggest companies, green groups, economists and Republican elder statesmen. “This really creates an incentive for other countries to say, ‘yeah, I want to get inside that club,’” says former Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen, who supports the CLC.
…
Read more: https://time.com/5793918/european-union-border-carbon-tax/
The problem with Justin’s theory is the EU has no backbone when it comes to trade disputes. When President Obama rejected the EU’s last attempt to impose carbon taxes on US businesses, The EU’s response was to express their disappointment.
Brexit has left the EU desperately short of cash, but I doubt President Trump will let the EU fill their budget shortfall by slamming US businesses with a new carbon tax.
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Any tax /tariff that Europe puts on us Trump will put on them. Do they really think they can get away with one way tariffs anymore? Must REALLY not be paying attention.
You saw what he did with China he will actually double it if he is true to form. With a different president EU might get away with this and get some leverage but if Trump has to burn EU relations to the ground to make the point you know he will because he isn’t a politician and doesn’t play the game.
Until the EU reduces carbon dioxide emissions as much as the U.S. has over the last decade we won’t be taking lessons from them or trying to emulate their counter-productive climate policies.
Semi related.
My pick for the next nation to Brexit? Poland
Anyone else want to play?
Erm.. that situation would be referred to as a Polexit. (Brexit is a contraction of British exit). But I wouldn’t be surprised if there were a Grexit (Greece), Itexit (Italy) and after that, hopefully the entire corrupt institution falls apart.
Polskape?
I’d say its even money between Poland, Hungary and France – France is very unhappy with Macron’s openly globalist arrogance, if the next election flips their government they might actually beat Poland to the exit door.
Eventually, if the EU has no members, it’s CO2 emissions will be zero- target reached! Simples!
When the EU cut’s Co2 as much as the US has we can talk, you self important do nothing, hypocrites. Until then enjoy the reciprocal Trump Trade Taxes and him forcing the EU to pay up with it’s NATO obligations.
We all know who your going to call when Putin has you bent over a barrel.
I would say that I get more relieved by the day that we left this arrogant, dictatorial shower, but unfortunately almost the entire uk political establishment is every bit as insane as they are. Ho hum, the lunatics are well and truly running the asylum this side of the pond. Beam me up Scotty.
I used to laugh when folk were arguing before the Brexit vote. When asked for my thoughts, I would point out that we were arguing about which bunch of overpaid windbags would get to tell us what to do and take our money away…
But at least your own overpaid windbags can be booted via your own votes. The EU overpaid windbags are not elected and are accountable to no one, making them even worse.
Agreed
. . . except there’s no-one worth voting for at the moment. Labour are totally doolally and the Liberal Democrats are, as it turns out, neither liberal nor democratic. All are in favour of climate lunacy. When only 2 out of 650 mps vote against there being a ‘climate emergency’ you’re in deep doggy-doo. And we are, up to our necks. . .
Aye indeed, what we need is someone with the where-with-all to burrow down and find the Plug to drain the swamp.
All this frothing around and hand-wringing, looking in a hall of mirrors isn’t helping. Aerating to get rid of the smell may help for REAL Slurry, but this obnoxious stuff just seems to THRIVE on it. Instead of giving it OXYGEN, they should be SMOTHERED in their own stuff – they generate so much CO2.
Can we NOT rescue them this time?
Twice the best of America’s young men have had to go to war,to fight atrocity that Europe created.
This time,lets just sell weapons to both sides or all five sides and cheer from a safe distance.
My father spent 5 years,in the service of rescuing Europe from themselves,lost way too many friends.
And here they are 75 years later,doing it all over again.
They may be slow learners,do we have to be?
You are not alone in that thought/desire.
How about if we close our military bases in Europe and tell the Russians that, as far as we are concerned, Europe is theirs.
Nations without armies do not have negotiating positions.
Walter,
That would be like telling Hitler in 1941 the Continent was his.
Keeping Russian ambitions contained is to everyone’s benefit in the long run.
As much as l would love to watch the entire German Green Party get put in a Russian Siberian gulag without fossil fuel heat in mid-Winter would be so much Schadenfreude, it would be condemning a lot of good people to a new 21st Century Iron Curtain of tyranny.
I have always said though that the possible Genocides of the 21st Century, if the Ecoterrorists and Climate Alarmist religious types get their way, will make the 20th Century genocides look like the warm up round.
” it would be condemning a lot of good people to a new 21st Century Iron Curtain of tyranny.”
They have condemned themselves.
We cannot make them live when they so clearly want to die. Let them commit Green Suicide. They will be an example to future generations.
“Example is the school of mankind, and they will learn at no other.”
Edmund Burke, Letter i. On a Regicide Peace. Vol. v. p. 331.
http://www.bartleby.com/100/276.41.html
All this lunacy off course is playing directly into Russia’s hand.
The NATO alliance would be shattered with Germany leading this climate charge off the cliff. It remains to be seen how much Poland and Hungary will push back against Brussels.
The Refugee crisis of 2015 is about to happen again as Turkey is unleashing 4 million Syrians on Europe. That could fracture the EU.
A very non-linear situation.
Putin would like to see the EU socialists win and NATO shattered.
US and UK would like to see the EU shattered and NATO prevail to keep Germany in the alliance and out of Russia Gazprom energy blackmail.
And as an aside:
I wonder about Greenland and how the people there feel about fossil fuels. Without diesel/banker oil to run their community generators, they couldn’t live there. And Denmark, their parent country, is leading the stupid ban fossil fuels charge off the climate cliff.
Trump offered to buy Greenland from Denmark. I wonder what the Greenland residents are going to think when Copenhagen tells them they need to stop burn fossil fuels?
FFS, Gazprom does not ‘blackmail’ the Germans, they sell them gas at a fair price, which is far cheaper than US LNG.
I know you Americans sometimes have trouble with truth, but really: Germany and Russia have a cooperative attitude to energy provision and that is why Nordstream II is being built, something you Americans have to (try, but fail to-) vandalise to expiate your narcissism at not being able to compete on price.
You clearly have more knowledge on the subject than I, as I’m not aware of any “vandalization” by Americans. (Note: In English, “vandalize” indicates physical damage.) Furthermore, it’s unclear to me why Americans would be atoning for narcissism. This seems like nonsensical rhetoric to me.
Regarding the point about LNG competition, why would Americans try to compete with Russia? As we say, they’re in Germany’s backyard. I think our main concern is allowing an historical aggressor to gain a potential stranglehold on Europe’s energy supply. This seems like a fairly reasonable concern to me, but I’m probably mistaken. Surely the Europeans wouldn’t allow themselves to be put into a compromised position by a member state. I mean, that’s just silly, right?
Finally, you seem quite dedicated to a negative opinion on the US. That’s ok, you do you. But, at the end of the day, pax-Americana seems to have been reasonably effective.
rip
They sell gas at a fair price, but only so long as the EU doesn’t do anything to anger their Russian masters.
Like most socialists, Rhys defines truth as whatever most advances the cause.
Germany has a cooperative relationship with Russia until Putin decides otherwise.
As long as Merkel is there, that shouldt not be a problem, Putin and Merkel know each other for a long time as both worked in their respective communist / socialist party in the gone German Democratic Republic also known as DDR. I think, Merkel was Putins very best coup…
> Trump offered to buy Greenland from Denmark.
60 tsd. people living there.
What is the art of the deal?
Is he trying to buy people (like slaves) living in Greenland form their owners Denes, or only land, or both?
How is it, that Denes “own” Greenland? Have they made it?
Have better idea: I sell Denmark. Anyone want to buy?
A previous US President offered to buy Greenland during the Cold War. Wanna bet it had something to do with the Thule Air-force Base?
Listening to Base Commander Jack D. Ripper of the movie Dr. Strangelove, it is clear some in the D.C. swamp are worried about their precious bodily fluids being infiltrated by communist, red-coats.
Recall, from the legendary movie Dr. Strangelove : Base Commander Jack D. Ripper :
Mandrake, do you recall what Clemenceau once said about war? … He said “War is too important to be left to the generals.” When he said that, fifty years ago, he may have been right. But today war is too important to be left to the politicians. They have neither the time, the training, nor the inclination for strategic thought. I can no longer sit back and allow Communist infiltration, Communist indoctrination, Communist subversion, and the international Communist conspiracy to sap and impurify all of our precious bodily fluids.
Mandrake, come over here, the Redcoats are coming!
The insanity in the US about Russia sounds just like that movie – I wonder if ex-British Prime Minister May thought the Russians Novichok nerve agent got into their precious bodily fluids?
don’t worry Von Leyden’s biggest claim to fame is failing to administer Germany’s token armed forces.
It went so well they gave her a job several orders of magnitude bigger, to see if you could do any better.
What is the female equivalent of the ‘Peter principle’?
Petra principle. Sadly my eldest daughter’s name is Petra
North America has been net carbon dioxide negative since before 2000.
The USA has kept reducing its “carbon footprint” since then, without government policy or mandates.
The EU can talk to us when they actually reduce their “carbon footprint”. Fracking and nuclear energy come to mind.
I’m a Brit. Now we’ve become an independent country again and left the ridiculous anachronistic EU, I hope the US does that’s all it can to make life difficult for those pompous continentals. It’s falling apart anyway and it can’t even see it. Any bets on who is out next? My money is on Denmark or Sweden
Oddly enough it may well be France….
The EUs portion of global trade is diminishing. If they want to reduce this further, push up the cost of imported goods, and damage their economy with this carbon BS then let them. Quite frankly the UK, US, Canada, and the rest of the world can look after themselves and turn their backs on the EU. They are nothing but trouble and have been for centuries.
This story is a good indicator of what Britain has had to suffer over the past 40+ years as a member of the EU mad house and why we, the people, have overwhelmingly voted to leave.
How Europe’s Border Carbon Tax Plan Could Force the U.S. To Act on Climate Change
The same way they forced The UK?
French wine is actually American wine. See “the great wine blight of the 1860’s” Only Bollinger is real original French wine.
Well the stocks of American heritage, because of thicker rind blocking the Phyoxera parasite, do not themselves produce grapes. The French grafted branches do.
And the US had to call over French vintners to get their wine in order, the Aussies to. So instead of awful new-world “dry-red” now some really excellent wines give the French a real headache, no pun intended!
“The EU Could Force the USA to Act on Climate Change”.
This will be fun to watch.
I know what would happen with Trump if they tried it, but it might work with a green or left president because they believe in the cause. I think what would happen is very dependent on who is in the White House.
To my astonishment I just heard the brand new British Passports, are manufactured in — the EU!
The tender went out in 2018. And they are poly-carbonate, one of the most “evil” plastic wastes.
Oh dear!
But more stunning is the BoJo Green Britain post-Brexit plan. I makes even van der Leyen’s EU schemes fade. Both trot to the tune of now-UN Climate Rep. Carney of the Bank of England, the City of London.
So instead of the fake EU flag of the lead , it should be Green with Britain still there. This cabal desperately want the US and China there too.
Correct. BoJo may have won the battle of Brexit but he won’t win the war on the BoE. Where there is money to be made, you can bet your dollar, someone somewhere in the BoE and the “Square Mile” are in on the ground floor.
Interesting
The UK will certainly buy from America if the price and quality are right, without tariffs.
I think everyone here can now see why the UK left the EU. The rules are stifling. Now they are demanding a “level playing field” between us and them in case we compete! They have about 2 or 3 years left before the others realise it is really is a useless political control exercise, and leave too.
Good luck from the UK
Be aware: EU is a superpower on a Moral Certificates Market. Actually is the only region with experience in manufacturing Moral Superiority that is the only defense against Blaim Bombs.
Do you want to be excluded from Moral Market?
Look at Detroit vs. Hroshima comparison, one was bombed with Blaim Bomb, gues which one.
Apart from the EU having no backbone, it reveals the anti democratic nature of the EU. No individual democratic nation could long persist with such nonsensical economy killing measures before being booted out of office. The UK, will at some point, rebel against the same draconian measures currently being introduced under the 2018 climate change act (the judicial over-ruling of the Heathrow expansion project is one such outcome, but only the first of many more). But for the citizens of the non democracy of the EU, what are they to do? They can change their government but not the EU directives.
What happens if they do implement this carbon tax.
1) The price of energy and food skyrocket.
2) The globalist elite show their disdain for the deplorable working class in that the working class is to stupid to connect a carbon tax to the rising cost of living.
3) The working class has to make choices between heat, transport, and food.
4) Sooner or later a leader arises who advocates eliminating the carbon tax.
5) Presto no more Globalist leadership of the EU or no more EU.
Okay but the U.S. will have to tax the EU for it’s use of the Gulf Stream. Or be cut off from it.
There is nothing new here. It’s been always the idea behind the climate hysteria of EU that they would impose taxes, and other trade restrictions on countries that use fossil fuels to drive their energy and other industries. This is how EU is going to force their own energy poverty on the world and level the market. And it’s been always crucial that the US would take part in this charade, siding with the EU. But since we have fossil fuels enough for centuries to come, we don’t have to play the EU’s silly game, and neither do China, Russia, Brazil, Australia, India, and many other countries, whose industrial output is much more than that of EU. We should, and hopefully will, respond with matching tariffs on EU goods if they ever enact the border carbon tax.
[QUOTE FROM ARTICLE]”As the EU has doubled down on policies to reduce emissions, and the U.S. and others have lagged, pressure mounted on the bloc to take more sweeping action. “It’s pointless to reduce carbon emissions inside Europe, to then import them from outside,” Bruno Le Maire, the French finance minister, told reporters at the World Economic Forum meeting in Davos in January.”
France, to its credit, has had lower CO2 emissions per capita than most of the rest of Europe due to their numerous nuclear power plants, which supply about 75% of their electric power, with most of the rest supplied by hydroelectric power from dams in the Alps and Pyrenees. While most of France’s trains run on electric power, France still depends on Middle East oil for gasoline and diesel for cars and trucks, and Russian natural gas for home heating.
The same can’t be said for the rest of the EU. Germany used to have a lot of nuclear reactors, many of which were shut down as part of their “Energiewende” program, supposedly to be replaced by wind and solar, which is strange for a country north of 45 degrees latitude dominated by cloudy weather. Spain made a similar experiment, and its economy is suffering for it.
If the EU really wanted to reduce its CO2 emissions, they should start a massive program to build nuclear reactors to generate electricity, while continuing to use fossil fuels for transportation and heating. Solar power might work in Spain, the French Riviera, Italy, and Greece, but the rest of Europe is too cloudy (with low sun angles in autumn and winter) to generate much solar power. Hydroelectric works well in mountainous areas with lots of rain and snow, such as the Alps, but most of northern Europe is too flat for a hydroelectric dam to produce much power.
Imposing a “carbon tax” on foreign exporters that don’t “reduce CO2 emissions” (by whose criteria?) is bound to be counterproductive for Europe. Most of Europe doesn’t have much fossil fuel reserves, and most of what they have is coal, which emits more CO2 per unit energy than oil or natural gas. A “carbon tax” on imports from the USA will make such imports more expensive for Europeans, and the USA could retaliate by imposing tariffs on EU exports, which would hurt the EU more than the USA. Would they also impose carbon taxes on Russian natural gas? All that would do is make it more expensive for Europeans to heat their homes in winter, which is bound to be unpopular with the folks back home, something like former President Carter’s asking people to wear sweaters indoors in the late 1970’s.
Meanwhile, thanks to lots of fracking, it will probably be cheaper to heat the average home in the USA, despite the fact that winters are colder in most of the USA than in Europe.
“they should start a massive program to build nuclear reactors to generate electricity”
Well they can’t build nuclear reactors because nuclear’s been demonized,
and the greens are against nuclear, and the greens are against coal, and against more hydro, and against new windmills…
Looks like somebody painted himself into a corner… 😉
The self appointed elite could well be in for a shock
https://www.euractiv.com/section/energy-environment/interview/basescu-european-green-deal-risks-pushing-two-or-three-countries-towards-eu-exit/
They won’t just upset Johmy foreigner.