Cap and Tax

The economics of clean electricity is simple - if we demand clean energy, they will provide it - at a cost. If we, as a society have decided against "dirty" energy (as the politicians claim we have), then we should have no problem paying a premium for it. If our policy makers are confident that society is truly against "dirty" energy, why disguise the additional costs through subsidies, taxes, and carbon trading systems? Why not simply force energy companies to "go green" and make us pay for though increased energy bills? I suspect that would be to much to ask of our pseudo environmentalist policy makers.

Nov 12th 2009
From The Economist print edition

Nuclear energy is unlikely to work without a carbon tax

PLANNING is not the only obstacle to a rebirth of nuclear power in Britain. The technology’s torturous economics are, if anything, even trickier. The trouble is that, whereas the fuel is cheap, nuclear-power plants themselves are very expensive to build and the pay-off from that investment is slow. To the industry’s opponents, all this is proof that nuclear electricity is uneconomical. Generous atomic subsidies offered in America—including loan guarantees, tax breaks and promises to cover cost overruns—lend support to that view, though ministers have promised that new nuclear plants in Britain will receive no such special treatment.


Read the entire article here