Thank goodness that "low cost electricity" is not the penultimate goal in some parts of the world:
These are rough times for carbon taxes, aimed at mitigating climate change. Australia recently repealed its carbon tax. South Korea delayed a carbon-based tax on vehicle emissions. South Africa put off a planned carbon tax until 2016.
And yet, for environmentalists, a sliver of hope exists in the shape of Chile, one of Latin America’s fastest-growing economies, which last month approved the first carbon tax in South America. The measure, due to take effect in 2018, was part of a broad overhaul of the tax system. ...
Chile’s tax, which targets large factories and the electricity sector, will cover about 55 percent of the nation’s carbon emissions, according to Juan-Pablo Montero, a professor of economics at the Pontifical Catholic University of Chile, who informally advised the government in favor of the tax. At $5 per metric ton of carbon dioxide emitted, Chile’s tax is lower than the $8-per-metric-ton carbon price in the European Union’s carbon-trading system, which has often been criticized as too lax. But it is higher than a carbon tax introduced in Mexico in January. ...
Chile’s approval of a carbon tax owes much to its positioning inside a broader tax package, experts said. At the same time that it passed the carbon tax, the Chilean government raised corporate taxes substantially, in a bid to increase revenues for education and other projects. As a result, the carbon tax raised less debate within Chile than it might have otherwise, though electricity companies have objected. ...
In addition to the tax on carbon, Chile is also adopting taxes on other air pollutants, including fine particles, nitrogen oxides and sulfur dioxide, as well as a tax on some light vehicles that generate diesel exhaust. Santiago, the Chilean capital, has long struggled with pollution, due partly to its location in a dry valley.
via www.nytimes.com
We're going to quibble with the magnitude of the tax? $5 is higher than the carbon tax in the U.S. and a large number of other countries.
