Carbon Tax? Spend it where it will have some impact: China.

If you really want a carbon tax - because it can do us some good,
if you really want that carbon tax to have some real benefits,
then think outside the box. The box being BC.

That’s right. Spend the money where it can really do us some good.
Spend it where the problem is. China.

In China they are building coal-fired electricity generation plants at the rate of two a week.
You heard me – TWO coal burning, sulfur dioxide, CO2 spewing plants each and every week!
And guess where they buy their coal?
BC. British Columbia.
We are selling them the coal to burn and the wind blows the pollution right back at us.
Studies in California show that 1/3 of the daily smog in LA is produced by China.
(We have done no such studies to date.)

So, what can we do about it?
Clearly cutting back on diesel burning transport trucks at the rate of 2% is a pathetic and useless response. And that is what the Campbell carbon tax has done. Cut 2% of trucker’s jobs. Compared to China’s daily greenhouse gas output that is the equivalent of blowing out one candle in every restaurant in BC and expecting the skies to clear.

Here’s my suggestion. Use the carbon tax collected from BC residents to buy a nuclear powered electricity generation plant – a Candu reactor, say, and give it to the Chinese.

Designed by Canadians, powered by uranium mined by Canadians – which China will buy from us (part of the deal, to offset loss of coal sales) and while we’re at it we insist that it is to be built by Canadians – paid from our tax dollars.

We say to China, “We want to give you a nuclear electricity generation plant. We’ll design it, build it and train your guys to run it. You buy our fuel rods and dispose of them properly when they’re done. That’s it.

The result will be a carbon credit the like of which we could never accumulate by cutting 10% here and 15% there and it helps our 2nd largest trading partner.

You can thank me later,