[LINK] Carbon Tax

[Marghanita da Cruz]

Birch, Jim wrote:
> stephen at melbpc.org.au wrote:
> 
>> HOW would the Carbon Tax monies be spent? If it's just to discourage
> usage, then bugger-off.
> 
> Sorry, isn't this the exact purpose of a carbon tax?  It's not a general
> purpose do-good plan but specifically aims to reduce CO2 production.
>>From an environmental point of view, the level of the tax should be what
> - ie whatever - is required to produce a carbon neutral world economy.
> 
> In the meantime, a lot of electricity suppliers appear to have put up
> their prices - as if they were already paying carbon tax.  Not sure how
> they achieved that, but it seems to regularly follow electricity
> privatisation.
> 
<snip>

In NSW the price increase preceded privatisation but then we
were a bit Tardy.

> Energy Ratings and Use
> 
> From 1 July 2010 a typical residential EnergyAustralia customer will pay a further $126 per annum ? or an extra $2.40 per week. From 1 July 2010 a typical Integral Energy residential customer will pay an extra $85 per annum or $1.60 per week; and a Country Energy residential customer will pay $183 more per annum or $3.50 per week. - IPART:Electricity Price Rises Change - April 2010
> 
> ?About one third of NSW households are connected to gas and currently spend around $12 a week on average. This will increase to around $13.45 a week by 2013? he added. - IPART release final report on Gas Prices - June 2010...
<http://ramin.com.au/eco-sydney/energy-ratings-use.shtml>

> privatization / Tuesday, 18 January 2011
> Keneally?s electricity sell-off a ?short-term cash grab?
> by Matthew Knott
> 
> Explosive testimony by Treasury officials at a parliamentary inquiry into the controversial sale of NSW state-owned electricity retailers has revealed that the original $5.3 billion promised by the Keneally Government was grossly over-estimated.
<http://www.crikey.com.au/2011/01/18/keneallys-electricity-sell-off-a-short-term-cash-grab/>

Performance standards to reduce energy emissions
<http://parlinfo.aph.gov.au/parlInfo/search/display/display.w3p;query=Id%3A%22library%2Fprspub%2F485509%22>

Interestingly, the White Bay Power Station (sydney) was
originally constructed to power the tram system (second
largest in the world)...
<http://ramin.com.au/eco-sydney/white-bay-power-station-rozelle.shtml>
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trams_in_Sydney>

My pet topic is that there is a lot of talk about efficiency
but not enough about total usage. Sometime ago, I did some
analysis of energy use by fridges and cars. see
<http://ramin.com.au/eco-sydney/carbon.shtml>

Trees, gardens, verges and parklands are valuable carbon
sinks as well as providing other benefits - though they can
be expensive to maintain, particularly in the city. This
would be a good use of Carbon Tax - particularly on petrol.

Marghanita
-- 
Marghanita da Cruz
http://ramin.com.au
Tel: 0414-869202