British Columbia Introduces North America’s First Full-fledged Carbon Tax

Yesterday the Government of British Columbia passed a bill that will phase in a carbon tax on all fossil fuels including gasoline, diesel, natural gas, coal, propane, and home heating fuel.Homepage_flag_top_2
  Beginning  this summer the rate starts at $10/tonne of carbon-equivalent emissions and will rise by $5/year for
the next four years.  By 2012 the rate for gasoline will be 7.34 cents/litre.  This is projected to raise $1.85B over three years, two thirds of which will come from business.  The money raised will not go be used for program spending, but will be returned in some form to individuals and businesses.  Very innovative attempt to get British Columbians to cut their emissions. 

Apparently all the remaining US presidential candidates support some form of cap and trade, which according to Wikipedia means that “a central authority sets a limit or cap
on the amount of a pollutant that can be emitted. Companies or other
groups are issued emission permits and are required to hold an
equivalent number of allowances which represent the right to emit a specific amount. The total amount
of allowances and credits cannot exceed the cap, limiting total
emissions to that level. Companies that need to increase their
emissions must buy credits from those who pollute less. The transfer of
allowances is referred to as a trade.
In effect, the buyer is paying a charge for polluting, while the seller
is being rewarded for having reduced emissions by more than was needed.
Thus, in theory, those that can easily reduce emissions most cheaply
will do so, achieving the pollution reduction at the lowest possible
cost to society.” Apparently the major oil companies and other companies are preparing for this believing cap and trade to be inevitable.

Geoff Zeiss

Geoff Zeiss

Geoff Zeiss has more than 20 years experience in the geospatial software industry and 15 years experience developing enterprise geospatial solutions for the utilities, communications, and public works industries. His particular interests include the convergence of BIM, CAD, geospatial, and 3D. In recognition of his efforts to evangelize geospatial in vertical industries such as utilities and construction, Geoff received the Geospatial Ambassador Award at Geospatial World Forum 2014. Currently Geoff is Principal at Between the Poles, a thought leadership consulting firm. From 2001 to 2012 Geoff was Director of Utility Industry Program at Autodesk Inc, where he was responsible for thought leadership for the utility industry program. From 1999 to 2001 he was Director of Enterprise Software Development at Autodesk. He received one of ten annual global technology awards in 2004 from Oracle Corporation for technical innovation and leadership in the use of Oracle. Prior to Autodesk Geoff was Director of Product Development at VISION* Solutions. VISION* Solutions is credited with pioneering relational spatial data management, CAD/GIS integration, and long transactions (data versioning) in the utility, communications, and public works industries. Geoff is a frequent speaker at geospatial and utility events around the world including Geospatial World Forum, Where 2.0, MundoGeo Connect (Brazil), Middle East Spatial Geospatial Forum, India Geospatial Forum, Location Intelligence, Asia Geospatial Forum, and GITA events in US, Japan and Australia. Geoff received Speaker Excellence Awards at GITA 2007-2009.

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