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gruez 3 hours ago

>* the gas price in the article includes the government’s self-imposed carbon tax. The actual cost of gas (£55) is FAR lower than the £91.20 strike price Milibad has set for wind.

Is that unreasonable? Carbon dioxide is an externality, and it needs to be accounted for accordingly. Suppose the government is tendering contracts for milk for school lunches. One farm runs a CAFO[1] that pollutes the local river. The other has cows on a pasture that doesn't. Is it that unreasonable for the government to be like "well hang on, the CAFO farm might be cheaper the grass fed farm, but it'll cost us money to clean up all the shit they're dumping into the river, so we're going to impose a tax on the CAFO farm for their pollution"?

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Concentrated_animal_feeding_op...

sunflowerfly 2 hours ago | parent | next [-]

Yes, it is completely reasonable if you understand the concept of externalities.

kibwen an hour ago | parent [-]

People motivated exclusively by personal profit are systematically disincentivized from understanding the concept of externalities.

BJones12 3 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

> Is that unreasonable? Carbon dioxide is an externality, and it needs to be accounted for accordingly.

Yes it is unreasonable. Spending money to reduce carbon is just a subsidy for other countries who DGAF and will emit both theirs and yours.

Retric 3 hours ago | parent | next [-]

When your country emits more CO2 there’s more CO2 in the atmosphere independent of what anyone else does.

So it’s true each individual country only receives a fraction of the negative impact of their own emissions, but that fraction isn’t zero and therefore should be taxed to maximize economic efficiency. Further joining international treaties to agree to collectively tax carbon at a higher rate representing the harm across all those countries is even more economically efficient.

lostlogin 2 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

Do you apply this logic for everything?

Dumping your waste, others be damned, is a hell of a way to live.

roamerz 3 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

>>Is that unreasonable

It’s not unreasonable to report the facts and let the reader decide. The carbon tax is a readily available fact where in your example is subjective.