Few Questions On Carbon Tax

From a Toronto Sun article by Lorrie Goldstein:

(1) Explain how a carbon tax will reduce Canada's greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Be specific.

(2) Stephane Dion, back when he opposed a carbon tax, said Canada will make "megatonnes of money" by cutting "megatonnes of emissions." Explain how, exactly.

(3) Stephane Dion says a carbon tax will be "revenue neutral." Revenue neutral for whom? For me? If so, will you publicly guarantee me here and now that if I vote Liberal, I will pay no more in total federal taxes than I do today, following the imposition of your "revenue neutral" carbon tax?

(4) How much of this tax will be spent reducing Canada's own GHG emissions and by how much, as opposed to sending money to developing countries like China and India in hopes of reducing their emissions?

(5) Will you use funds from this tax to buy hot air credits from Russia, which has plenty to sell under the Kyoto accord, given that its economy collapsed following the break-up of the Soviet Union in 1991, while Kyoto's base year just happens to be 1990 — meaning Russia lowered its emissions by suffering a massive recession?

(6) If the answer to (5) is yes, what good does it do Canada to buy hot air from Russia?

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The only question that's not there is what makes Dion so sure that "global warming" actually happens and that it's man-made. Especially if similar climatic trends occur on other planets.

When it comes to the polls, according to which Canadians support the idea of taxing emissions - as we can see from the very same article, that support plummets when it's time to actually pay the tax. (Except that then it's already too late to protest.) Just as Marginalized Action Dinosaur mentioned in his blog the polls ask the wrong questions.

Sure, many would support carbon tax in principle - assuming that it would only affect large corporations and perhaps those driving SUVs. But try asking if someone is willing to pay ~50% more for gas, hydro and heating oil in return for a minor cut in income taxes - who is going to support that? Who would want much bigger fuel surcharges, levied by the airline and shipping companies to be passed onto his vacation bills, let alone - grocery bills? Finally - how many would support the carbon tax knowing that it will drive their employers out of country, thus costing them their job?

No, that's not mere fear mongering. Here's what the Shire Network News Podcast tells us about New Zealand's experience. Somehow the country that is considered to be all green and environment friendly must buy a $1,000,000,000 worth of carbon credits from Russia - a country whose environmental record is... how to say it... far below the average. As result - the big businesses (and the major employers) move to China. Which may not have all the green space and its environmental record is probably even worse than one of Russia, but it's exempt from Kyoto provisions...

So the onus is on those who promote carbon tax and other eco-scams to prove us in all the smallest details that their scams won't have exactly the same devastating effect on the economy here in Canada.