According to The Daily Telegraph, the UK’s Carbon Reduction Commitment (CRC) that came into operation in April of this year has now morphed into – you guessed it – a stealth tax on carbon emissions. The complex league table of carbon emitting leaders and laggers with bonuses and penalties has been swept away in favour of a simpler version now dubbed the ‘Energy Efficiency Scheme’.
US companies should take note – in the UK the cost of carbon emissions is fast becoming a real line item in the expenses section of many UK organizations’ financial statements. It’s only a matter of time before waste generation and energy and water consumption snuggle up in that same section.
The c.20,000 companies formerly covered by the CRC will now (in effect) pay the UK Government around £12 per ton for their projected carbon emissions in a given year because instead of their payments being recycled into the CRC scheme to benefit companies that reduce their emissions, they are recycled into the UK Treasury – providing the Government with an anticipated £1 billion tax bonus to spend on hair stylists, publicity photographers and French aircraft carriers. As the DT says:
Previously, the best performing businesses would have received rebates if they reduced emissions, while poor performers would pay in full. The scheme will now simply penalise companies according to the amount of carbon dioxide they produce.
I’m sure the Obama administration will be watching this closely, as an alternative to a new tax on tea and the parties who drink it, but US taxpayers should rejoice in the fact that if this kind of tax does come to the USA, then at least the US President doesn’t need a hair stylist.
Tags: carbon
