this post was submitted on 01 Jan 2024
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[–] tarsn@lemmy.ca 2 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Why would they charge carbon tax on electric heat?

[–] jadero@lemmy.ca 6 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Because the electricity itself is produced at coal and natural gas power plants, I guess. According to this, about 80% of our electricity comes from fossil fuels.

[–] tarsn@lemmy.ca 1 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) (1 children)

But they want us to switch to electric vehicles and electric everything. Seems counterintuitive. Shouldn't they just charge the coal and natural gas plants directly so that cleaner forms of electricity are more financially incentivized?

You're going to heat your house one way or another in the country, this gives you multiple options that all result in carbon tax. I thought the whole point of the carbon tax was supposed to be to incentivize the cleanest option? Otherwise it's just another tax on the middle class with the only outcome being less money in people's pockets and generating more money for the government

[–] CanadianCorhen@lemmy.ca 5 points 10 months ago

EV's, even when powered by coal, are still more carbon efficient than ICE. "Luckily, power plants are much more efficient at making energy than a car engine, so even an EV that runs entirely on electricity from coal—the very “dirtiest” fossil fuel—will still produce less CO2 per mile driven than a similar ICE car.". ICE have to be powerful, light weight, and space efficient. generator plants just need to be efficent, size be damned!

But yea, totally agree that the carbon tax should be charged to the generating facility.