REGINA – The Saskatchewan government says its natural gas utility is to stop collecting the carbon levy as of Monday from residential customers. The move comes after Prime Minister Justin Trudeau exempted those who use home heating oil from paying the levy, mostly benefiting residents in Atlantic Canada. Saskatchewan asked for the exemption to cover all other forms of heating, but Ottawa denied the request. In response, the province said it would stop collecting the charge at the start of 2024. Dustin Duncan, now the minister responsible for SaskEnergy, speaks at the Legislative Building in Regina, Tuesday, Aug. 22, 2023. […]
Why would they charge carbon tax on electric heat?
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.
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
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.