You will note that they cover British Columbia, Washington, Oregon, Louisiana
and Australia. There are many complaints
about dust, train traffic and contribution to Greenhouse Gas emission.
Metallurgical coal is an essential reduction agent in the steel industry and
will always be needed but thermal coal export should be reduced dramatically. This
can only be achieved by negotiating a world wide carbon tax on all fossil fuel,
which also applies to exports. By now 20% of the greenhouse gas emissions and
30% of the World’s GDP are covered by a carbon price. Korea, South Africa and
China are still in the planning stage. (CT 32)(CT 46). It will take a while
before a global arrangement can be reached. Until
that happens no country dares to tax their exports so the coal stays cheap and
demand keeps rising. To emphasize
the situation in the
Pacific North West I repeat point 11 from the second article in my first post:
In 2010 Canada supplied 2.9% of the world’s coal,
Australia 26.5% and Indonesia24%.(CT42). If we would curtail our export, those
two countries could easily add a little more to their production so the amount
of GHG produced in the world would remain the same. Only a universal carbon tax
will eventually reduce the demand for coal. The rapid expansion of US coal
export from 83.2 million short tons in
2010 to 126 million short tons in 2012(CT63) can in part be explained by 2 price
advantages they have. The first one is that of the coal targeted for export, most of
it will come from leases on publicly owned lands in the Powder River Basin. A
lease is obtained by a “competitive” bid. Rarely is there more than one bidder.
Awarded the lease by the Bureau of Land Management at “fair market value”, a
high value might equal US$1.10 a tonne(CT38). Once mined from the leased land,
the coal is sold. The sale takes place at the mine. In the State of Wyoming,
where most of the export coal will be mined, the only tax liability is on the
value of the coal at the mine, which works out at US$9 or US$10 a tonne(CT39).
The second advantage is that, due to the carbon tax, BC has
one of the lowest income tax rates in the western hemisphere. The US companies
make use of it: “As to income tax, when
the coal mined from taxpayer property is profitably sold for US$80-120 a
tonne on the international market, there is no obligation to pay those taxes in
the United States. A prudent international business will use an international
subsidiary to buy the coal at the mine mouth. It could be a subsidiary based in
British Columbia, or any country where income tax rates are lower than in the
United States.”(CT39)
Not intended as a means to grow a bigger government, the carbon tax is revenue neutral. Dollars received from the tax are used to offset other provincial tax burdens. Consequently, British Columbia has some of the lowest personal and business income tax rates in the western hemisphere. For coal exporters, the business tax rates are attractive. Even as they export coal that will emit an amount of carbon dioxide equal to the emissions of the entire province, they are charged no carbon tax. Export coal is not burned in British Columbia.
US coal is already being exported through Canada’s most western province,
British Columbia. Just south of the bustling west coast port city of
Vancouver, the Westshore Coal Terminal ships 22 million tonnes of coal a
year, of which 59% goes to China. Westshore is profitable, but its exports
only scratch the surface of the envisioned market. With increased Asian demand
for coal, and a favourable tax environment, the terminal has plans to grow
Not intended as a means to grow a bigger government, the carbon tax is revenue neutral. Dollars received from the tax are used to offset other provincial tax burdens. Consequently, British Columbia has some of the lowest personal and business income tax rates in the western hemisphere. For coal exporters, the business tax rates are attractive. Even as they export coal that will emit an amount of carbon dioxide equal to the emissions of the entire province, they are charged no carbon tax. Export coal is not burned in British Columbia.
BC environmentalists can do something to stop that US flow.
They can seek out all politicians and industry groups in the US who are against
the very low mining leases and let them know that it not only hurts US
taxpayers but also has nasty effects in BC. The main problem is still that
there is no international agreement on carbon tax, let alone on taxing coal
exports. That can be achieved by environmentalists actively searching through
all those hyperlinks in the CT documents and get together with the 100
multinationals mentioned under 6) above and with Australians who understand the
problems. If they can agree on a plan of action to be presented at the next climate
conference we may see better progress. Furthermore the environmentalists should
check if there are any carbon tax centres in South Africa and Russia in order
to get support from those coal exporting countries. Here is an Australian comment proving that we
are not alone in trying to tax coal exports:
“Export
Coal Tax
Australia
supplies almost 40% of the world's coal and so can have a huge impact on the
price of this damaging product. Our coal exports account for more than half of
Australia's total emissions. (See "Out with the coal" by John Perkins.)
Through a combination of coal taxes and export quotas we could drive up the
price of coal until other energy sources become more attractive.”(CT51)
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