I don't understand - why can't governments just tax renewable energy the same amount they tax oil and coal

Question

Then they wouldn't need to worry about how it will hurt the economy, unless that economy relies heavily on coal and oil, which would hurt it a lot.

Answer 1

Your question is really badly worded, but it seems you think the government should tax renewable energy.

Basically, they don't tax renewable energy because they want to help it get going, so it will be cheaper and more abundant BEFORE the world runs out of coal and oil. Or to stop us from using all the coal and oil to stop global warming. But any way you look at it, some day the world WILL be forced to stop using coal and oil, and that WILL damage the economy if there is not enough renewable energy to take over the work at that time. So the government is looking to the future. Believe it or not.

Answer 2

because they want money

Answer 3

right now the government is paying ethanol producers an extra 51 cents a gallon on top of their regular profit in an effort to encourage more production of bio fuels.

when large scale production is reached they will put a road use tax on it just the same as they tax regular gasoline now to pay for hi way construction & maintenance.

they will also tax electric cars a certain amount for each mile driven to replace the tax on gasoline they are now collecting.

gasoline taxes are a major revenue producer for the government. the government actually makes more on each gallon of gas sold than the oil companys do.

they will not give up this source of revenue once alternative fuels are established & in large scale operation.

Answer 4

what governments need to do is give huge tax rebates to people and industries that go to renewable resources for energy and implement there use in there facilities.By doing so it will stimulate the investment sector in these industries and create even more jobs

Answer 5

Renewable energy is like junk and nobody really uses it. Oil and coal on the other hand, everybody relies on it so therefore the government will tax you on it.

Answer 6

You must be joking

What  is hurting the economy is oil.

What is ruining the economy is oil.

Crash  - they can't tax the wind or the sunshine.

There is no fuel. Nothing to mine, transport, store.

run through pipelines, burn, dispose of the waste from.  And nothing to tax, other than normal business taxes.

The taxes oil companies pay doesn't begin to cover the hidden costs of oil, including about $100 billon in military protection costs annually, not counting the Iraq war.

Hidden costs of oil are estimated as high as $800 billion annually.  

That includes up to $80 billion annually in tax incentives and susidies.  

In fact, subsidies to all alternative energies combined is a tiny fraction of the subsidies to oil gas and coal.  Nukes are heavily susidized too.

You pay for those hidden costs already, just not at the gas pump.  If you did the price would be about $12 a gallon.   About 1/3 -1/2 of that is paid for by your tax dollars.  The rest is in the private sector.

And you're worried about taxing the oil companies?  ExxonMobil made over $40 billion last year.  The top five companies made $123 billion combined.

Oil companies tax rate is about 8% , much lower than about any other industry.  

Oil also contributes over $300 billion to our annual trade imbalance.

And then theres the $ trillions we're spending in Iraq and all the strife and world conflict over oil.

Can't you see that it isn't worth it?

There are much better alternatives.

Solar power alone could power the whole country

using solar power plants in the southwest, using less land than is now used for coal mines.  With all the other  alternatives we have it isn't nearly as hard as you think.  There is a mountain of dis-information about the failings of alternative energy.

If that's all you're listening to, you are woefully misinformed.  

Alternative energy will reinvigorate our economy and restore balance to it.   Your fears of ruining the economy are backwards and unfounded.

Answer 7

The premise of your question implies that our economy is supported by taxation.  It's actually suppressed (or even destroyed) by the tax burden.  How 'bout this idea:  Why can't the gov't NOT tax oil and coal the same as it doesn't tax inefficient "renewable" energies?

Answer 8

Logically, the more they tax coal and oil the more expensive it will be.  Therefore, people will spend the money on things like renewable energy, which is ideally what we want

Answer 9

Oil and coal are not taxed, they are subsidized with your tax money and 10 BLLION dollar aircraft carrier groups.

Answer 10

The basic law of demand says the higher the price, the lower the consumption.  If the government wants to discourage a certain consumption they raise the price by taxing it.  Tobacco and alcohol is a prime example.  

There are some that say that global warming is an excuse to raise taxes.  If you say that you are taxing oil and coal to reduce co2 emissions you are not going to get that much of a public outcry than if you raise other taxes.  If you tax a renewable energy you will get an outcry.  There is no justification for it.

One way of knowing if it is a tax grab is by seeing the amount.  If you seriously want to limit co2 emissions a small amount will not do.  The Canadian government did a study that said the prices of gas would have to double.  A serious government that want to reduce co2 should announce incremental tax increases.  So much today, so much in three years, so much in seven years etc.  This way if you now that the price of gas will be increased significantly you will plan for the future and buy a more fuel efficient car.

The biggest concern among skeptics is that if you tax another form of co2 emissions coal, from coal burning power plants, then this will raise the cost of production for energy intensive industry and they will just close shop and move their factories overseas where power is not taxed.

The other concern is that if you tax gas, you raise the transportation costs for distributing products, which raises the price of the products, which raises inflation, which raises interest rates, which hurts the economy.  When inflation goes up, labour then demands a higher wage, which also raises the price of the products, and then interests rates.  The added labour costs makes domestic firms less competitive and they sell less products, more unemployment.

Answer 11

We want more renewable energy and less coal and oil. If we tax good things we will end up with less of it.

Answer 12

Socialism never has made any sense. It is not required to explain itself.  Why tax gassoline when you subsidize oil companies? Why pay taxes on ethonol when farm subsidies pay for the corn? Why force a city to pay for a sports stadium when you are only going to charge them for the tickets later?