BC's Carbon Tax

I like that BC is leading the charge on the environment, that is how it should be. I think it's a smart move that the tax is neutral in an overall sense since taxes will be reduced in other areas. The tyee has some good criticism I'm sure (I love the tyee!), but overall I'm glad this step was taken.

Now that said I am exasperated in one respect: that there has not been a concomitant effort to get electric cars on the road. Yes I understand that we use oil in grocery bags, home heating, etc., and that methane from cattle is a very significant CO2 producer. All of which may dwarf the pollution from cars and trucks. So, acknowledging I may have slightly irrational emotional opposition to not getting our car situation improved, I am angry about this still. If the movie Who Killed the Electric Car (online here) is close to accurate I don't see why there isn't legislation to mandate a certain percentage of cars produced/sold in BC are electric. On this score the hope of hydrogen powered cars might be more of a tool of delay and obfuscation than an actual viable solution.

The reason also in part why I have a visceral anger about this is that due to urban planning (or lack thereof) often driving is unavoidable. Therefore to introduce this tax without providing a practical way out - i.e. electric cars, people are overwhelmingly left in the lurch. [Sure public transit and cycling are good, but not everyplace has good public transit, or does proximity and time always permit cycling]. Moreover the reason this should be coupled with an effort to get electric cars on the road is that now the economics are different. Let's say that to buy off the lot an electric car is more expensive than a gas fueled car. If the cost of gas goes up, which it now will starting in July, the disparity in net cost to buying and using a car over the course of a year or two will be narrowed, maybe considerably? Maybe reversed? People need a way out, and electric cars would help them a lot, psychologically and practically.