From the Toronto Star:
Alberta carbon tax legislation passes, marks first stage of climate-change plan
Premier Rachel Notley’s government used its majority in the legislature Tuesday to pass legislation that includes a carbon tax and completes the first stage of Alberta’s landmark strategy to combat climate change.
The legislation gives legal teeth to the multibillion-dollar tax that is to take effect Jan. 1 and will raise the price of heating bills and gasoline as an incentive to go green.
And the cost of this stupidity?
The government estimates higher heating and gasoline fees will cost the average family an extra $443 next year.
Opposition members say the government is lowballing that figure.
“This is going to pull at least a thousand dollars from every household in Alberta,” said Wildrose Opposition Leader Brian Jean.
So, for a constituent living on a fixed income in winter, the choice is heat or eat. What can possibly go wrong?
From the UK Telegraph:
Biggest annual rise in deaths for almost fifty years prompts warnings of crisis in elderly care
England and Wales has suffered the biggest annual rise in deaths for almost fifty years, according to new figures which last night prompted warnings of an urgent crisis in care of the elderly.
Cause?
“In 2015, the monthly death figures suggest that cold weather and flu may have played a part in the high numbers of deaths in the early part of the year. Changes in the population over time can also have some surprising effects on these statistics for technical reasons.”
From the British edition of the Huffington Post:
We Need a New Deal for Those Living in Energy Poverty
As I write this, an elderly person is deciding whether they can afford to heat their home, a parent is choosing a warm meal over a cold bath for their child, and a household wonders if it can pay its bills - this is unacceptable.
In 2016, the decisions listed above are ones that millions are making throughout Europe. Currently over 50 million EU citizens are living in energy poverty - 3 million of which are in the UK.
Energy poverty is a hidden epidemic. In my region, the North West of England, over 300,000 people are living in energy poverty. Many believe they are just not earning enough money to pay their bills - but this is not true. Evidence shows that energy poverty predominantly affects those in work (often in two jobs), single parent households and the most vulnerable. That is why I firmly believe that access to energy is a social right - just like food, water, shelter, education and security.
This stupid 'war' on Carbon Dioxide will go down in history as one of the more egregiously brain-dead examples of social marxism. This attempt to grab the reigns of power, to demonize progress and to redistribute money into the hands of a few oligarchs. Helped along by the useful idiots of the left and the scientists who did not have the moral backbone to decry Global Warming for the hucksterism that it is. I am reminded of the line about the missionaries who traveled to Hawaii in the early days and wound up owning sugar plantations - they came to do good and wound up doing well.
