Carbon Tax Should Credit to Development of Green Energy

Carbon Tax Should Credit to Development of Green Energy

        Journalist Eduardo Porter claims in the November 18, 2014 The New York Times article “A Carbon Tax Could Bolster Green Energy” that carbon tax is the tool currently available with the most promise in trimming carbon emissions on a relevant scale. This proposal is in the light of the fact that although the use of alternative energy sources such as bioenergy, geothermal, and offshore wind is possible; technologies in these fields are lagging. Even the competitive wind-, that added 40 percent to the nation’s power grid capacity in 2012, and photovoltaic solar- powered electricity have futures that are uncertain (Porter, 2014). This shake on the road to a low-carbon future is attributed to a slow-down in worldwide investment in renewable power. One contributing factor considered for the falter is the rapid consolidation of the photovoltaic solar cells industry that stopped the product’s prices steeply fall. In the United States, the “slow-down” is also saying to be caused by the termination of federal subsidies as Congress Republicans give little interest in renewable energy for the uncertainty of its production tax credit. However, the author declares that the uncertainty resulting from the world’s hesitant progress towards reducing greenhouse gas emissions is beneficial as it could lead to other promising technologies being developed. Unfortunately, the same uncertainly could also mean that man is not yet ready to take the low carbon style. The fact is troublesome climatic disruption that needs to be avoided, so a carbon tax that could encourage the reduction of the use of fossil fuels and increase investments in alternatives should be in place until such time that the world gathers the political will to mobilize the necessary technologies (Porter, 2014).  

        The information and numbers presented in the article leave readers dog-tired and in doubt over how thoughtless and selfish the current society has become. The clamor over climate change and the destruction it could bring to human’s life has been continuing through the years that only a handful of the world’s population remains naïve to the severity of the climate changes. Nonetheless taxing carbon emission with a progressive taxation policy somehow might contributable toward narrowing damages, it is just another sort of shock therapy and will not resolve the problem of quantitative emissions itself. In addition, it is overwhelming how those who are more updated with the issue could be aware of importance of developing solar and wind technologies however not yet feel the need for the urgency for remedies. It is unbelievable how the congress with its power to regulate in behalf of the benefit of its people can easily lose interest for the simple reason of “uncertainty” as the alternation toward energy production tax credit. It can be embarrassing that R&Ds of new technologies that could lengthen the earth’s borrowed time lack the support that they should have for economic reasons due to a high fixed cost from invention and preservations. At the same time, it is no longer surprising how easily society allows beneficial intervention as photovoltaic solar cells being reduced to mere commodities instead of the significant technological advancement that they are.