HB 18-8: Amendment to the Carbon Tax Act (Passed)

[Esteemed Jimmy]

Amendment to the Carbon Tax Act

AN ACT OF CONGRESS
To impose a tax on the burning of carbon-based fuels, and to incentivize minimizing carbon emissions through conservation, substitution, and innovation


Be it enacted by the Congress of the Republic of Atlasia assembled;

SECTION 1. TITLE

This legislation may be cited as the Carbon Tax Act.

SECTION 2. FINDINGS

Whereby the Congress of the Republic of Atlasia hereby acknowledges:

That increasing levels of CO2 in the Earth's atmosphere are destabilizing established climate patterns and damaging ecosystems;

That rapid reductions in Atlasia's and other nations' carbon emissions are essential to avoid runaway climate destabilization and minimize severe weather events, inundation of coastal cities, spread of diseases, loss of forests, failure of agriculture and water supply, infrastructure destruction, forced migrations, political upheavals, and international conflict;

Current prices of electricity, gasoline, and other fuels reflect little or none of the long-term costs from climate change or even near-term health costs of burning fossil fuels, and this suppresses incentives to develop and deploy carbon-reducing measures such as energy efficiency

SECTION 3. TAX RATES

Following are tax rates consistent with charging $50.00 per ton of carbon (not carbon dioxide) emitted.
 Consistent with the intent of phasing this level in over a five-year period, the rates for years 1 through 4 will be calculated by multiplying the rates in the table by 20%, 40%, 60% and 80%, respectively.

All rates are expressed in dollars per million Btu of fuel.

---
Bituminous coal ----- $1.40
Subbituminous coal - $1.45
Lignite ----------------- $1.47
Crude Oil -------------- $1.12
Gasoline --------------- $1.07
Residual Fuel Oil ----- $1.18
Natural Gas ----------- $0.80
---

SECTION 4. REBATES FOR CO2 CONTROL

Paying entities may be eligible for a partial or total rebate of the tax payments if the paying entity can prove that some or all of the carbon dioxide emissions will be kept from entering the Earth's atmosphere for millennia.

SECTION 5. EQUAL DISTRIBUTION OF FEDERAL REVENUES TO ATLASIAN CITIZENS (GREEN CHECKS)

1. 70 30% of revenues generated by the carbon tax shall be distributed on an equal basis to all Atlasian households on a quarterly time basis via cheque, which shall henceforth be referred to as "green checks."

2. 30% of revenues generated by the carbon tax shall be used to cover the costs of the Renewable Energy Rebate and Subsidy Act.

3. 10% of revenues generated by the carbon tax shall be used to fund federal grants for research and development to discover and implement new renewable energy sources and improve on existing sources.

4. 15% of the revenues generated by the carbon tax shall be used to aid in reducing our national deficit.

5. 15% of the revenues generated by the carbon tax shall be used to provide additional funding for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), with no less than 33% of this funding being reserved for the National Weather Service (NWS)


SECTION 6. BORDER CARBON TAX ADJUSTMENT

Goods imported from countries without a carbon tax will be subject to a tax on their value upon importation equal to the cost of Atlasia's carbon tax for the amount of carbon involved in the production of the product.

This amendment is intended to redistribute how we spent the revenues generated by the carbon tax, and allow for funding towards new research in renewable energy and deficit reduction.

People's House of Representatives
Passed in the House of Representatives 7-1-0-1

Sponsor: fhtagn
House Designation: HB 18-8

[Esteemed Jimmy]

HB 18-8 is now on the House floor. Debate on this legislation has begun and shall last for no less than 72 hours.

[fhtagn]

When I signed this into law as President, I was thrilled to take this step towards holding ourselves accountable for what we are doing to the environment. That being said, one of my main concerns with this was how much of the revenues are going towards green checks. While I understand the purpose behind it, I feel that we need to be smarter with the revenues generated. People will still receive green checks, but a smaller amount, with some of those funds going towards federal grants and deficit reduction.

[fhtagn]

If anyone has any questions or concerns, I'd be more than happy to answer/discuss.

[Terry the Fat Shark]

I am tempted to suggest you route 30% to NOAA instead, which very much needs more funding (including the NWS), who are a key part of determining the extent of climate change and providing weather updates in a timely manner nationwide, especially in times of severe/winter weather.

[fhtagn]

I am tempted to suggest you route 30% to NOAA instead, which very much needs more funding (including the NWS), who are a key part of determining the extent of climate change and providing weather updates in a timely manner nationwide, especially in times of severe/winter weather.

I'd be open to compromise on an amendment for this.

[Terry the Fat Shark]

I am tempted to suggest you route 30% to NOAA instead, which very much needs more funding (including the NWS), who are a key part of determining the extent of climate change and providing weather updates in a timely manner nationwide, especially in times of severe/winter weather.

I'd be open to compromise on an amendment for this.

We could go 15/15 or something like that

[fhtagn]

I am tempted to suggest you route 30% to NOAA instead, which very much needs more funding (including the NWS), who are a key part of determining the extent of climate change and providing weather updates in a timely manner nationwide, especially in times of severe/winter weather.

I'd be open to compromise on an amendment for this.

We could go 15/15 or something like that

I'm not in a position to draft that amendment to my amendment, but I can work with that.

Edit: Clarifying that I'm not in a position because I'm not at my laptop, and doing it on mobile is a pain.

[YE]

How much would 30% provide money wise to NOAA?

This bill is a good idea BTW.

[Terry the Fat Shark]

Proposing this amendment:

Amendment to the Carbon Tax Act

AN ACT OF CONGRESS
To impose a tax on the burning of carbon-based fuels, and to incentivize minimizing carbon emissions through conservation, substitution, and innovation


Be it enacted by the Congress of the Republic of Atlasia assembled;

SECTION 1. TITLE

This legislation may be cited as the Carbon Tax Act.

SECTION 2. FINDINGS

Whereby the Congress of the Republic of Atlasia hereby acknowledges:

That increasing levels of CO2 in the Earth's atmosphere are destabilizing established climate patterns and damaging ecosystems;

That rapid reductions in Atlasia's and other nations' carbon emissions are essential to avoid runaway climate destabilization and minimize severe weather events, inundation of coastal cities, spread of diseases, loss of forests, failure of agriculture and water supply, infrastructure destruction, forced migrations, political upheavals, and international conflict;

Current prices of electricity, gasoline, and other fuels reflect little or none of the long-term costs from climate change or even near-term health costs of burning fossil fuels, and this suppresses incentives to develop and deploy carbon-reducing measures such as energy efficiency

SECTION 3. TAX RATES

Following are tax rates consistent with charging $50.00 per ton of carbon (not carbon dioxide) emitted.
 Consistent with the intent of phasing this level in over a five-year period, the rates for years 1 through 4 will be calculated by multiplying the rates in the table by 20%, 40%, 60% and 80%, respectively.

All rates are expressed in dollars per million Btu of fuel.

---
Bituminous coal ----- $1.40
Subbituminous coal - $1.45
Lignite ----------------- $1.47
Crude Oil -------------- $1.12
Gasoline --------------- $1.07
Residual Fuel Oil ----- $1.18
Natural Gas ----------- $0.80
---

SECTION 4. REBATES FOR CO2 CONTROL

Paying entities may be eligible for a partial or total rebate of the tax payments if the paying entity can prove that some or all of the carbon dioxide emissions will be kept from entering the Earth's atmosphere for millennia.

SECTION 5. EQUAL DISTRIBUTION OF FEDERAL REVENUES TO ATLASIAN CITIZENS (GREEN CHECKS)

1. 70 30% of revenues generated by the carbon tax shall be distributed on an equal basis to all Atlasian households on a quarterly time basis via cheque, which shall henceforth be referred to as "green checks."

2. 30% of revenues generated by the carbon tax shall be used to cover the costs of the Renewable Energy Rebate and Subsidy Act.

3. 10% of revenues generated by the carbon tax shall be used to fund federal grants for research and development to discover and implement new renewable energy sources and improve on existing sources.

4. 15% of the revenues generated by the carbon tax shall be used to aid in reducing our national deficit.

5. 15% of the revenues generated by the carbon tax shall be used to provide additional funding for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), with no less than 33% of this funding being reserved for the National Weather Service (NWS)


SECTION 6. BORDER CARBON TAX ADJUSTMENT

Goods imported from countries without a carbon tax will be subject to a tax on their value upon importation equal to the cost of Atlasia's carbon tax for the amount of carbon involved in the production of the product.

This amendment is intended to redistribute how we spent the revenues generated by the carbon tax, and allow for funding towards new research in renewable energy and deficit reduction.

People's House of Representatives
Pending

[Fmr. Representative Encke]

How much would 30% provide money wise to NOAA?

This bill is a good idea BTW.

The costing of the original carbon tax bill was given as 16.35 billion dollars by Thumb in the 2018 budget (year 1). By year 5 (FY 2022), the total revenue generated should be around 82 billion per year. 15% of this is 12.3 billion, which would represent a more than 200% increase in the NOAA budget (which, in RL, is 5.5 billion) by 2022. I'm not entirely sure which category NOAA would be under in the Atlasian system, so I'm not sure how much funding it actually receives in-game. Thumb seems to have applied some sort of broad spending multiplier when he did the 2018 budget that reduced spending numbers across the board, which I think may be the source of some of the discrepancies that Mr. R found in the audit as well as discrepancies in spaceflight funding that were found during a space council meeting.

(side note: At the time I did the budget, I was unaware that the carbon tax increased year-by-year, so I didn't modify the numbers in my FY2019 revenue estimates for said budget. This doesn't affect the deficit at all since the original bill had 100% of revenues going towards green checks and the RER&SA, and I'll make sure to fix that mistake in the FY2020 budget)

(another note: I actually did the cost analysis for the original carbon tax bill back in October 2017, and estimated a slightly higher revenue estimate for the first year, 20.5 billion. I'll defer to Thumb's analysis though, since October 2017 was when I started falling off the radar in terms of activity)

[fhtagn]

Amendment is friendly

[Terry the Fat Shark]

Amendment is friendly

just fixed an error as you said that, adjusted nws part of the 15% to 33%, was a little confused before and put 5%

[KoopaDaQuick 🇵🇸]

Mr. Speaker, should we table this bill for now?

[fhtagn]

Mr. Speaker, should we table this bill for now?

Why would we table it?

[P. Clodius Pulcher did nothing wrong]

Mr. Speaker, should we table this bill for now?

Second

[fhtagn]

I'd like to hear a legitimate reason why this should be tabled from the Representatives motioning to table this.

[Esteemed Jimmy]

A vote on whether to table this bill has begun. Please vote AYE, NAY, or ABSTAIN. A two-thirds majority is needed.

[P. Clodius Pulcher did nothing wrong]

Aye

[Esteemed Jimmy]

Nay

[fhtagn]

Nay.

And if for some reason this is tabled, I will absolutely reintroduce this immediately and demand an explanation for why this was tabled in the first place, especially by Representatives who can't be bothered to do their jobs and actually offer debate on the bill. Stop being lazy.

[Coastal Elitist]

Nay

[KoopaDaQuick 🇵🇸]

I'd like to hear a legitimate reason why this should be tabled from the Representatives motioning to table this.

Because nothing has been done with this bill as of recent.


Anyways, Aye

[fhtagn]

I'd like to hear a legitimate reason why this should be tabled from the Representatives motioning to table this.

Because nothing has been done with this bill as of recent.


Anyways, Aye

If you bothered doing your job and reading the thread, yes, it has. And amendment was offered yesterday that I deemed friendly.

[Fmr. Representative Encke]

I'd like to hear a legitimate reason why this should be tabled from the Representatives motioning to table this.

Because nothing has been done with this bill as of recent.


Anyways, Aye

What? Comments were made on this bill as late as yesterday night.