On July 1, 2008, the Canadian province of British Columbia implemented a supposedly "revenue-neutral" carbon tax. The current tax rate is $30 per tonne of CO2 equivalent emissions. Over the past couple years, a number of carbon tax proponents in Canada and internationally have attempted to show that British Columbia's carbon tax has either not increased the cost of living in the province and/or has not reduced the province's economic performance relative to the rest of the nation. The economic data simply do not support these assertions. As the provincial government notes, "the carbon tax applies to the purchase or use of fuels within the province." Here are the tax rates by fuel: Putting a tax on energy might lead one to suspect that the inflation rate on energy in British Columbia will have increased faster than the rest of the country since the carbon tax was implemented. And, of course, it did.   The consumer price index...(Read Full Post)