I’d normally be hesitant to depend upon one single report from Novosti about goings on in the world but this (via Reason’s Hit and Run ) is simply too good to ignore.
Experts said that between 50 and 100 grams of CO2, a so-called greenhouse gas, is emitted during barbequing. Beginning June 2007, residents of Wallonia will have to pay 20 euros for a grilling session.
The local authorities plan to monitor compliance with the new tax legislation from helicopters, whose thermal sensors will detect burning grills.
As Reason points out, they’re going to use helicopters (1 tonne of CO2 emitted per 900 miles flown) to look for BBQs that emit 50 grammes of CO2? That is, that for every 900 miles flown, they’ve got to uncover (or deter) 20,000 illegal BBQs?
Surely this is simply a late April Fool’s entry?
If it isn’t, well, I guess that Iain Murray is right that Pigou taxes aren’t quite what I like to think they are. If we take the numbers from the Stern Review (yes, yes, disagree if you wish but let’s at least follow the green logic to see where it leads shall we?) then the correct tax on one tonne of CO2 is $85. This is some 0.62 euro cents per 100 grammes CO2. The point of Pigou taxes is, remember, to only tax the actual cost of the externality so this is in fact over taxation by the order of 3,000 % or so (if my math is correct, not a certainty).
If over taxation at that sort of level is what our Lords and Masters have in mind to stop the oceans from flooding the rice paddies well, paraphrasing the last words of King George V, bugger Bangladesh.
I would much rather believe that the translation unit at Novosti is simply a couple of days slow on this.