Treasury Docs: Enviro Taxes Could Reach $400 Billion A Year

http://www.cbsnews.com/blogs/2009/09/18/taking_liberties/entry5322108.shtml

How much More money would be available for sustainable non pollution energy sources?

We are paying horrible costs for pollution right now. It's just that the victims are paying instead of the polluters.

Today's pollution causes the three "D's"

Disease
Death
Devaluation of private property

Seriously.

Don't Republicans have families? Or does their fake pro-life stance extend even to their own children: "Out of the womb, and you're on your own, kid."

If a tax is levied against individuals, it’s clear who pays it.

If a tax is levied against corporations, it’s less clear where the money comes from. However, in the end, like everything else, the increased tax will be paid by consumers in the form of higher prices.

But that’s the thing about “Cap and Trade.” Let’s say that corporations “A” and “B” both produce widgets. However, corporation “A” is able to produce widgets in a way that does not require burning as much fossil fuel as corporation “B” does. Thanks to “Cap and Trade” corporation “B” will have greater operating expenses, and their products will be more expensive. That means consumers will tend to buy their widgets from corporation “A.” Furthermore, corporation “B” may wind up buying credits from corporation “A.” (No business wants to give money to their competition!)

Not that I'm not paying attention or do not care.
We have lowered our household carbon print from 12 tons to 3.
WE recycle, try to buy local stuff, trade with neighbors, some times barter.
When we moved in this house (total electric) it used 3300 kilo watt hours a month, that was with us turning off lights etc.

Since then we changed every light in the house for CFLs, we brought a bunch with us from the place we were renting. Replaced the dying 1990 grand caravan that had 270,000 miles..the transmission went for the third time and it was hard on gas, I put a K&N air filter in it it would get 20 mpg over the 15 it got when I got it. Also put semisynth oil in it. That is supposed to make better lube, the engine was perfectly fine..the rest was disintegrating. We have a 1998 Dakota v6 same engine as the van did with the K&N air filter semi synt oil washed waxed with Dupont teflon and the tonneau cover it will get 25 mpg, it got 15 when we bought it.
The replacement for the van was a Nissan Versa, 33 in town 36 on the road, with the semi-synthetic oil and the K&N air filter it now gets 39mpg.

As the CFLs die I have been replacing with LEDs from Sams Club 15$ a pair and use 3.5 watts, Energy Star deep freeze, dishwasher, and front loader clothes washer.
We are down to 1100 kilo watt hours per month.
The old 32" CRT tv died , we replaced with a projector on sale 1/2 price of a new lcd and uses about half the power 200 watts, 75 watts with the extra speakers turned up we now have a high density picture on the wall and I can read the scrawl on the news.

I painted the roof with white reflective paint, sealed holes around pipes and wires, put gaskets in the light and outlet covers(i think the rate is 8 or 10 equals an open window) double jacket on the water heater plus styro panels put on the walls of the closet its in, turned it to 120 since the dw and front loader both have on board heaters. We are on a well so water savings is also power savings. We have a solar water heater to install, but need balance of system and I have been laid up for most of this year. Insulated curtain liners (20 25$at lowes) made a big difference especially on the glass slider doors. We hang laundry out to dry. We have low use shower heads, actually have great pressure in all 3 bathrooms and all sinks.
We have not used the heatpump/ac at all this summer. We used a small kero heater in the kitchen that warms the whole house we used 2/3 less fuel this past winter compared to the 1 before that. The heat pump switches over to a heater coil.
Then the meter does a very good imitation of a childs toy top.

Things yet to do, replace windows and doors as they are cheap and the vinyl is deteriorating, metal roof and siding, siding is vinyl and rapidly disintegrating as are the roof shingles. Painting will hold things together until we can afford the new roof, it is warranted for 8yrs.There is no wrap under the siding we will add more insulation, house wrap that has built in space to allow moisture to escape. Get an induction cook top and convection oven. I have a small one that has a rotisserie, but it is about done. I use it instead of the big oven most of the time and cook in covered pots. We need to get cisterns built to catch rain and run solar powered irrigation for the food garden and orchard, and reuse gray water on shade trees and orchard. We plan to swap the toilets for dual flush, the ones here alread us about 4 5 gallons a flush.
I plan to get another bike my city bike is not suitable to where we live now..the gravel kills those skinny tires even with tube protectors in them.

If we do all of that we think we can be down to the only fossil fuel will be the car, truck, tiller, and tractor. The car uses about 1 1/2 11 gallon tanks a week I fill the trucks 15 (usually takes 12 gallons) tank about once a month some times two a month. We bought the truck new and have taken care of it.
The car was really an unexpected expense, but the truck is getting old.
After we pay off the car we plan to put up a 2 kw solar/wind hybrid system w/battery back ups..that will cover our use and when the grid power is down we will still hve water. The solar water heater is big enough to provide domestic and underfloor radiant heat for at least the bathrooms.

What is the dollar figure used to represent 10% (or 20% or 50% or 80%) of the American public starving to death from AGW? Any of those percentages is possible, imo. That $400 billion translates into $13k/American saved in the case of possible 10% starvation; $1,700/American saved in the case of possible 80% starvation.

Is it worth it? I think so, but I'm prejudiced in favor of people NOT starving to death even if that necessitates more taxes. Sociopaths may of course feel differently.

The cover letter from Treasury to CEI. Note the sentences in bold:

Dear Mr. Horner'
By letter dated September 11,2009, we provided a response to your Freedom of Information Act
request dated April30, 2009. Certain portions of the documents provided to you contained
information that is privileged, deliberative, and pre-decisional, including financial estimates
available the public domain that were collected and summarized by Treasury staff, along with
preliminary assessments and recommendations. This information was provided to new and
incoming senior Treasury officials during the presidential transition to assist in their decision-
making. Because those portions of the documents do not reflect the official views of
Treasury Department and are exempt from disclosure under FOIA's Exemption Five, Treasury
officials opted to redact these portions.
the interest of promoting transparency, however, Treasury has now decided, its discretion,
to release the exempted portions of these documents. Attached are the un-redacted versions
released documents.
All numerical estimates contained in these documents were based on Treasury staff review of
prior publicly available analyses; no independent Treasury analysis underlies these estimates.
This is a final response to your request. Should you decide to appeal this response, you must do
so 35 days of the date of this letter. Your appeal must be in writing, signed by you, and
should reason(s) you believe an adequate search was not conducted. Your appeal should be
addressed to:
Department of Treasury
Freedom of Information Act Appeal
Disclosure Services, DO