What Short, Medium and Longterm effects would carbon taxes have on the Australian Economy??
This was selected as Best Answer Renewable sources of energy start becoming viable above $50/barrel for oil. Carbon taxes will add to the cost of fossil fuels and make alternate energy more attractive drawing in investments and lowering the threshhold further. Actually conventional energy usage is very inefficient and wasteful. More than two thirds of the chemical energy in coal or oil literally goes up in smoke. Carbon taxes would drive research in converting more of that chemical energy into useful work through nano technology, fuel cells etc. Another promising area is solar photo voltaic technology. Deserts in Australia and Sahara may become prime land even if there is no oil under the surface. Cars may have solar panel bodies and parked in the sun all day to collect energy for the drive back home in the evening. All street lighting may be disconnected from electricity utility power cables, houses with solar roofs may be net suppliers of power to the grid, cellular phone towers may
