When You Absolutely Need a Carbon Tax

We’ve mentioned here, as the cap-and-trade legislation heats up, that conservatives have had a problems with it despite it being the more conservative carbon emissions reduction method. The more liberal one is a carbon tax, which could conceivably have some kind of progressivity, or become more onerous as years passed, but would really put an immediate burden on the energy section.

We’d position them this way ideologically because cap-and-trade aims to introduce a free-market element – a trade in carbon credits - that appeals to conservatives while a carbon tax does not, placing the public good over other qualities, most especially business comfort. But sometimes ideology just skids away on oily tracks.

We offer this preamble to bring you here:

On the topic of carbon emissions, Smith advocates a straight carbon tax.

“We would support, if the Congress in the United States wants to do it, a carbon tax,” he said, according to the Commercial Appeal.

And who’s Mr. Smith? That villainous duplicative agent from The Matrix? No, Mr. Smith is FedEx Chief Executive Officer Fred Smith. Here’s more:

“It’s straightforward. It’s clear. It’s directly related to the sin, which is the production of CO2, the burning of carbon,” he continued. “I agree very much with former vice president Al Gore, who said, ‘Tax carbon, which you don’t want to have, and reward work, which you do want to have.’ Tax carbon and reduce the payroll tax.”

Anything else?

“Anybody who’s concerned with national security, our balance of payments, with our national economic security, should be a proponent of nuclear power,” he said.

Now we’re cooking with gas. Obviously, the nature of the overnight delivery business suggests pretty heavy carbon emissions. But FedEx is trying:

Today, the success story for cleaner truck technology continues. FedEx now operates more than 172 hybrid vehicles around the globe, including the largest fleet of commercial hybrid trucks in North America, which comprises nearly one-third of the deployed North American hybrid market. The FedEx hybrid vehicles have logged more than two million miles of revenue service.

FedEx has about 48,000 delivery vans, so a very tiny drop in the bucket. Early days, though, and FedEx is clearly trying to get ahead of an issue that could bite it hard. We’re not sure this is the right way to put it, but business will move, out of self-interest as well as corporate good citizen goals, to be sensitive to customer concerns as they take hold. But it also has to live in the world that’s here while waiting for the world that’s coming. That means 172 hybrids out of 48,000 total.

And it’s almost a sure bet that a carbon tax would get that number up quickly. In a way, what Smith wants is to kick FedEx all the way ahead of the curve.

The nuclear comment is nice, but the interest here is in a company arguing for short-term pain where long-term gain can be seen. That’s not usual and it throws a fascinating spanner into Congress’ cozy embrace of cap-and-trade.

See here for more on FedEx’s current environmental initiatives from its perspective.

Fred Smith. He founded Federal Express in 1971; it became FedEx in 1998 after a merger with another company. Surprising longevity in the modern business world.

Activists' Claims Distort Facts about Advanced Reactor Design

Below is from our rapid response team . Yesterday, regional anti-nuclear organizations asked federal nuclear energy regulators to launch an investigation into what it claims are “newly identified flaws” in Westinghouse’s advanced reactor design, the AP1000. During a teleconference releasing a report on the subject, participants urged the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to suspend license reviews of proposed AP1000 reactors. In its news release, even the groups making these allegations provide conflicting information on its findings. In one instance, the groups cite “dozens of corrosion holes” at reactor vessels and in another says that eight holes have been documented. In all cases, there is another containment mechanism that would provide a barrier to radiation release. Below, we examine why these claims are unwarranted and why the AP1000 design certification process should continue as designated by the NRC. Myth: In the AP1000 reactor design, the gap between the shield bu...

What Happens During a Refueling Outage?

You may have noticed over the past few weeks that a number of nuclear plants are shut down for refueling outages or are resuming operations after just returning from one. This type of routine outage usually occurs in the spring or fall when electricity demand is low so that nuclear reactors can replace about one-third of the spent fuel rods with new fuel and conduct other routine maintenance and repairs at the plant. To get a better sense of how refueling works at a nuclear energy facility, I spoke with Marcus Nichol, NEI’s senior project manager for used fuel storage and transportation, and asked him to explain the basics. Why does a nuclear plant need to replace one-third of its fuel? Nichol: The main purpose of a refueling outage is to replace older fuel that is depleted—meaning it can no longer efficiently produce energy from nuclear fission reactions—with new fuel. This “used fuel” has typically been used in the reactor for four-and-a-half to six years before it is pe...

How Much Land Does Nuclear, Wind and Solar Really Need?

Not too long ago, we reviewed a report that looked at nuclear energy (and other energy sources) as biodiversity agents. This had to do, in part, with the amount of land a facility needs to function. Nuclear energy and fossil fuel plants use relatively little, wind farms and solar arrays quite a lot of land . Based on an objective and transparent analysis of our sustainable energy choices, we have come to the evidence-based conclusion that nuclear energy is a good option for biodiversity conservation (and society in general) and that other alternatives to fossil fuels should be subjected to the same cost–benefit analyses (in terms of biodiversity and climate outcomes, as well as sociopolitical imperatives) before accepting or dismissing them. Writer Barry Brook, who collected 75 scientists to endorse his paper, is interested in land use as it impacts flora and fauna. Biodiversity concerns do not get as much play as they might – and, when they do, it annoys many when land is withdraw...

NEI Nuclear Notes

Search This Blog