Carbon Tax Provisions Hidden in Bailout Bill

Perhaps one of the biggest side-effects of the Senate bailout bill passed yesterday may prove to be the carbon tax measures tucked away in its 451 pages.

News Busters reveals that Section 117 mandates a ‘carbon audit of the tax code’ to be completed within the next two years that will determine which carbon tax measures will be put into place.

SEC. 117. CARBON AUDIT OF THE TAX CODE.

(a) STUDY.—The Secretary of the Treasury shall enter into an agreement with the National Academy of Sciences to undertake a comprehensive review of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 to identify the types of and specific tax provisions that have the largest effects on carbon and other greenhouse gas emissions and to estimate the magnitude of those effects.

Among other global warming taxation pimps, Goldman Sachs, under Henry Paulson’s direction, released a statement several years ago pushing for carbon trading, stating that “voluntary action alone cannot solve the climate change problem.” Now we are on the cusp of compulsory measures taking hold.

House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Charles Rangel indicated that these tax breaks and others were likely pass in some other legislation anyway. Forbes reports:

In 2008 another piece of major legislation was introduced: the Lieberman-Warner bill, which would implement a nationwide cap-and-trade program on carbon emissions. That would instantly change the landscape for any energy producer. The bill failed this year but is likely to return for the next Congress–both presidential candidates favor a cap-and-trade program.

Additionally, various other ‘carbon credit’ schemes and incentives have been put into place for businesses utilizing carbon mitigation, carbon sequestering, renewable energy, biofuels and/or other alternative energy sources. (Ref. DIVISION B—Energy Improvement and Extension Act of 2008 , summary pages 114-115).

Subtitle A–Renewable Energy Incentives
Sec. 101. Renewable energy credit.
Sec. 102. Production credit for electricity produced from marine renewables.
Sec. 103. Energy credit.
Sec. 104. Energy credit for small wind property.
Sec. 105. Energy credit for geothermal heat pump systems.
Sec. 106. Credit for residential energy efficient property.
Sec. 107. New clean renewable energy bonds.
Sec. 108. Credit for steel industry fuel.
Sec. 109. Special rule to implement FERC and State electric restructuring policy.

Subtitle B—Carbon Mitigation and Coal Provisions
Sec. 111. Expansion and modification of advanced coal project investment credit.
Sec. 112. Expansion and modification of coal gasification investment credit.
Sec. 113. Temporary increase in coal excise tax; funding of Black Lung Disability Trust Fund.
Sec. 114. Special rules for refund of the coal excise tax to certain coal producers and exporters.
Sec. 115. Tax credit for carbon dioxide sequestration.
Sec. 116. Certain income and gains relating to industrial source carbon dioxide treated as qualifying income for publicly traded partnerships.
Sec. 117. Carbon audit of the tax code.

So the bailout will not only facilitate the government takeover of assets with broad and very unchecked power, but will pave the way to carbon taxation schemes? And how does CO2 hysteria bear any relation to our economic woes? Only in that both are movements towards greater consolidation and control.

Forcing the economy to develop a ‘carbon conscience’ not only would likely be a stumbling block to economic stimulation, but trading carbon-credits on the market seemingly puts real assets in even greater jeopardy and goes beyond leveraging and fiat federal reserve currency further into the realm of imaginary-fiction funny money– and puts globalist monopoly men one step closer to total control.