Chileans Protest Consequences of “Green” Energyhttps://fcpp.org/2019/11/26/chileans-protest-consequences-of-green-energy/
Chile’s protests are the latest example of green policies coming back to bite the elites that imposed them on the populace. A year ago, a fuel-tax hike unleashed violent riots in France and gave birth to the Yellow Vest movement. Similar demonstrations erupted in Belgium, the Netherlands, and the United Kingdom. Five weeks later, the strikes spread to Canada, where protestors protested Canada’s Prime Minister’s carbon tax and impediments to the nation’s energy sector.
Comparable grievances in different parts of the world highlight a common theme: top-down measures to boost green-energy production are self-defeating. As Epoch Times columnist James Taylor has noted, “faced with a choice between suffering certain lower living standards today or dealing with speculative climate change in the distant future, people wisely choose the latter.”
Alberta’s repeal of the carbon tax is exhibit A.
https://fcpp.org/2019/08/30/albertas-carbon-tax-repeal-already-bearing-fruits/
Businesses and consumers realized it was making their lives much harder than what proponents had promised—so they rightfully rejected it. If Canadians will not tolerate unnecessary higher energy prices, one cannot expect poorer Chileans to stand by passively.
The social disruption in Chile should be in the minds of Canadian policymakers when they enact the next green fad.
In particular, creating environmental regulations and programs without looking at the price tag for citizens is akin to creating a time bomb. An economic downturn or changing international trade may be all that is needed to set it off.