British Columbia's carbon tax shift

The 2012/13 estimates reflect the increased carbon tax rate, estimating $1.172 billion in carbon tax revenues compared to the $960 million in the revised forecast for 2011/12. [...] PETROLEUM FUEL USE To help understand the environmental effects of the carbon tax, we compared petroleum fuel consumption in BC to the consumption in the rest of Canada, counting only those petroleum fuels that are subject to the carbon tax.9 To factor out the effects of population growth and economic changes, the results are presented on both a per capita and per GDP basis. [...] If the carbon tax was a major driver of the post-2008 changes, we would expect to see that the rate of change in fuel use in BC compared to the rest of Canada declined more sharply in 2008- 11 than in 2000-2007. [...] So, while BC was already doing a bit better than the rest of Canada in reducing fuel use before 2008, its advantage grew sharply after the carbon tax came in – suggesting that the tax was an important contributor to BC’s success in reducing fuel use in the past four years. [...] To that end, we compare GHG emissions in BC to emissions in the rest of Canada, counting only those sources that are subject to the BC carbon tax (as was done for fuel use).10 10 The GHG emission sources subject to the tax and included in our sample are: stationary combustion emissions from fossil fuel production and refining; mining and oil & gas extraction; manufacturing; construction; commercia