Is a Carbon Tax a War on the Poor? (VIDEO)

by Austin Petersen

Host of The Big Picture Thom Hartmann invited The Libertarian Republic editor to discuss a proposed carbon tax on the energy industry. Hartmann believes that it’s time to start making companies pay in order to pollute. In the six-minute interview below, Austin Petersen confronts Hartmann with the fact that a carbon tax is regressive, meaning it hurts poor people the most. [contextly_sidebar id=”7956176ce947b5cf74eca2515da93d7a”]

Poor people pay a greater share of their income for necessities like gas and food. A carbon tax would require them to pay even more to heat and light their homes. Corporations don’t pay taxes, they simply pass the costs of doing business on to the consumers.

Australia’s new government has announced this week that killing their carbon tax is their first priority, due to the economic devastation that it has brought on. Despite a carbon tax of $37 a ton by 2020, Australia’s domestic emissions were going up, not down. The new Prime Minister recently stated that the tax was “socialism masquerading as environmentalism”.

A study by Dr. Alex Robson, an economist at Australia’s University of Brisbane found that the tax was contributing to a record 10,632 businesses facing insolvency in 2012, which is up from 10,481 for 2011.

The country’s hospitals were also being negatively affected. The Herald Sun reported that many Victoria provincial hospitals spent an extra $6.1 million in energy costs in just six months due to the carbon tax. The carbon tax made up an unbelievable 8-22% of the hospitals’ total energy costs.

So if turnabout can be fair play, we just have to ask: Why do left wingers hate poor people?



Austin Petersen is a homegrown Missourian with a lifelong passion for liberty. He grew up on a horse farm in Peculiar, Missouri and went on to attend Missouri State University, graduating with a degree in the Fine Arts. After developing a career in media in both New York City and Washington, D.C., he returned to Kansas City, MO, the city he now calls home. In 2016, Petersen appeared on the national stage as a candidate for president of the United States. He took second place in the crowded Libertarian primary behind Governor Gary Johnson and ahead of cyber security maverick John McAfee. During his campaign, Petersen earned many high-profile conservative endorsements, including Mary Matalin, Erick Erickson and Leon Wolf of RedState.com. Petersen also brings decades of professional experience in a wide variety of fields, from content production and media to business and political activism. He is the owner and chief executive of Stonegait LLC, a consulting firm specializing in photo and video services. He was also the director of production at FreedomWorks and an associate producer for Judge Andrew Napolitano’s show “Freedom Watch” on the Fox Business Network. Additionally, Petersen has a national following as a commentator and professional pundit. He is the founder of The Libertarian Republic, a powerful online news source for the public that receives an average of 1 million unique visits monthly and whose podcast, The Freedom Report, receives an average of one million monthly downloads. He is also a frequent contributor on television, appearing on Fox News, Fox Business, CNN, MSNBC and on dozens of local radio shows.

1 comment

Chris Noneofyourconcern November 13, 2013 at 7:16 am

I used to be a liberal because i always thought the left smarter. Now i consider my self a bi partisan libertarian.

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