D-Oh! Greek Prime Minister says it at last: Carbon tax good way to raise cash-Telegraph

11/16/10, "George Papandreou, the Greek prime minister has said that there may need to be new Europe-wide forms of taxation to help pay for the bail-outs that will be needed by the growing number of crashing economies in the euro-zone. His suggestions include

• “carbon dioxide taxes” which, he says, could provide “important revenues and resouces for funding such a [bail-out] mechanism.”

I’ve never actually heard a major politician (let alone a national leader) admit this before: what Mr Papandreou is saying is that carbon taxes would have not have the effect of reducing emissions - because if they did, they would be useless as an additional form of revenue.

• All the hokum that is talked about protecting the planet by taxing carbon use is just a front for the real purpose of such penalties on industry and consumers
  

which is to raise more money for governments to spend (in this case, on trying to remedy their own political follies)."

• 11/16/10, "Greek PM says it at last: carbon taxes are just another way to raise revenue," UK Telegraph, Janet Daley. via commenter to American Thinker
  

• (known in ClimateGate email as
  
• "American Stinker" by

ClimateGate emailer, 10/5/09:

• "Phil, It is distressing to read that American Stinker item. But Keith

• does seem to have got himself into a mess."...)