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Air levy will add £45 to family holiday
Greenhouse gases and carbon trading schemes coming to the EU, and if the Dems have their way, to the US, too. Watch yer wallets, folks!
An average family faces the threat of nearly £45 being added to the cost of a holiday if the European parliament rubber stamps a plan for green curbs on airlines this week.
Pick on the airlines and dip into the people's purse is the name o' the game.
European MPs will debate the latest proposals for an "emissions trading scheme" (ETS) that the aviation industry fears could see carriers going bust.
Let's tax people and industry more and destroy more private enterprise.
Last month senior aviation executives, meeting at the industry summit in Istanbul, warned that the rising cost of oil was already threatening the future of low-cost air travel.
Hope they were watching their wallets there.
Now there is the likelihood of a substantial environmental levy in addition to aviation taxes raised by individual governments.

In Britain this additional charge would come on top of an anticipated increase in aviation duties, which some believe could add as much as £170 to the cost of a long-haul family holiday by 2012.

This will also be when the emissions trading scheme is due to come into force, which will hit all airlines flying to and from European Union airports.

Brussels appears ready to press ahead with the scheme, which is designed to cut greenhouse gas emissions from the aviation industry, even though oil prices have soared since the plans were first mooted.
"Does not affect us, we don't pay taxes. We just institute taxes and you pay them."
After prolonged haggling between governments, a compromise package was agreed last month.
Well catered, I'm sure.
But it still has to be ratified by the European Parliament and this is likely to happen on Wednesday, after which it will become law.
"Rubber stamp that sucker and we'll start rakin' in the dough for *ahem* discretionary spending projects."
Under the scheme airlines will have to pay for the greenhouse gases they emit via a complex licensing system known as "carbon permits".
Which means higher ticket prices. Much higher ticket prices.
Every airline will be allocated a ceiling – based on their emissions between 2004 and 2006.

In 2012 the cap will be 97 per cent of this level, falling to 95 per cent the following year. Carriers wanting to go above their permitted threshold will have to buy carbon credits to do so. Even those who stay below their agreed ceiling will have to buy permits for 15 per cent of the carbon output, with the money going to national governments.
We cheat the other guy and pass the savings on to you.
---Chilkoot Charlie
It is estimated that this would cost the aviation industry £2.8 billion a year – equivalent to £5.55 a ticket – or £11.10 for a return flight.

"Unless the Government cuts the taxes it imposes on passengers when ETS comes in, it will be a case of fly once and pay twice," said an easyJet spokesman.
Maybe people will quit flying and the whole scheme will do nothing but destroy an industry reeling from astronomical fuel prices.
The burden for anyone flying to the United States from Britain would be even worse, with Washington considering an emissions trading scheme for American companies.
THEM are fighting words! Another battle for American Taxpayers. *sigh*
This, it is estimated, would add another £18 to the cost of a transatlantic ticket.

Simon Evans, the chief executive of the passengers' watchdog, the Air Transport Users Council, said: "We do accept that passengers have an obligation to mitigate their carbon footprint. But it is not fair that we should be singled out more than anyone else."
Posted by: Alaska Paul 2008-07-09
http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.php?ID=243718