Carbon taxes will destroy Ireland’s rural economy, farmers warn 

Irish farm [image credit: climatenewsnetwork.net]

H/T The GWPF.
France has rebelled; will it soon be Ireland’s turn? The EU-backed pressure for taxing the harmless trace gas carbon dioxide, with heavy penalties for anyone who fails to do so, is causing convulsions in various quarters.

The Irish Farmers’ Association and the Irish Creamery Milk Supplier Association (ICMSA) have hit out at the possibility of carbon taxes being introduced to curb greenhouse gas emissions, reports The Irish Independent.

The farm organisations’ comments follow warnings from Richard Bruton, the Minister for Communications, Climate Action and the Environment, that Ireland is “far off course” in achieving its CO2 reduction targets.

Ireland is facing massive fines because of its failure to meet strict EU targets, and Minister Bruton said that imposing carbon taxes will be among a suite of measures aimed at controlling emissions.

However, ICMSA president Pat McCormack said the reality of farming’s importance to the rural economy must be given equal consideration to the “scientific and environmental reality” of climate change.

“Farming and food production is not just a part of the rural economy; to a huge degree it is the total of our rural economy, and undermining it through fuel tax hikes will simply destroy the only meaningful economy in whole swathes of the state outside the cities and larger towns,” said Mr McCormack.

Continued here.