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Singh must push Trudeau to scrap the carbon tax

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From the Canadian Taxpayers Federation

Author: Franco Terrazzano

The Canadian Taxpayers Federation is urging NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh to formally call on Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to scrap the carbon tax.

“It’s good to hear Singh start to talk about opposing the carbon tax, but that’s not enough,” said Franco Terrazzano, CTF Federal Director. “Singh must prove to taxpayers he’s serious and forcefully push Trudeau to completely scrap the carbon tax.”

Today, the Globe and Mail reported that “Singh signalled his party is planning to oppose the current carbon tax on Canadian consumers.”

“We want to see an approach to fighting the climate crisis where it doesn’t put the burden on the backs of working people,” Singh said.

The carbon tax currently costs 17 cents per litre of gasoline, 21 cents per litre of diesel and 15 cents per cubic metre of natural gas. Trudeau plans to increase the carbon tax to 37 cents per litre of gasoline by 2030.

The Parliamentary Budget Officer says the carbon tax is a net overall cost for average families when all costs are included. The federal government also charges the GST on top of the carbon tax. This carbon tax-on-tax will cost taxpayers $595 million this year. That money is not rebated back to Canadians.

Opposition to the carbon tax is not new for the NDP.

“Canada is a cold place and heating your home really isn’t a choice,” said former NDP leader Jack Layton. “We shouldn’t punish people, and that’s what a carbon tax does.”

Layton did not support the Liberal carbon tax proposal in the 2008 election.

“Layton opposed the carbon tax and he was proven right at the ballot box,” said Terrazzano. “Singh needs to follow that example and fight the carbon tax to prove he cares about taxpayers.”

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Artificial Intelligence

Apple faces proposed class action over its lag in Apple Intelligence

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News release from The Deep View

Apple, already moving slowly out of the gate on generative AI, has been dealing with a number of roadblocks and mounting delays in its effort to bring a truly AI-enabled Siri to market. The problem, or, one of the problems, is that Apple used these same AI features to heavily promote its latest iPhone, which, as it says on its website, was “built for Apple Intelligence.”
Now, the tech giant has been accused of false advertising in a proposed class action lawsuit that argues that Apple’s “pervasive” marketing campaign was “built on a lie.”
The details: Apple has — if reluctantly — acknowledged delays on a more advanced Siri, pulling one of the ads that demonstrated the product and adding a disclaimer to its iPhone 16 product page that the feature is “in development and will be available with a future software update.”
  • But that, to the plaintiffs, isn’t good enough. Apple, according to the complaint, has “deceived millions of consumers into purchasing new phones they did not need based on features that do not exist, in violation of multiple false advertising and consumer protection laws.”
  • Apple “enriched itself by saving the costs they reasonably should have spent on ensuring that the (iPhones) had the technical capabilities advertised,” according to the complaint.
Apple did not respond to a request for comment.
The lawsuit was first reported by Axios, and can be read here.
This all comes amid an executive shuffling that just took place over at Apple HQ, which put Vision Pro creator Mike Rockwell in charge of the Siri overhaul, according to Bloomberg.
Still, shares of Apple rallied to close the day up around 2%, though the stock is still down 12% for the year.
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28 energy leaders call for eliminating ALL energy subsidies—even ones they benefit from

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Energy Talking Points by Alex Epstein

Alex Epstein

This is the kind of integrity we need from industry—and from Congress.

Dear Chairman Smith and Chairman Crapo:

We, the undersigned American energy producers and investors, write to voice our principled support for full repeal of the Inflation Reduction Act’s (IRA) energy subsidies, including subsidies that would appear to be to our firms’ and industry’s benefit. This is the only moral and practical path forward if we are to truly unleash American energy.

In recent weeks, Congress has been embroiled in battles over which, if any, of the IRA energy subsidies to cut. Lobbyists representing every corner of the energy landscape, including trade groups that many of us are part of, are jockeying to preserve their own piece of the pie, claiming that it is uniquely valuable.

We have oil lobbyists fighting to keep carbon capture and hydrogen subsidies, solar and wind lobbyists fighting to keep solar and wind subsidies, biofuel lobbyists fighting to keep biofuel subsidies, and EV lobbyists fighting to keep EV subsidies.

If this continues, we will likely preserve most if not all of the subsidies, which, deep down, everyone knows are not good for America.

The fundamental truth about subsidies is very simple. For any product, including energy, a subsidy is just a way of taking money from more efficient producers—and from taxpayers—and giving it to less efficient producers. The result is always less efficient production and therefore higher costs or lower quality for Americans.

The most egregious example of subsidies’ destructiveness is the IRA’s solar and wind subsidies, which pay electric utilities to invest much more money in solar and wind than they otherwise would, and thus much less in coal and gas than they otherwise would. Ultimately this means higher electricity prices and certainly less electricity reliability for Americans.

The IRA subsidies’ devastating harm to American energy is more than enough to compel us, as energy producers, to oppose them.

But their harm goes far beyond energy, as they will dramatically increase our debt and ultimately undermine every aspect of our economy.

A central Congressional priority is to curb the national debt during the upcoming budget reconciliation exercise. But according to credible estimates, the IRA will cost over $1 trillion over the next decade and trillions more after that. Worse, the IRA subsidies are expected to misallocate, into uncompetitive business and jobs, $3 trillion of investment by 2032 and $11 trillion by 2050. That’s a disaster for our economy, and for real job opportunities.

Clearly, the right thing to do is to eliminate all these subsidies. When lobbyists say that these subsidies are essential for America, what they’re really saying is that their backers have made investments in projects that have no near term cost-effectiveness and that are totally dependent on indefinite subsidies to sustain themselves.

Most people know the truth, but are afraid to say it due to institutional pressures. Too many Congressmen are afraid of alienating trade groups. Too many trade groups are afraid of alienating their large and vocal members who have made investments hoping for indefinite subsidies. All the while, too few are talking about freedom.

That’s why we invite our colleagues to do the right thing: level with the American people, say that we made a mistake, and that those who built subsidy-dependent businesses took on the kind of risk that we do not want to reward.

Keeping the IRA subsidies—despite all the evidence that they benefit only special interests at the expense of America—risks making our nation ever more like Europe, where industries do not succeed by providing the best value to consumers, but by providing the best favors to politicians. That’s not the America we want to work in.

Sincerely,

Bud Brigham, Founder, Atlas Energy Services and Brigham Exploration

David Albin, Managing Partner, Spectra Holdings

Adam Anderson, CEO, Innovex International

Thurmon Andress, Chairman and CEO, Andress Oil

Don Bennett, Managing Partner, Bennett Ventures LP

Greg Bird, CEO and President, Jetta Operating Company

David de Roode, Partner, Lockton

Andy Eidson, CEO, Alpha Metallurgical Resources

Matt Gallagher, President and CEO, Greenlake Energy

Mike Howard, CEO, Howard Energy

Justin Thompson, CEO, Iron Senergy

Ed Kovalik, CEO, Prairie Operating Company

Thomas E. Knauff, Executive Chairman, EDP

Lance Langford, CEO, Langford Energy Partners

Mickey McKee, CEO, Kodiak Gas Services

Mike O’Shaughnessy, CEO, Lario Oil and Gas Company

D. Martin Phillips, Founder, EnCap Investments LP

Karl Pfluger, midstream executive

David Rees-Jones, President, Chief Energy

Rob Roosa, CEO, Brigham Royalties

Bobby Shackouls, Former CEO, Burlington Resources

Ross Stevens, Founder and CEO, Stone Ridge Holdings Group

Kyle Stallings, CEO, Desert Royalty Company

Justin Thompson, CEO, Iron Senergy

Mike Wallace, Partner, Wallace Family Partnership

Ladd Wilks, CEO, ProFrac

Denzil West, CEO, Admiral Permian Operating

Bill Zartler, Founder and CEO, Solaris Oilfield Infrastructure

Additional signatories (email [email protected] to add yours):

Jimmy Brock, Executive Chairman, Core Natural Resources

Ted Williams, President and CEO, Rockport Energy Solutions LLC


To make sure as many politicians as possible see this letter, help us by sharing on Twitter/X and tagging your Congressmen! Congress is currently undecided about what to do about the IRA subsidies, so now is the moment to make your voice heard.

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