Madam, - Instead of decrying the Greens for proposing carbon tax, it would make better sense for the captains of business to carry out energy audits on their own premises. The reason that they don't is that electricity is so cheap relative to labour costs that most businesses don't see it as worth their while.
In almost every office in the country electricity is used needlessly through nights and weekends, with lights left on and air-conditioning systems running. Most businesses could cut electricity use by 20 to 40 per cent painlessly.
In our cold, dreary climate, electricity-guzzling chillers and air-conditioning systems are now demanded by clients and tenants of office developments, purely for prestige. To change such ridiculous behaviour, we need carbon taxes not at the proposed rate of €7 to €20 euro a ton but at a more realistic rate of €200 a ton. The poor, the old and the infirm need not be affected if a system of credits and consumption bands similar to taxation are introduced to electricity bills, and if standing charges unrelated to consumption are eliminated. The only complaint that we can have about the cost of electricity is that it's too damned cheap. - Yours, etc,
PAT BARRY, North Circular Road, Dublin 7.
Madam, - We do not need another carbon tax. We already have several. There is already a tax on every drop of petrol, diesel and home heating oil that we use. There is VAT on natural gas, bottled gas, electricity and coal and we already pay an extra tax for windmill electricity through the PSO levy on every ESB bill. At today's prices nobody uses any more fuel than they have to. - Yours, etc,
ANDREW OGDEN, Johnstown, Naas, Co Kildare.