The French Carbon Tax Bill is Found Unconstitutional

The new French carbon tax was scheduled to go into law on 1 January 2010. The tax was 17 euros per ton of carbon dioxide (USD $24.40). In France, if at least 60 Deputies of the House and 60 Senators appeal to the Constitutional Council, it has the power to determine the constitutionality of a proposed law.  The 2010 national budget of France, which contained enabling provisions for a carbon tax has been ruled unconstitutional on two grounds:

• The exemptions contained within the provisions for a carbon levy vitiated the primary declared purpose of the levy, to combat carbon emissions and hence “global warming”
• The exemptions would cause the levy to fall disproportionately on gasoline and heating oils and not on other carbon emissions, thereby breaching the principle that taxation should be evenly and fairly borne.

This ruling has come as quite a shock to the catastrophic anthropogenic global warming alarmists.