Local officials in Belgium's French-speaking region of Wallonia have a new tool in the fight against global warming. They have approved a tax on barbequing. Experts say that up to 100 grams of carbon dioxide are produced during barbequing.
What's it going to cost me to BBQ a steak?
So Wallonians will have to pay 20 euros — about 27 dollars — each time they fire up the grill.
Uhh, that seems a bit steep. In fact it seems like a tax designed to keep restaurants operating, instead of folks cooking at home. By the way, how do you plan on enforcing this?
And the authorities aren't kidding around when it comes to enforcement. Officials say they will use helicopters with thermal sensors to detect illegal grilling.
Umm, OK, so you are going to use helicopters. Some of the smallest copters burn 28 gallons of gas an hour. So, you are going to wind up making about 200 kilos of CO2 per hour to find people producing 0.1 kilo of CO2. The break-even point is detecting 2000 backyard grills going per hour, or about 1 every 2 seconds.
Of course, that's only the CO2 break-even for the copter. It doesn't even consider the cost of operating the copter.
Those wacky French-speaking people! This story just seems like it has to be an April Fool's item.
UPDATE: Yup, it was a joke.
BRUSSELS, April 4 (RIA Novosti) - The government of Wallonia has refuted allegations of plans to introduce a tax on barbequing in this Belgian French-speaking region.
Reports appeared in local media earlier in the month that a law had been approved to charge residents of the 4-million-strong region 20 euros for each grilling session beginning in June.
"We have repeatedly denied this information, which is nothing but an April Fool's Day joke. But we never imagined it would create such a fuss," said the press secretary of Wallonia's minister for agricultural, rural affairs, the environment and tourism.
No comments:
Post a Comment