The NDP government has publicly estimated that the carbon tax, which kicked in Jan 1, will squeeze the province's economy by 0.4 per cent of GDP.
In other words, Albertans will pay for the tax in jobs, income and well-being.
However, Premier Rachel Notley counsels us to play the long game and wait for the rewards from the green economy that jobs, careers, incomes and provincial revenues from the tax invested in the clean energy sector will create.
This sets up the carbon tax as a ballot issue in the next provincial election, when we can judge whether Alberta is winning the long game and whether the cost is worth it.
By the way, the NDP wants us to call the carbon tax the "carbon levy," but that is one of the white lies that are ingrained into the fabric of politics.
There is scientific evidence of the massive contribution to greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions of the world's 7.5 billion humans, and there is little reasonable doubt of a link between the acceleration of GHG emissions and climate change.
Last week, Don McIntyre, the Wildrose MLA for Innisfail-Sylvan Lake, said the science of the human contribution to climate change is not settled because we don't know yet the amount of human influence on a phenomenon going on for the life of planet earth.
The NDP caucus issued a press release and its spokesman, Leduc-Beaumont MLA Shaye Anderson said McIntyre should be dismissed from his post as opposition critic for renewables and electricity because the science of climate change is settled.
Anderson is wrong of course. These are early days in climate science.
Thousands of climate change scientists are gainfully employed to figure out the answers to McIntyre's questions.
The research into other causes seeks to understand the hows and whys of changing climate by examining the geological and geophysical record.
At this point in time, we don't even know the full extent of human influence on climate.
One area of research is into the contribution that other human activities such as agriculture make to GHG emissions. The vast rice paddies of the world generate methane and nitrous oxide. Both are greenhouse gases, and nitrous oxide also depletes ozone.
Targeted by climate change fundamentalists is the methane emitted in the production of beef.
The government is shutting down coal production and is gutting investment in oil and gas production. In its "long game" it will be urged by fundamentalists to go after meat production.
The explanation of the MLAs' and the fundamentalists' behavior is that they are driven by dogma, not science.
Consider that there is no legal basis for federal approval of the Kinder Morgan interprovincial pipeline based on whether or not Alberta has a carbon tax.
The two have been linked by dogma, not science-based decision making.
Frank Dabbs is a veteran political and business journalist, author of four books and editor of several more.
