Jerome Ringo, president of the Apollo Alliance, an American coalition of environmental and labour groups, gave a keynote address to the British Columbia New Democratic Party's convention yesterday.

Following his speech, the Tyee asked Ringo what he thinks of carbon taxes.

“Carbon taxes, I have to say, if used properly can work,” he said. “We want to make sure we don't make poor people poorer, but we need to make sure we talk to those people that put the greatest amount of carbon into the atmosphere, whoever that is, and use that money to reinvest into alternative energy products that will reduce the demand for carbon based products.”

He'd been briefed on the B.C. carbon tax, which the NDP campaigned against, he said, but did not know enough about it to offer an opinion.

“I just believe that we've got to take steps to remove carbon from our atmosphere, but we've got to make sure there aren't economic consequences,” he said. “There are ways to reduce carbon besides carbon taxes.”

Andrew MacLeod is The Tyee’s Legislative Bureau Chief in Victoria. Reach him here.