David vs. Goliath

Abstract

I could not help thinking of David vs Goliath yesterday as I was working on a letter to Jose Manuel Barroso, President of the European Commission. The subject was that discussed in an earlier note (Europe Standing Tall Against a Rogue State): will the tax that Europe applies to unconventional fossil fuels in its Fuel Quality Directive (FQD) be the proper tax to account for all the emissions during the mining and processing of the fuel or will they pretend that it is the same as conventional oil?