I have acrobat saffron chakram <| sep |> TLDR The carbon tax will be used to socialize the costs of power price volatility . A price ceiling prevents sellers from selling above a certain price . This creates shortages that lead to blackouts . But this isn ' t a price ceiling , but a cap . What ' s a cap ? In this scenario , the government pays for all power above 6 . 8 cents per kwh . Presumably , out of carbon tax revenue . In effect , you could consider this a price subsidy that kicks in at 6 . 8 cents . In a sense , the government is using the carbon tax revenues to eliminate upside volatility for consumers . That ' s all fine in theory , but it weakens the incentive to conserve energy during periods of peak demandpricing . Consumers in 20062016 Holy shit , electricity prices are 11 cents per kwh ! Better wash the dishes by hand and get some led lights ! You in the NDP Power Cap scenario Holy shit ! Electricity prices are above 6 . 8 cents per mwh ! Fire up the hot tub honey , it ' s paid for by carbon taxes ! Of course these are extreme examples , but the fact is , the phase out of coal will result in the loss of low cost base load power . Maybe the government sees the writing on the wall higher future price volatility and angry consumers , and are trying to mitigate that risk .