Companies don't invest in green tech out of the goodness of their heart, they do it to virtue signal. They like the optics of being green and are afraid of the optics of being a polluter. That is until they are hanging on by a thread, then they will do whatever they can to survive. I've seen this with repairs, a normally good company will start operating unsafe trucks when they are broke.It sound logical but I disagree. Companies DO invest to reduce their emissions because their emissions cost money. You’re suggesting that if there wasn’t a carbon tax then companies, out of the goodness of their hearts, would just invest their ‘spare capital’ into greener technologies just to feel good about themselves, rather than paying out a dividend. Are you kidding me? That’s insane, they’re going to do what’s more profitable, and with a carbon tax, it becomes increasingly more profitable to invest in more efficient machinery, especially when it’s due for replacement anyway.
There are currently incentives to improve your home insulation, especially for low income homes, it becomes more attractive to take advantage of these when the opportunity cost is higher. It’s free and people done bother, so maybe they will when it costs more to not do it.
Many trucking companies are hanging on to older trucks and even selling newer trucks to buy more older ones. I'm talking class 8 semi trucks.
I replaced the entire frame on a 99 pete dump truck last summer, something unheard of 10 years ago.
The price of a pre-dpf 2006 Kenworth T-800 is more than a 2013 def equipped similar one. Other makes and models are similar. The reason is companies are avoiding emissions gear because it's unreliable and expensive to repair.
Three years ago this was happening a little but in the last year, since diesel has spiked it has been happening much more.
When companies are healthy financially they tend to buy new trucks and replace them often. With fuel prices cutting into budgets so much that becomes less often. I don't work in factories but I'm sure the same happens there with industrial equipment. Energy costs can't always be passed on to consumers.


