Document shows Canada removing emission restrictions
As if Canada's performance on climate were not already the second worst among all countries surveyed by GermanWatch for the Global Climate Change Performance Index (we were aced for last place by Saudi Arabia), new documents discovered by the CBC show the Conservative government actually looking to WEAKEN the pathetic greenhouse gas emission limits that barely restrain the Alberta oil and gas sector.
The government, which has presented no plan to meet its humiliating target of reducing greenhouse gas emissions by three per cent below 1990 levels by 2020, is now leaning toward giving the oil and gas sector even more room to pollute, leaving the responsibility for reducing emissions (should the country ever decide to do so) on individuals and businesses outside the industry that is primarily responsible.
As long as Prime Minister Stephen Harper's oil patch buddies are making money, though, what can go wrong?
Great News!! Finally some common sense. Gee, wonder if Climategate has any bearing on this. Betcha it does.
Common sense?? This is just another example of what an oil patch puppet Harper really is, you can almost see the strings attached...
You mean the same oil that you need to get to work, heat your home, get food on your plate, providing health care and emergency services, that oil?
Shameless Harper.
given all the ex-Mike Harris government players in Harper's government.
Our only hope now is for Canadians to start lobbying hard for Obama to come up with something very aggressive & strong-arm Canada to pony up. That and maybe a seige of protestors on Parliament Hill until they get the message that this isn't how Canada behaves!
F
How much of your bank account are you willing to include in that "pony up"? It is your tax dollars you are talking about here.
I would much rather have my tax dollars go to promoting and supporting sustainable technologies and alternate energy sources than most of what the present government is spending them on. And I would be quite happy to see more of my tax dollars going into a program to help developing nations achieve their goals without making the mistakes that we made.
Harper is trying to delay the inevitable by shoring up an industry that the rest of the world recognizes as obsolete. He should be encouraging our substantial brain power as a nation to come up with news ways of doing things.
That's my wasted breath for this evening.
F
Oil is obsolete? Oh do explain.
It's all those wind farms you see everywhere. They generate electricity and charge up all the battery powered trucks, trains and ships that bring us food and other goods. You may not have heard but pretty much all farm machinery is also powered by wind generated on the very farms where the grain is grown.
Across the country the entire vehicle fleet has gone electric too (exccept your town because of the political payoffs there)
Look closely at all those jets coming back from Copenhagen. See that - no con trails. Yep - they're electric too!
There's really no need for oil anymore. It's just a dinosaur industry propped up by Harper for his old oil pals.
I don't want a penny of our tax dollars to support any Leftist cause, including redistribution of wealth from Canadians to Mugabe and his ilk in the Third World. Besides, there probably is NO global warming caused by excessive CO2. How do I know this? CO2 is not excessive. It is extremely SCARCE; <0.04%. This tiny PERCENTAGE of CO2 cannot possibly be the cause of global warming? Why not put a tax on clouds? Water vapour is a much more significant cause of global warming (a natural phenomenon)than is CO2.
Disgusting! The Harper Government is an embarrassment! I feel incredibly embarrassed to be Canadian right now. Until Harper is removed from power (democratically, of course), whenever I go abroad, I am considering wearing an American flag on my backpack or lapel. At least it's cool to be American now.
I'm embarrassed that you're embarrassed. Why don't you simply move to the US Stephen? (Hint, hint)
That's funny. I knew some lefties (my apartment block) that moved to Vancouver in Bush's second term out of disgust for Bush and his policies.
They turned around an went home in a few months because it's cheaper to live in Seattle.
Is it really cool to be an American now? I doubt it. They're still the big kid on the block, they still throw their weight around and I doubt there is a whole lot of difference in how they are viewed internationally.
Canada's relative popularity is because we are viewed as harmless. Climate talks don't change that. People know that in the end Canada does what the Americans tell us to do.
There is NO need for Kyoto nor for Copenhagen. Since CO2 is not at fault. CRU and IPCC seem to be run by fraudulent people who "cook the books". Harper's government is the only one with good sense at this point. I have a proposal: Let the foolish, gullible people who do not understand the science of climate change, and who do not want to learn the truth, let them direct a portion of their taxes to supporting people like Mugabe with $$$ to buy C-credits. Start supporting Harper. He might actually save you a few buck. The planet does not need saving. It's in "dynamic equilibrium". CO2 is a good, SCARCE component of the environment. CO2 is NOT the cause of either real or imagined global warming.
So I'm to further subsidize Alberta's oil patch? No way!
Since Alberta provides 11 billion on transfers to Ottawa each year for equilization payments, how are you subsidizing the oil patch?
So, now you believe in public money going into private business?
Why should various *private* businesses outside of the oil patch come to pay more tax (that's what cap and trade comes to) so the oil patch can pay less?
That's means less jobs outside of Alberta, and all that entails economically, private and public.
So, yes, that's subsidization.
There is no subsidization of the oil industry. Quit making things up. The oil sands pays enormous taxes already, but they aren't going to pay substantially higher taxes when other provinces are doing nothing about their own CO2 emissions.
False. As a 2005 report says
"...And to make matters worse, oil sands producers are on the receiving end of substantial federal spending. A Pembina Institute study released earlier this year found that the federal government spent $1.2 billion on tax breaks and other benefits to the oil sands industry between 1996 and 2002...."
http://www.pembina.org/op-ed/1209
Here's the 2005 report:
http://74.125.95.132/search?q=cache:w29_3IhgyT0J:pubs.pembina.org/reports/GovtSpendingOnOilAndGasFullReport.pdf+pembina+money+to+oil+companies&cd=3&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=ca
Tax breaks is not money spent. It's less money recieved. You can't "spend" money that s not recieved. That's not a subsity. Subsities are direct payments. Like what the auto industry just got.
Tax breaks aren't subsidies. And $1.2 billion in tax breaks over 6 years is peanuts compared to the billions extracted in taxes and then the additional billions extracted in equalization payments every year.
Try again VJ.
He helped create and uses the IPCC to rake in billions.. using the naive Warmists to enrich himself.. hmmm...
http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/jamesdelingpole/100019821/climategate-with-business-interests-like-these-are-we-really-sure-dr-rajendra-pachauri-is-fit-to-head-the-ipcc/
"In India, Corus’s owner, Tata, plans to increase steel production from 53 million tonnes to 124 million over the same period. By replacing inefficient old plants with new ones which emit only “European levels” of CO2, Tata could claim a further £600 million under the UN’s Clean Development Mechanism, which is operated by the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change – the organisers of the Copenhagen conference. Under this scheme, organisations in developed countries such as Britain – ranging from electricity supply companies to the NHS – can buy the right to exceed their CO2 allocations from those in developing countries, such as India. The huge but hidden cost of these “carbon permits” will be passed on to all of us, notably through our electricity bills.
Thus, at the end of the day, Redcar will lose its biggest employer and one of the largest manufacturing plants left in Britain. Tata, having gained up to £1.2 billion from “carbon credits”, will get its new steel plants – while the net amount of CO2 emitted worldwide will not have been reduced a jot."
Here you have Stephen Harpers hidden agenda.
Oooh. The "hidden" agenda again. Except it's in public documents that the lazy CBC just got around to reading.
=="Individuals and businesses outside the (oilsands) industry that is primarily responsible."==
Those individuals and businesses outside the oilsands industry are responsible for 95% of Canada's total CO2 emissions.
Instead of a free pass for Canada's (read Ontario) manufacturers on reducing CO2 emissions, the Conservatives are proposing a plan that requires ALL segments of Canadian society to make a sacrifice.
This Harper is a winner all the way. I wish we could trade you guys Obama for Harper. And by the way, Dr. Monckton did not do any name calling.
Christopher Monckton does not have a doctorate in ANYthing. He studied Classics and has a diploma in Journalism, and that is IT. You just make yourself look very silly referring to him as "Dr".
Second, take a few minutes to watch the relevant videos and see for your own eyes that his mouth is moving in synch with the words "Hitler youth" and "Nazis". He also states clearly that he will call them the same again if they ever interrupt another meeting in which he is taking part.
For pete's sake check out the facts before you go spilling this stuff all over the place.
FM
Maybe it's like Dr J of basketball fame.
Yes, please listen closely to that YouTube clip. Moncton talks with a North American accent; the other person who speaks the dastardly, but true words -- Hitler youth -- sure sounds like a Brit to me.
Monckton is British.
Please, please Prime Minister Harper. Stay the course. Do NOT give in to the environmental wackos!
We will be an oil consuming world for a long time to come, so we need to reduce our consumption of oil from OPEC countries. New technologies will reduce our need for fossil fuels eventually, but it will not be as fast as everyone would like. Our whole distribution system is set up for petrol, so what ever "green" technologies we go with, that will be a whole process in itself.
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ToddD
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