Don’t like the idea of a $40-per-tonne Alberta penalty for excess greenhouse gas emissions?
Blame Ottawa.
That’s the line from senior provincial sources, who do not deny a report they’re considering the $40 levy as well as 40 per cent cuts in greenhouse gas emissions per barrel.
You might think the Alberta government is worried about the United States, where the Keystone XL oil pipeline hangs in the balance, and a tough carbon levy might help with approval.
Or Premier Alison Redford and her PCs could be thinking of world opinion, which is increasingly influenced by environmental activism.
When projects are cancelled and German researchers abandon the oilsands as a lost cause, the campaigns seem to be working.
The provincial sources don’t deny those are factors; but the most crucial by far, they say, is Ottawa.
Because of Ottawa, the $40 penalty suddenly appears, even though Redford and her environment minister, Diana McQueen, have repeatedly voiced satisfaction with the current levy of $15 per tonne for heavy emitters.
The feds are about to release their own rules. The only way Alberta can avoid bowing to them is to enact provincial standards that are equally tough; or, better still, just a bit more stringent.
This meets the current buzzword requirement: equivalency. To run its own environmental regime, a province must have a system that meets or exceeds federal targets.
Then there’s the revenue thing. If there’s to be a bigger emissions penalty, Alberta damn well wants the cash pouring into the anemic local treasury, rather than the federal one.
So the Albertans dropped the $40 bomb at a recent Calgary meeting with business types and federal officials. Everyone was surprised, according to the Toronto newspaper that broke this important story, even federal Environment Minister Peter Kent.
One reason for surprise — or cynicism — is that Alberta is nowhere close to meeting its current targets for cutting emissions by 2020.
Tougher standards now will hardly be credible unless they come with powerful provincial action.
There’s a certain Kyoto feel to all this; if you devise strict enough rules to improve the climate, the climate might just be grateful enough to improve. Reality isn’t the biggest part of the picture.
But the provincial types are determined to keep control. And they know that if you’re going to propose a big carbon levy, it makes sense to paint Ottawa as the villain lurking in the wings.
The bogey isn’t as menacing as it was when Justin Trudeau’s dad tinkered with Alberta’s economy, but it can still be evoked to good effect.
In this light, the provincial response to the story was fascinating.
The government did not deny the specific numbers: $40 for the carbon levy, and 40 per cent for the greenhouse gas reduction target.
Environment Minister Diana McQueen, in fact, confirmed the gist of the story in a statement: “We are currently in the early stages of exploring a variety (of) options through a collaborative process with industry, the federal government and our department experts. These discussions are ongoing and revised targets have not yet been finalized.”
More striking still, McQueen made no mention of the current levy of $15 per tonne on big emitters who exceed their limits.
The province has always boasted about that penalty. Now it’s suddenly shoved under the rug. A small levy has disappeared so a bigger one can walk right over it.
And we know whose fault that is, don’t we now?
Original Article
Source: calgaryherald.com
Author: Don Braid
Blame Ottawa.
That’s the line from senior provincial sources, who do not deny a report they’re considering the $40 levy as well as 40 per cent cuts in greenhouse gas emissions per barrel.
You might think the Alberta government is worried about the United States, where the Keystone XL oil pipeline hangs in the balance, and a tough carbon levy might help with approval.
Or Premier Alison Redford and her PCs could be thinking of world opinion, which is increasingly influenced by environmental activism.
When projects are cancelled and German researchers abandon the oilsands as a lost cause, the campaigns seem to be working.
The provincial sources don’t deny those are factors; but the most crucial by far, they say, is Ottawa.
Because of Ottawa, the $40 penalty suddenly appears, even though Redford and her environment minister, Diana McQueen, have repeatedly voiced satisfaction with the current levy of $15 per tonne for heavy emitters.
The feds are about to release their own rules. The only way Alberta can avoid bowing to them is to enact provincial standards that are equally tough; or, better still, just a bit more stringent.
This meets the current buzzword requirement: equivalency. To run its own environmental regime, a province must have a system that meets or exceeds federal targets.
Then there’s the revenue thing. If there’s to be a bigger emissions penalty, Alberta damn well wants the cash pouring into the anemic local treasury, rather than the federal one.
So the Albertans dropped the $40 bomb at a recent Calgary meeting with business types and federal officials. Everyone was surprised, according to the Toronto newspaper that broke this important story, even federal Environment Minister Peter Kent.
One reason for surprise — or cynicism — is that Alberta is nowhere close to meeting its current targets for cutting emissions by 2020.
Tougher standards now will hardly be credible unless they come with powerful provincial action.
There’s a certain Kyoto feel to all this; if you devise strict enough rules to improve the climate, the climate might just be grateful enough to improve. Reality isn’t the biggest part of the picture.
But the provincial types are determined to keep control. And they know that if you’re going to propose a big carbon levy, it makes sense to paint Ottawa as the villain lurking in the wings.
The bogey isn’t as menacing as it was when Justin Trudeau’s dad tinkered with Alberta’s economy, but it can still be evoked to good effect.
In this light, the provincial response to the story was fascinating.
The government did not deny the specific numbers: $40 for the carbon levy, and 40 per cent for the greenhouse gas reduction target.
Environment Minister Diana McQueen, in fact, confirmed the gist of the story in a statement: “We are currently in the early stages of exploring a variety (of) options through a collaborative process with industry, the federal government and our department experts. These discussions are ongoing and revised targets have not yet been finalized.”
More striking still, McQueen made no mention of the current levy of $15 per tonne on big emitters who exceed their limits.
The province has always boasted about that penalty. Now it’s suddenly shoved under the rug. A small levy has disappeared so a bigger one can walk right over it.
And we know whose fault that is, don’t we now?
Original Article
Source: calgaryherald.com
Author: Don Braid
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