Stephen Harper's climate-change comments only half the story, critics say

[squeezer]

Is Harper talking a Carbon Tax in a round about way?? Hmmmm, election time is in the air and he's trying to appease the left wing. I wonder if he's going to contribute to CUPE and CUPW too??
http://www.albertaoilmagazine.com/2014/12/stephen-harper-changes-tune-carbon-pricing/
http://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/ste...nts-only-half-the-story-critics-say-1.2878524

Carbon-pricing convert?

Now Harper says he'd be open to using a carbon-pricing system like Alberta's for the entire continent, a concept he's previously opposed.

"I think it’s a model on which you could, on which you could go broader," Harper said in Wednesday's interview.

"It's not a levy, it's a price. And there's a tech fund in which … [the] private sector makes investments."

Alberta requires big companies to reduce their energy intensity, in other words improve their energy efficiency, annually. If they don't, they pay into technology fund at $15 a tonne for carbon emissions.

David McLaughlin, an adviser at the University of Waterloo’s school of environment, says emissions continue to rise under Alberta's system of carbon pricing.

"The price of $15 a tonne is too low to actually get the emissions reductions we want from these big emitters. So it would not do the job of reducing emissions in Canada."

The prime minister also took credit for getting tough on coal.

"We are phasing out in Canada through regulations, we are phasing out the use of traditional dirty coal. It’s going to go to zero in the next 15 years or so," Harper said.

New federal coal regulations apply to new plants built after 2015. Existing plants built in the last 50 years are grandfathered, meaning they would have up to 2030 to close or introduce carbon capture and storage technology to reduce emissions.

Ontario's Environment Minister Glen Murray points out the province closed coal plants with no help from Ottawa.

"if the federal government wants to start taking credit for provincially funded initiatives, they could at least have the decency to make a commitment to support those initiatives in the future."

Harper's comments could be more about politics than policy — an attempt to soften his image on the environment in an election year when climate change is again becoming a hot political topic.

 

[happ]

Ontario's Environment Minister Glen Murray points out the province closed coal plants with no help from Ottawa.

Thats why Ontario has brown and black outs every other week and the corrupt Liberal energy act bankrupted the province leaving a trail of over $50billion in energy debt left for the children.

 

[shack]

Thats why Ontario has brown and black outs every other week

You are delusional.

 

[PornAddict]

Thats why Ontario has brown and black outs every other week and the corrupt Liberal energy act bankrupted the province leaving a trail of over $50billion in energy debt left for the children.

I agree the corrupt liberal energy act bankrupted the province leaving a trail of over 50 billion in energy debt left for the children. Ontario dont have brown and blackout every other week they have surplus of electricity which they pay the USA state like ohio or new york to take the surplus elecicity.

 

[Marcus1027]

I've tried to educate myself of this notion of "putting a price on carbon" which in lays terms is simply another gas tax on top of the ones we already pay. Why would one jurisdiction unilaterally impose a tax on itself as the liberals have proposed that will only put itself at a disadvantage? BC imposed one, and guess what, China the U.S. And the other top 5 polluters still produce the bulk of the planet's greenhouse gas. Cash strapped Ontario who's looking for more cash is all over the idea like a mullet on a redneck, they'll cloak it the guise of saving the planet and tisk tisk anyone who opposes it on the premise that they are doing "the responsible thing". Inevitablly, any money from this tax will go into general revenues and then pissed away on some other bullshit policy they invent or spend it to subsidize more wind mills. With Canada producing 2% of global greenhouse gas, there's not much we can do on our own to stop this, we can't afford to be priggish about it and harm our own economy just so idiots like Wynne and that other imbiciles Trudeau can grandstand for the cameras and say "look at what we've done for the planet" all the while the U.S. is enjoying all the new jobs we've sent them.

 

[happ]

The corrupt Liberals dont give a crap about the environment. They'll say anything to fatten the wallets of their constituency the public sector unions.

 

[bver_hunter]

The corrupt Liberals dont give a crap about the environment. They'll say anything to fatten the wallets of their constituency the public sector unions.

You are delusional.

 

[Marcus1027]

You are delusional.

I'm afraid you're the one who is delusional. I'll keep throwing the green energy rip off on the table, it was bungled and ham fisted and did nothing for the province other than bunkrupt it and make lots of liberals wealthy. Coal plants could have been phased out systematically as new sources came online. There was no need for that arbitrary shut down date for coal plants and the frantic rush to replace that base load. All they did was create a vacuum where the wind & solar industries had the government over a barrel and it cost the people of the province billions and counting. So if I'm skeptical about any government green initiative that costs us money for the sake of Mother Earth, there's about 50 billion reasons according to the AG's audit. So stop with the liberal party bullshit and admit that they are inept, corrupt ( see Mike Crawley) and turn everything they touch to shit.

 

[saxon]

Australia had a carbon tax but got rid of it when they finally figured out it wasn't doing anything to reduce emissions and it was harming their economy.