June 9, 2009
Our Addiction
In 2006 former Vice President and soon to be Nobel Laureate Al Gore likened our tar sands industry to a narcotic. Last month with the announcement of the Kearl project we just scored another hit.
June 7, 2009
Climate Change Leadership
Karen Haugen-Kozyra, director of policy development for Climate Change Central, "a non profit organization that empowers Albertans to take action on climate change," says that “Alberta is the quiet leader, with an international reputation on climate change.” Who is she trying to fool? The record shows just the opposite.
According to the National Inventory Report the Government of Canada recently submitted to the United Nations, Alberta’s total GHG emissions in 2007 rose 5.3% over its 2006 level and a whopping 43.7% over its 1990 level. On a per capita basis Albertans are at 70.7 tonnes per person.
As the numbers show, our response to the climate crisis has been inadequate. So let’s not dress it up as leadership.
June 5, 2009
Transportation Subsidies
The Conservative government’s public transit tax credit has come under a lot of flak, most recently from the Auditor General Sheila Fraser, who in a recent report said that the environmental impact of the plan is greatly exaggerated (“Pests threaten border: AG,” The Edmonton Journal, Feb.6, 2009). Since its inception the plan has also been criticized for subsidizing people for doing what they’d normally be doing anyway -- taking transit. These criticisms are not without merit.
What puzzles me is that these same critics, the Auditor General included, ignore a much more generously funded transportation credit, one that actually encourages users to increases their greenhouse gas emissions. I’m speaking of our great parking tax credit, a scheme all levels of government and most employers and retailers actively participate in.
In spite of what the rise in downtown parking rates may indicate, most commuters park for free, and rarely are they taxed on this income supplement. Our provincial government spends $150 million building a 650-stall underground parkade. Will the rates cover the construction and maintenance of it? Not very likely. The taxpayer will pick up the difference. City officials continually roadblock residential and commercial developments because of insufficient parking, even in so-called "pedestrian friendly neighbourhoods". Out in the suburbs where most of the shopping takes place parking is free, but at what cost to the downtown core? A company I do business with generously hands out parking coupons to its customers, but fails to offer any transit tickets, same with the organizers of a convention I recently attended at the Shaw Conference Centre.
The upshot of our great parking subsidy is that it encourages GHG emissions and that the cost of the subsidy is shared by those that don’t even drive. Take your pencil to this one Ms Fraser.
What puzzles me is that these same critics, the Auditor General included, ignore a much more generously funded transportation credit, one that actually encourages users to increases their greenhouse gas emissions. I’m speaking of our great parking tax credit, a scheme all levels of government and most employers and retailers actively participate in.
In spite of what the rise in downtown parking rates may indicate, most commuters park for free, and rarely are they taxed on this income supplement. Our provincial government spends $150 million building a 650-stall underground parkade. Will the rates cover the construction and maintenance of it? Not very likely. The taxpayer will pick up the difference. City officials continually roadblock residential and commercial developments because of insufficient parking, even in so-called "pedestrian friendly neighbourhoods". Out in the suburbs where most of the shopping takes place parking is free, but at what cost to the downtown core? A company I do business with generously hands out parking coupons to its customers, but fails to offer any transit tickets, same with the organizers of a convention I recently attended at the Shaw Conference Centre.
The upshot of our great parking subsidy is that it encourages GHG emissions and that the cost of the subsidy is shared by those that don’t even drive. Take your pencil to this one Ms Fraser.
April 1, 2009
Carbon Tax, the only way to go
I take little comfort from a recent Edmonton Journal editorial on the environment (“Will tougher green laws be enforced," The Journal, March 7). While our government's new Environmental Enforcement Bill may bring miscreants to justice, the bill does nothing substantive about the most pressing environmental issue of our time: global warming.
Our government still refuses to accept 1990 as the benchmark year for assessing emission reduction; they continue to dress up their intensity-based targets as true emission targets; and they still refuse to do anything about informing the public on the severity of the issue.
Canada clearly has an obligation here. Examine the per capita amount of carbon that nations have emitted into the atmosphere since the industrial revolution began and you will find Canada ranked fourth.
When it comes to aggressive action on global warming there are really only two options: a carbon tax and cap and trade. Of the two, a carbon tax is the easiest to implement: tax the carbon at source, and to make the tax revenue neutral, issue a credit at tax time. The administrative measures are already in place.
A cap and trade, on the other hand, is much more difficult to implement. The mechanism is susceptible to political interference, manipulation, favouritism and corruption. Furthermore, its implementation would be handed over to investment speculators. Last year we saw quite clearly what the “invisible hand of the market” can do to our economy. Left to its own devices, the market will do much the same with a carbon trading market.
Clearly, when it comes to tackling global warming, a carbon tax is the only way to go.
Our government still refuses to accept 1990 as the benchmark year for assessing emission reduction; they continue to dress up their intensity-based targets as true emission targets; and they still refuse to do anything about informing the public on the severity of the issue.
Canada clearly has an obligation here. Examine the per capita amount of carbon that nations have emitted into the atmosphere since the industrial revolution began and you will find Canada ranked fourth.
When it comes to aggressive action on global warming there are really only two options: a carbon tax and cap and trade. Of the two, a carbon tax is the easiest to implement: tax the carbon at source, and to make the tax revenue neutral, issue a credit at tax time. The administrative measures are already in place.
A cap and trade, on the other hand, is much more difficult to implement. The mechanism is susceptible to political interference, manipulation, favouritism and corruption. Furthermore, its implementation would be handed over to investment speculators. Last year we saw quite clearly what the “invisible hand of the market” can do to our economy. Left to its own devices, the market will do much the same with a carbon trading market.
Clearly, when it comes to tackling global warming, a carbon tax is the only way to go.
January 21, 2009
Greening the List
On Wednesday, January 14, at the University of Alberta, the Pembina Institute presented Greening the Grid, a report that details how Albertans can green their electrical grid by 2028 According to the authors, if we adopt the more aggressive of the two options detailed in the report – which we should – we can phase out coal generation entirely by 2028. Using existing technologies!
Ironically, the top 100 infrastructure projects list, released the same week, showed, in the number eight position, Alberta’s top project: a coal-fired generating plant (“Alberta boasts more projects atop infrastructure list than any other province,” The Edmonton Journal, Jan. 13). A setback, to say the least.
In any case, an energy-smart government would look seriously at the report put forward by the Institute and move quickly towards getting green energy projects on the infrastructure top 100 list for 2010. And at the same time, put a halt to any coal-fired generating plants from ever making the list again.
Ironically, the top 100 infrastructure projects list, released the same week, showed, in the number eight position, Alberta’s top project: a coal-fired generating plant (“Alberta boasts more projects atop infrastructure list than any other province,” The Edmonton Journal, Jan. 13). A setback, to say the least.
In any case, an energy-smart government would look seriously at the report put forward by the Institute and move quickly towards getting green energy projects on the infrastructure top 100 list for 2010. And at the same time, put a halt to any coal-fired generating plants from ever making the list again.
Anti-idling
If I understand correctly the scientists at the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change; the American Association for the Advancement of Science (the world’s largest general science society and publishers of Nature, one of the most respected scientific journals in the world); the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies; the Geological Society of America, and the American Physical Society, global warming is a serious problem, the extent of which will dwarf the economic crisis that financial mismanagers working in a unregulated U.S. market have foisted upon us.
Fighting global warming will require aggressive actions of the sort only our federal and provincial governments can enact. But incremental measures like the anti-idling law Edmonton City Council is currently debating will help move us towards a better understanding of the global warming issue and ultimately an acceptance of the actions we really need to implement.
Fighting global warming will require aggressive actions of the sort only our federal and provincial governments can enact. But incremental measures like the anti-idling law Edmonton City Council is currently debating will help move us towards a better understanding of the global warming issue and ultimately an acceptance of the actions we really need to implement.
October 10, 2008
Ships at Sea
Preston Manning claims the economy is the big issue and urges Canadians to vote for Stephen Harper, the leader Manning feels is the one best able to pilot our “ship of state” during this stormy time. [1] Mr. Manning should take some Gravol. At election time, we’re always told the economy is the issue.
This time around, no matter what happens with the markets, the environment is the big issue. And on this matter, Mr. Harper is the last person we want at the helm. He’ll sink us with his aspirational, intensity based polices. On October 14 there is only one question for Canadians: carbon tax or cap and trade? For me, it’s a carbon tax.
[1] The Globe and Mail, October 6, 2008
This time around, no matter what happens with the markets, the environment is the big issue. And on this matter, Mr. Harper is the last person we want at the helm. He’ll sink us with his aspirational, intensity based polices. On October 14 there is only one question for Canadians: carbon tax or cap and trade? For me, it’s a carbon tax.
[1] The Globe and Mail, October 6, 2008
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