tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-55064253579426832552009-12-18T10:56:05.102-05:00Searching for low carbon futures in the great white northGreen policy junkiehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01149283194981831974noreply@blogger.comBlogger44125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5506425357942683255.post-32989443520955688172007-04-17T09:11:00.000-05:002007-04-17T09:14:15.595-05:00

Hello loyal readers,Sorry about the month long hiatus that has no doubt left all of you on tenterhooks. My excuse: once copious free time has been eaten up by various work projects. I will try to start this up again in June or July - meanwhile, the various links on the sidebar should give you endless amounts of sharp, insightful environmental commentary.

Green policy junkiehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01149283194981831974noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5506425357942683255.post-20113217828605383472007-03-22T21:18:00.000-05:002007-03-22T21:41:53.807-05:00

Today's National Post gives a great analysis of the trials and tribulations of the Clean Air Act over the last few months. According to the article, the Tories are likely to let the Clean Air Act die on the order paper and simply bring out regulations for Large Final Emitters using existing legislation. Article author John Ivison explains that two factors are at work. Firstly, a majority of

Green policy junkiehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01149283194981831974noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5506425357942683255.post-25538985855819614452007-03-22T21:00:00.000-05:002007-03-22T21:14:51.812-05:00

A pro-international emissions trading piece at globeandmail.com yesterday mentions that Environment Minister John Baird has indicated he is open to including some international trading in his climate change plan. The piece doesn't offer further details, but does provide an overview of emissions trading and the opportunities involved in international trading.Emissions trading: Like foreign aid,

Green policy junkiehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01149283194981831974noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5506425357942683255.post-77135844924591167972007-03-18T21:59:00.000-05:002007-03-18T22:41:40.424-05:00

Repeat after me - I love minority government. Sure, elections every year or two mean little gets actually done on climate change, but meanwhile the Liberals and Conservatives are one-upping each other to the point where radical environmental proposals transmogrify into mainstream policy!In January, Friends of the Earth and Corporate Knights publicized a proposal to create an emissions tax at 30

Green policy junkiehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01149283194981831974noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5506425357942683255.post-81468323421364539402007-03-14T21:25:00.000-05:002007-03-14T21:33:27.910-05:00

Tiny story in today's online National Post - the Liberals are supposedly considering absolute targets for large final emitters as part of their election plan, as opposed to the intensity-based targets that the Conservatives (and previous Liberal governments) have been working on.National Post storyMy Comments: I'm very glad to see absolute targets being discussed for emissions trading, and I hope

Green policy junkiehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01149283194981831974noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5506425357942683255.post-87827878023493008812007-03-11T00:04:00.000-05:002007-03-14T23:08:00.530-05:00

Toronto Dominion Bank released a report on March 7 calling for market based solutions for climate change. You tell 'em, my financially-inclined brethren! The 21-page report, "Market-Based Solutions to Protect the Environment" is 80% introduction to climate change policy options and 20% suggestions for Canada, with a focus on carbon taxes and emissions trading systems (ETS). It doesn't take a

Green policy junkiehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01149283194981831974noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5506425357942683255.post-6792845293591982432007-03-10T23:42:00.000-05:002007-03-10T23:48:54.043-05:00

Yesterday's Calgary herald also calls the SGER penalty for emissions beyond regulated targets a carbon tax (see last two posts for more on this), and talks briefly about the politics behind it all, federally and provincially:The goal is to paint Harper and Alberta green so the federal Conservatives can go to the polls this spring without having to attack the prime minister's own province. There

Green policy junkiehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01149283194981831974noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5506425357942683255.post-11877808571448440782007-03-10T23:12:00.000-05:002007-03-10T23:49:27.259-05:00

The Globe and Mail has a story today on Harper and Stelmach's recent announcements re carbon sequestration investments (the CO2 pipeline etc.), but what caught my eye was a reference to "Alberta's new carbon tax". They are referring to the $15.00/tonne charge on emissions beyond the targets included in the new proposed "Specific Gas Emitters Regulation" (SGER - say that ten times real fast).

Green policy junkiehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01149283194981831974noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5506425357942683255.post-80140939610956531262007-03-09T21:06:00.000-05:002007-03-10T23:50:11.312-05:00

Alberta announced its new (proposed) Specified Gas Emitters Regulation (SGER) yesterday, part of Bill 3, a proposed amendment to the Climate Change and Emissions Management Act. SGER requires facilities that emit more than 100 000 tonnes of GHGs (CO2e?)/year to reduce their emissions intensity by 12% starting July 1 2007, or elsebuy Alberta-based offsetsbuy "emissions performance credits" from

Green policy junkiehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01149283194981831974noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5506425357942683255.post-67501329745479339942007-03-07T12:33:00.000-05:002007-03-07T12:49:16.735-05:00

Corresponded via email today with Toby Heaps of Corporate Knights re his proposal for meeting Canada's Kyoto targets. Here is what he had to say on capital investment cycles and emissions trading:Given that many of the LFEs need to take capital investment cycles into consideration, do you think that that some of them will not be able to efficiently use the tax taken from them within the 3-year

Green policy junkiehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01149283194981831974noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5506425357942683255.post-7578496320256218092007-03-05T13:35:00.000-05:002007-03-05T17:09:38.939-05:00

Very pleased to hear some more serious discussion of carbon/GHG taxation in Canada today. CBC's the Current had two pieces on carbon taxes today (see link below to listen), one of which was more or less a debate between Terry Corcoran (Financial Post Editor) and Andrew Van Iterson (Green Budget Coalition). The piece was spurred by last week's news reports that the Liberals were supposedly

Green policy junkiehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01149283194981831974noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5506425357942683255.post-15159303985053417272007-02-28T22:17:00.000-05:002007-02-28T22:46:46.809-05:00

Matthew Bramley of the Pembina Institute testified to the Clean Air Act Legislative Committee last week on behalf of Pembina and the Climate Action Network (CAN-RAC). They've published their briefing note on both websites. In a nutshell, it proposes that the forthcoming emissions trading system for big industry use absolute rather than intensity-based targets; set targets at 1990 -6% levels;

Green policy junkiehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01149283194981831974noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5506425357942683255.post-61933423995140291572007-02-28T17:13:00.000-05:002007-02-28T18:05:41.340-05:00

Friends of the Earth Canada and Corporate Knights released a climate change plan today centred on carbon taxes. It takes the large final emitter carbon tax/carbon subsidy they proposed a month ago and adds a general carbon tax on fuels. Overall cost to an average family - 450-900$/year.Zero Leakage Carbon Investment Fund30$/tonne CO2e tax on LFE emissions (15$/tonne for manufacturing initially,

Green policy junkiehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01149283194981831974noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5506425357942683255.post-88889640493914342702007-02-28T12:06:00.000-05:002007-02-28T13:21:17.363-05:00

The transcripts are now available for meetings 7 through 10 of the legislative committee on Bill C-30. Here's a summary of meeting 7, which focused on target setting, with much additional discussion on policy. The committee heard from Greenpeace, the Canadian Chamber of Commerce (CCC), the National Round Table on the Environment and the Economy (NRTEE), and Dr. Marc Jaccard of SFU. Political

Green policy junkiehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01149283194981831974noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5506425357942683255.post-34202925085780646072007-02-27T08:41:00.000-05:002007-02-28T22:45:47.655-05:00

The Globe and Mail has been analyzing leaked documents describing the Conservative plan for an emissions trading system for big industry. Basically, it looks like the Liberals' old Large Final Emitters (LFE) system, with slightly tougher targets and of course a brand new name. Unfortunately, this means that most of the flaws of the old LFE system could still be present:intensity targets - the

Green policy junkiehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01149283194981831974noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5506425357942683255.post-31119987046234505512007-02-19T16:47:00.000-05:002007-02-19T22:24:21.860-05:00

Another freely available policy article from the journal Canadian Public Policy, this time from 1997. University of Guelph prof Ross McKitrick looked at the effects of different options for recycling the revenue from a carbon tax. The conclusion - if you recycle tax revenue the right way, you end up increasing overall welfare and GNP beyond the business-as-usual model, even without taking any

Green policy junkiehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01149283194981831974noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5506425357942683255.post-22541473509027634752007-02-17T22:19:00.000-05:002007-02-19T15:56:39.615-05:00

Back, back, to the distant first rumblings of interest in carbon taxes...or maybe not that far back. Once the Rio Convention was signed back in 1992, many countries started looking at carbon taxes as one option for controlling greenhouse gas emissions. This article ("Simulating the Distributional Effects of a Canadian Carbon Tax" describes one of Canada's early modelling attempts, done by

Green policy junkiehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01149283194981831974noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5506425357942683255.post-40394625198097497822007-02-17T14:56:00.000-05:002007-02-19T14:22:07.940-05:00

Gar Lipow, a writer with the online environmental magazine Grist, wrote a good critique of carbon taxes back in November 2006. He basically explains the price inelasticity of energy demand issue in more detail, and argues that carbon taxes aren't as efficient as standards, regulations and public works programs for achieving changes in energy use that require a lot of capital investment. His

Green policy junkiehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01149283194981831974noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5506425357942683255.post-53644533275556179032007-02-15T11:43:00.000-05:002007-02-15T11:59:54.239-05:00

From the brief submitted by David Boyd to the Bill C30 review committee last week, here are some carbon tax supporters:Al Gore, former Vice-president of the United StatesAlan Greenspan, former Chairman of the U.S. Federal ReserveJoseph Stiglitz, Nobel Prize winner, former Chief Economist at the World BankNicholas Stern, author of the most comprehensive look at the economics of climate change,

Green policy junkiehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01149283194981831974noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5506425357942683255.post-30255842419102934272007-02-15T10:18:00.000-05:002007-02-15T10:28:36.614-05:00

A brief article in the National Post today on a speech by Alan Greenspan to a group of Toronto business folks...Greenspan is quoted as saying that cap and trade is either ineffective because the target is too high (a la EU system) or if effective, causes costs to rise sharply, knocking out competitivity and creating job loss. Wonder if anyone asked him about carbon taxes?Link to NP articleLink

Green policy junkiehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01149283194981831974noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5506425357942683255.post-82662871252184544312007-02-14T14:23:00.000-05:002007-02-14T18:05:40.035-05:00

Just read over testimony from the February 6th meeting of the Clean Air Act Committee. The Committee heard from Bill Erasmus (Assembly of First Nations), Claude Villeneuve (Université du Québec À Chicoutimi prof), David R. Boyd (BC prof, author), and Mathieu Castonguay (Association québecoise de la lutte contre la pollution atmosphérique). There was a great deal of discussion on overall

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From today's National Post, the BC Liberal's throne speech apparently focused on climate change initiatives, including a commitment to build "a sensible, efficient system for registering, trading and purchasing carbon offsets and carbon credits in co-operation with the federal government and the U.S. states of California, Oregon, Alaska and Washington." It isn't clear to me if they are just

Green policy junkiehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01149283194981831974noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5506425357942683255.post-80289127302962263852007-02-13T16:51:00.000-05:002007-02-12T17:20:59.675-05:00

As reported in the Globe and Mail today, CIBC World Markets' regular Monthly Indicators newsletter includes an article on Canadian emissions trading entitled "Evaluating Carbon Risk in the Canadian Economy". Briefly, they evaluate the vulnerability of Canadian industry sectors to the impacts of a cap and trade emissions trading system, concluding that coal-fired power plants, the oil and gas

Green policy junkiehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01149283194981831974noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5506425357942683255.post-58857713996766553342007-02-12T16:58:00.000-05:002007-02-11T22:46:55.402-05:00

Just going over the unofficial/unedited transcripts from the C-30 Committee from last week a bit more. Nothing particularly exciting in their first meeting (December 14, 2006) - just a lot of discussion about committee format, etc., with plenty of partisan jockeying for position. In the second meeting (Jan 29), they spent more time trying to set out a schedule for the committee meetings, which

Green policy junkiehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01149283194981831974noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5506425357942683255.post-34055057470113457662007-02-11T20:19:00.000-05:002007-02-10T21:52:40.746-05:00

A week ago I reviewed an op-ed by the CEO of the C.D. Howe Institute, Jack Mintz, arguing against carbon taxes. Today I came across a longer article in Alternatives magazine where Marc Jaccard of Simon Fraser debated the issue with Mintz. I recommend reading the article because its a brief (2 page) summary of the principle arguments and counter-arguments around a carbon tax, by two particularly

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