statism watch

Sounds as though Mr. Prentice is going to go ahead with another campaign to plagiarize more American legislation. (This hammer has been held over our heads as regards their copyright law as well.) No mention here, however, of whether Canadian citizens would be subject to the same sort of probing, taxing, tracking cadres of ‘green’ inspectors provided for in the fine print of the 1200 page American bill.

Flashback: US Congress Passes the 1,200-page Climate Bill that it was not allowed to read | Climate Cops To Fine “Wasteful” Homeowners & Businesses | Obama targets US public with call for climate action | Obama to stake reputation on fast-tracked climate bill | Ontario unveils cap-and-trade legislation | NRTEE Carbon Market Panel is ‘Round Table on Socialist Planning’ | Climate panel presses for federal cap-and-trade system | U.N. ‘Climate Change’ Plan Would Likely Shift Trillions to Form New World Economy | U.N. Environment Head Wants Global Warming Tax | Time to emulate Roosevelt’s New Deal and create green jobs | Ontario joins continental WCI cap-and-trade scheme | B.C. carbon tax kicks in on Canada Day | They call it cap and trade, but it’s just another fuel tax | Quebec, Ontario sign historic climate pact | Every adult in Britain should be forced to carry ‘carbon ration cards’, say MPs | CEOs call for ‘aggressive’ action on climate change

Shawn McCarthy, Globe and Mail
July 1, 2009

Environment Minister Jim Prentice says regulations must be ‘comparable’ to avoid punitive tariffs on oil sands and other big greenhouse-gas emitters

Canada will adopt climate-change regulations comparable to those of the United States – including new rules for oil sands producers and refiners – to avoid punitive “green” tariffs, Environment Minister Jim Prentice says.

In an interview Tuesday, Mr. Prentice said it is too early to predict whether the bill that narrowly passed the U.S. House of Representatives last Friday will be adopted in its current form by the Senate, where it faces a rougher ride.

But he said Canada will bring in regulations to match new U.S. laws governing greenhouse-gas emissions – and vowed to be as tough on Canadian industry as the U.S. government is on its big emitters.

Under the American Clean Energy and Security Act, all U.S. industrial emitters will need permits for every tonne of greenhouse gases they send into the atmosphere. The U.S. oil industry argues that the bill will hammer the refining sector by forcing companies to pay huge fees for the permits, while other industries – notably the power sector – would receive free permits to cover a portion of their current emissions.

The Waxman-Markey bill (named for its co-sponsors, Democrats Henry Waxman of California and Edwin Markey of Massachusetts) also contains measures that would penalize Canadian exporters if Washington determines that Ottawa’s regulations are less vigorous than those adopted by the United States.

Mr. Prentice played down that possible threat. “The trade implications only apply if Canada does not have a commensurate system and, in fact, everything we are doing is to ensure we do have a commensurate system,” he said in an interview from Washington. “It will not be identical to the United States … but it will be comparable.”

But critics worry that Washington might invoke a narrow interpretation of “comparable” in order to provide an advantage to U.S. industries such as oil refining, cement, fertilizer and steel.

“The U.S. consistently defines ‘comparable’ as meaning just like U.S. law,” said Aldyen Donnelly, a Vancouver-based industry consultant.

Oil sands producers – and their U.S. refiners – face a particularly onerous burden under the bill because the upgrading and refining of oil sands bitumen involves energy-intensive processing and hence more emissions.

Both Canada and the U.S. have raised concerns about so-called carbon leakage – the idea that tough climate-change laws might drive energy-intense industries out of their home countries to jurisdictions that are more lax environmentally. Such moves would mean the loss of jobs, while doing nothing to reduce global greenhouse gas emissions.

During his visit to Washington, Mr. Prentice discussed cross-border environmental issues with U.S. Energy Secretary Stephen Chu and Lisa Jackson, administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency.

Mr. Prentice acknowledged that the U.S. bill targets refiners with tough emission-reduction measures that will be costly to implement. The regulatory push comes as conventional supplies of lighter crudes diminish, and major consumers such as the United States are being forced to turn to heavier crudes, including oil sands bitumen. He suggested that Canada would have little choice but to match the U.S. measures, despite resistance from Alberta, which worries that costly new regulations would impede development.

Canadian governments hope the oil industry will be able to meet new emissions standards for upgraders and refiners through the adoption of costly, unproven technology known as carbon capture and storage (CCS). The plan is to divert carbon dioxide from smoke stacks and inject it underground for permanent storage.

Tuesday, the Alberta government announced $2-billion in funding for three projects to build CCS demonstration plants. Two of them – one led by North West Upgrading Inc., the other by Royal Dutch Shell PLC – plan to capture CO{-2} from oil sands upgraders northeast of Edmonton. The third, led by Enbridge Inc. and Epcor Utilities Inc., involves a clean-coal power plant.

Source | See also under Environment: E-mails indicate EPA suppressed report skeptical of global warming | Polar bear expert barred from conference by global warming advocates | US Congress Passes the 1,200-page Climate Bill that it was not allowed to read | Climate Cops To Fine “Wasteful” Homeowners & Businesses | Chemical ban targets toys, rubber duckies | Rutgers Professor Warns Geoengineering Could “Create Disasters,” Global Famine | Obama targets US public with call for climate action | Black ooze at old Cold War station frightens Labrador town | Canada, U.S. will renegotiate Great Lakes water treaty | US cities may have to be bulldozed in order to survive | Prentice tables bill to expand NWT park under UNESCO | Obama to stake reputation on fast-tracked climate bill | Ontario unveils cap-and-trade legislation | Genetically modified monkeys pass traits to offspring | Bee population feels sting of cold, parasites as N.B. population drops | Toronto council approves stringent green-roof rules | Economic stabilization may rely on carbon economy, economist says | Google PowerMeter to track home energy usage in Toronto test drive | Meet – and eat – the modified Atlantic salmon | ‘Smart meters’ set to boost prices, track your power consumption by time of day in Toronto | Bee expert takes issue with dated UN data minimizing honeybee deaths | Researchers working on swine flu ‘vaccine corn’ | Global warming alarmists out in cold | Revealed: Antarctic ice growing, not shrinking | NRTEE Carbon Market Panel is ‘Round Table on Socialist Planning’ | Toronto: New bin regime spawns new rules, confusion for avid recyclers | Climate panel presses for federal cap-and-trade system | David Attenborough becomes patron for population reduction | Carbon tax resurfaces in Liberal policy proposal | Nature, not just man, to blame for global warming: scientists | Obama, Gore, tied to Chicago carbon exchange | U.N. ‘Climate Change’ Plan Would Likely Shift Trillions to Form New World Economy | UK population must fall to 30m: Optimum Population Trust | U.N. Environment Head Wants Global Warming Tax | Changes to law could affect navigation of Canadian waters, critics say | Scientists warn global warming accelerating | Terence Corcoran: Ontario’s green energy plan sneaks in feed-in taxes | Time to emulate Roosevelt’s New Deal and create green jobs | Gordon Brown’s amazing patent cure-all globalization deal | Top Japanese Scientists: Warming Is Not Caused By Human Activity | Doomsday seed vault’s stores are growing | Genetically Modified Seeds: Monsanto is Putting Normal Seeds Out of Reach | Google to enter market for energy use tracking | EU calls for global carbon trading system to fight climate change | Canadian, U.S. energy policies to be inextricably linked: Prentice | As in Canada, gender-bending chemicals in UK rivers grow more potent | UK Slips New Garbage Bin Taxes into Climate Bill | Obama to visit Canada, Tories to propose ‘integrated carbon market’ | Researchers unlock secrets of 1918 flu pandemic | Detroit granted water extraction exemption due to ‘historical precedent’ | Chemicals feminizing males, study suggests | Major report to reveal male gender under threat from pollutants | GM Crops Climb to Nearly One-Tenth of Global Crop Production | Toronto council approves plastic bag charge, bottle ban | UN Climate Change Conference open with call for ‘co-operation’ | Genetically engineered meal close to your table | IPCC caught with false figures, doubt cast on accuracy of global temperature record | Harper ready to harmonize with U.S. on climate change | CBC broadcasts “The Disappearing Male”, an expose of hormone-disrupting plastics | Harper Govt. to push North American carbon market plan with Obama | The GM genocide: Thousands of Indian farmers are committing suicide after using genetically modified crops | Europe’s secret plan to boost GM crop production | UN announces green ‘New Deal’ plan to rescue world economies | UN: financial crisis must not stop climate change action | Mobile phones to track carbon footprint using GPS | Bayer on defensive in bee deaths | Shun meat, says UN climate chief | Bilderberg-connected Desmarais dynasty thinktank supports exporting Canada’s water | Sensitive government document found on rainy Ottawa street | GM crops could lead to ‘disaster’: Prince Charles | Climate hysterics v heretics in an age of unreason | Pesticides, pollutants threaten Canadian tap water, researchers suggest | 40,000 sq km to be signed over to UNESCO | Population control thinktank to Britons: Have less children | Water pact will deplete Great Lakes, expert fears | Small Farmers Pushed to Plant GM Seed | Ontario joins continental WCI cap-and-trade scheme | American thinktanks sowed seeds of food crisis | Canada expanding parkland at ‘extraordinary’ pace | China wages war on Olympic weather | Ontario places vast boreal area under protection, 22% of province off limits to development | Get set – the future starts now | Canada’s made in America energy policy | Manitoba’s boreal forest touted for UNESCO status | Sludge biosolids decried as ‘toxic stew’, used as fertilizer | Sarkozy urges climate change action on first day as EU president | B.C. carbon tax kicks in on Canada Day | Today’s suburbs, tomorrow’s slums? | Home-grown veg ruined by toxic fertiliser | Agribusiness positions GM crops as panacea to predicted global food shortage | Oil, oil everywhere? Well, just maybe | Dion begins selling green plan | Lakes across Canada face being turned into mine dump sites | Road tolls, a bitter pill that works | They call it cap and trade, but it’s just another fuel tax | World has enough oil reserves, says BP boss | House of Commons adopts Layton’s Kyoto Plus bill | Monsanto Plans to Save World with its Biotech Crops | Quebec, Ontario sign historic climate pact | Every adult in Britain should be forced to carry ‘carbon ration cards’, say MPs | Beware thirsty Americans, Kennedy tells Canada | The tiny, useful particle that could also be a health problem | Dion begins selling carbon plan | Time has come to put ‘price on waste and pollution’: Dion | Man-made clouds to change the sky | Is it time for toll roads? | Bin Brother is watching you | Scientist who claimed GM crops could solve Third World hunger admits he got it wrong | CEOs call for ‘aggressive’ action on climate change | Vancouver to import road tolls from UK | UK proposes national road tolls to cut congestion | Technology Exists to Redirect Hurricanes, Naval Physicist Says | Weather War? | NASA Funds Sci-Fi Weather Control Technology | Motorists to pay London toll

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