Wednesday-Night

P Please consider the environment before printing

See also The Biofuel Backlash and
Toxic chemicals and Environment on wednesday-night.com

We also recommend Andrew Coyne’s column If not Kyoto, what? of May 24, 2006. We haven’t advanced a whole lot since then.

3 May 2008
Burning money
By Henry Aubin
The hope that some new oil-free technology will rescue our car culture seems like wishful thinking. Our politicians are mulishly pressing on with a kind of growth that the price of gas is making obsolete.
Biofuel salvation or perdition?
As debate heats up on the wisdom of turning plants into energy, Ottawa embraces the idea

Environment Minister John Baird checks out paint at an Ottawa hardware store Saturday. (Sean Kilpatrick/Associated Press)
April 26
Feds want to reduce smog-causing additives in paints, stains and varnishes
(RCI) OTTAWA: GOVERNMENT TAKES ENVIRONMENT STEP
Canada’s Conservative Party government announced a new environment initiative on Saturday to reduce some sources of smog. Under the plan, limits would also be put on volatile organic compounds that are found in many household items such as house paint, nail polish and vehicle coatings. The compounds cause the strong smell in a newly opened can of paint. Environment Minister John Baird says that such compounds are the second-largest contributor to smog in Canada. Vehicle emissions are first. The government proposes to limit the concentration of the compounds in personal care products, paints and coatings and vehicle refinishing products. But implementing the change by 2010 could cost the industry CDN$323 million according to one industry analyst.
April 22 - Earth Day
Has the Harper Government no shame? We are amazed by Mr. Baird’s ability to make his Earth Day statement with a straight face, but if this truly indicates a new direction, let us be thankful and not comment further on about-faces.
Canada’s Environment Minister Celebrates Earth Day
“As Canada’s Environment Minister, I share Canadians’ passion for protecting our environment. Our Government believes strongly in ensuring a healthy and sustainable environment for current and future generations. That’s why our environmental agenda is focused on conservation of our parks, protection of our wildlife, fighting climate change, and protecting and ensuring clean water for all of us.
This Government recognizes that the health of our environment is fundamentally linked to the health of our people. This recognition has put the concern for our environment - for protection, conservation, and a commitment to environmental technologies and partnerships - at the forefront of our Government’s decision-making.”
April 1
Canada’s submission to UN climate change conference ‘deceitful’: critics
Mike De Souza, Canwest News Service
OTTAWA - The Harper government is being accused of misleading the world about the toughness of its plan to force industry to bury greenhouse gas emissions underground.
Opposition parties and environmental groups say a submission made by Canada to a United Nations climate change conference this week in Bangkok is “deceitful” since it suggests the government is imposing immediate reductions in pollution through the deployment of new technology, when in fact, there are no regulations in place.
March 31
Environment. ‘Government ignoring own advice’
MIKE DE SOUZA, Canwest News Service
The Harper government was warned last year by its own experts on the environment that Canada would have to join an aggressive international campaign to fight global warming to avoid “substantial global and Canadian” effects or risk irreversible damage to the planet.
The documents, obtained by Canwest News Service, were delivered days before Prime Minister Stephen Harper attended a summit of major industrialized countries hosted by Germany.
Eric Richer, a spokesperson for Environment Minister John Baird, said he was not able to comment on whether the government agreed with all the conclusions listed in the memorandums without examining them in detail.
However, he said the government agrees with the urgency of fighting global warming and has responded by introducing a domestic plan to significantly reduce annual greenhouse gas emissions from Canada while trying to engage international partners.
March 25, 2008
PM confirms support for carbon capture technology
(CBC News) Prime Minister Stephen Harper repeated his commitment on Tuesday to spend $240 million to convert an old coal-fired generator in southeastern Saskatchewan to a commercial-scale carbon capture and storage unit.
It is so reassuring to know that our Prime Minister listens to the polls.
Canadians back emissions cap, new poll shows
‘The dirty secret of the oilsands is starting to get out more’
(Canwest) Four of five Canadians disagree with the Harper government’s approach to protecting economic growth in Alberta’s oilsands sector while allowing its annual global warming-causing emissions to triple over the next decade, a new survey has revealed.
The poll found that a majority of Albertans wanted the federal government to get tough with greenhouse gas emissions and that Quebecers were leading the way in calls for no expansion in the booming oilsands sector until environmental issues are resolved.
Overall, 79 per cent of Canadians and 81 per cent of Albertans said greenhouse gas emissions from the sector should be “capped at current levels and then reduced” because of the impact on global warming, according to the McAllister Opinion Research poll. Only 12 per cent of respondents, in the province and in the country as a whole, said emissions from the oilsands sector should be “allowed to exceed current levels” so as to encourage economic growth.
“I think the dirty secret of the oilsands is starting to get out more,” said Matt Price, a climate and energy policy expert with Environmental Defence, which commissioned the survey.
March 10
(Reuters) Canada emission rules target new oil sands plants
VANCOUVER, British Columbia - Canada announced new rules to reduce greenhouse gas emissions on Monday, targeting future oil sands facilities and power plants, in a plan immediately derided by environmentalists as too little, too late.
Oil sands facilities that go into operation starting in 2012 will be required to capture and store the bulk of their emissions of carbon dioxide, which is blamed for climate change, the Conservative government said.
Existing facilities — which process the tar-like bitumen from Alberta’s massive oil sands into refinery-ready light crude — and those that start operating before the end of 2011 will have to reduce emissions using cleaner fuels according to the rules that will be finalized next year.
“The oils sands (are) an important national resource but we we’ve got to expand (them) in an environmentally friendly way,” Environment Minister John Baird said in Ottawa.
(Toronto Star) Ottawa’s carbon plan jumps gun, critics say
Baird’s announcement is actually weaker in some ways than the original climate change plan unveiled last April, said John Bennett of ClimateforChange.
Industry officials reacted calmly to yesterday’s announcement, and promised to work with the federal and provincial governments to cut greenhouse gas emissions.
They noted, though, that what Baird released amounts only to more guidelines, not the detailed draft regulations that were anticipated.
Baird talks tough, but emitters win
The long-overdue grand regulatory announcement late Monday afternoon was expected to produce a dream scheme for hopeful environmentalists and a nightmare for large emitters.
The eight-page synopsis of a 45-page background paper promoted itself as The Detailed Plan, but delivered little more than the promise of details to follow.
Even department spin doctors struggled to extract news from the document, which was supposed to impose greenhouse gas discharge limits on 17 categories and only delivered firm targets for two sectors without including penalties for non-compliance.
Oilsands projects built after 2012 will be forced to incorporate technology to capture and bury “the vast majority” of their carbon discharge through a future pipeline subsidized by the federal government. Good news there.
But existing oilsands plants and those now under construction must only curb the “intensity” of emissions per barrel of output, which means today’s carbon discharge will double by the year 2018 before it flatlines.
The push to stamp out “dirty coal” power generation sounds impressive because it will banish new plants of that type entirely after 2012. But the department only knows of two or three coal generators still on the drawing boards anywhere in Canada.
U.S. may protect oilsands
Considering move to exempt region from new crackdown
CALGARY — In response to concerns that new U.S. environmental legislation will drastically impact development of Canada’s oilsands, Washington is considering classifying oil produced from the region as “conventional” fuel rather than subject it to the stringent standards expected of “alternative” fuels.
March 10
Government Delivers Details of Greenhouse Gas Regulatory Framework
OTTAWA, ONTARIO–(Marketwire - March 10, 2008) - The Government of Canada today published details of the Turning the Corner regulatory framework originally announced on April 26, 2007. The documents, posted to Environment Canada’s website, provide additional details about how the Government of Canada will move forward with its plan to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
This plan includes mandatory reductions for industry, along with additional new measures to address two of Canada’s key emitting sectors: oil sands and electricity. See ecoAction for details
Climate change plan was ready to launch in 2006
Mike De Souza , CanWest News Service
OTTAWA - A “made-in-Canada” approach to target industrial greenhouse-gas emissions, fight climate change and spur new technology was ready for launch in 2006, newly released federal documents have revealed.
The documents include an unclassified memo from the top-ranking Environment Canada official, sent to Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s cabinet, which explained that a new climate change agency created by the previous Liberal government had “the potential to bring about significant, cost-effective transformational change in Canadian society,” driving a new market system that would encourage technologies such as carbon capture and storage.
The Harper government, which introduced new details about its own proposed regulations for industry Monday, killed the agency after the end of its first year in office in 2007. It is now introducing a plan that it estimates will allow emissions from the oilsands sector to double from 25 million to 50 million tonnes over the next 15 years.
Tough new green plan targets oil sands
Regulations, which also apply to coal-fired power plants, would force future projects to store greenhouse-gas emissions underground
OTTAWA — Ottawa will unveil new climate-change regulations this week that would force new oil sands projects and coal-fired electricity plants to capture and store the bulk of their greenhouse gases rather than spew them into the air.
The new rules are part of Environment Minister John Baird’s plan to regulate 17 key industrial sectors, which include manufacturers of pulp and paper, cement and chemicals, as well as producers of mineral products like steel, aluminum and iron ore, among others.
“There’s no doubt we’re asking a lot of industry and a lot of Canadians but we believe Canadians are up to the challenge,” Mr. Baird said Sunday.