Ok, so in reading all the doom and gloom about what Alberta is and is not doing about climate policy, a ray of sunshine emerged today. Andrew Leach from the U of A fired a number of quotable zingers in an Edmonton Sun article (see here) that bare repeating:
“A big part of the problem [...]
Now, this is getting interesting. As many had predicted, and as some teach to first year economics students (see here), consumers and not the regulated community are experiencing the “cost pass though”:
Gaz Métro passes it on $15 per year for residential customers… When the provincial government imposed the country’s first carbon tax last fall, [...]
In reading about Alberta’s climate plan this week (see here) and scanning the reaction in the press, it struck me that new thinking on climate policy is required. Indeed, with the proliferation of targets, targets and more targets, I got thinking. Since climate policy has been really good at inventing new fangled jargon [...]
The argument that carbon taxes are nothing but a tax grab is disingenuous (see here). No government seriously considering carbon pricing can afford, politically, to say anything but a carbon pricing package will be revenue neutral, at least mostly anyway. Reductions in other taxes, notably income, and subsidies to the “little” guy, like [...]
As usual, good ideas hatched in capital cities all over the world were not well thought out and perhaps a tad too rushed. While biofuels have a place is climate policy, the zeal with which renewable fuel standards are being rolled out is growing into one big mess. A leaked paper from the [...]
Of course lots of folks are lining up to capitalize on the great carbon economy shift that is coming. None more so than the nuclear industry. While this Globe article infers that nuclear may be cost-effective at higher carbon prices, it also highlights the cost obfuscation coming from the industry:
The (UK) White Paper [...]
With all the talk of energy security, I would expect that many in the oil patch discounted talk of limited energy imports to the US based on carbon content. After all, is not Canada a good friend with stable long-term energy supply prospects? Seems though this is not the case (see here), with [...]
When Jim Flaherty, the Federal Minister of Finance makes very public comments about climate policy, it is important. (see here). All too recently all things climate policy seemed to be the exclusive purview of Environment Canada. While Environment Canada is the logical lead on the file, the lack of visibility of others Ministers in [...]
As soon as we start purporting that emission pricing will solve wide ranging social woes, it is time to pause and reflect (see here for a carbon tax as a snake oil cure).
A city carbon tax would also be a flexible way of addressing traffic congestion, which has almost hit the saturation point. [...]
Here is a nice tight overview of what transpired this week with the NRTEE release. A surprising shot of clarity from an obscure source in Edmonton:
Sadly, ideology and partisan bluster continues to trump meaningful action on climate change based on sound advice—even when it’s advice the Conservatives asked for.
While we really can’t expect much [...]
Twitter: nree_alberta