XPost: can.politics, ab.politics, edm.general   
   XPost: calgary.general   
   From: doctor@doctor.nl2k.ab.ca   
      
   In article ,   
   Barry Bruyea   wrote:   
   >On Wed, 10 Dec 2014 23:46:11 +0000 (UTC), doctor@doctor.nl2k.ab.ca   
   >(The Doctor) wrote:   
   >   
   >>In article ,   
   >>Barry Bruyea   wrote:   
   >>>On Wed, 10 Dec 2014 17:26:01 +0000 (UTC), doctor@doctor.nl2k.ab.ca   
   >>>(The Doctor) wrote:   
   >>>   
   >>>>In article ,   
   >>>>Barry Bruyea   wrote:   
   >>>>>On Wed, 10 Dec 2014 13:41:38 +0000 (UTC), doctor@doctor.nl2k.ab.ca   
   >>>>>(The Doctor) wrote:   
   >>>>>   
   >>>>>>In article ,   
   >>>>>>=?UTF-8?B?IijgsqBf4LKgKSAi?=   wrote:   
   >>>>>>>December 9, 2014 - Macleans   
   >>>>>>>   
   >>>>>>>   
   >>>>>>>Harper and the oil patch: Honesty is the only policy   
   >>>>>>>   
   >>>>>>>The prime minister explains crazy policy to us   
   >>>>>>>   
   >>>>>>>   
   >>>>>>>Prime Minister Stephen Harper, today in the House of Commons:   
   >>>>>>>   
   >>>>>>>     “Frankly, Mr. Speaker, under the current circumstances of the   
   oil and gas   
   >>>>>>>sector, it would be crazy, it would be crazy economic policy to do   
   unilateral   
   >>>>>>>penalties on that sector. We’re clearly not going to do that,â€?   
   Harper told the   
   >>>>>>>House as Conservative MPs roared their approval.   
   >>>>>>>     “In fact, nobody in the world is regulating their oil and gas   
   sector. I’d   
   >>>>>>>be delighted if they did. Canada will be there with them.â€?   
   >>>>>>>   
   >>>>>>>Jim Prentice, then federal minister of the environment, not quite five   
   years ago:   
   >>>>>>>   
   >>>>>>>     “For those of you who doubt that the government of Canada lacks   
   either the   
   >>>>>>>willingness or the authority to protect our national interests as a   
   â€˜clean   
   >>>>>>>energy superpower,’ think again,â€? he warned darkly. “We do and we   
   will. And, in   
   >>>>>>>our efforts, we will expect and we will secure the co-operation of those   
   >>>>>>>private interests which are developing the oil sands. Consider it a   
   >>>>>>>responsibility that accompanies the right to develop these valuable   
   Canadian   
   >>>>>>>resources.â€?   
   >>>>>>>   
   >>>>>>>Back then, it was possible to believe the federal government would   
   impose   
   >>>>>>>regulations on the oil and gas industries. The government certainly   
   said it   
   >>>>>>>would, often enough. (Peter Kent in February, 2013: “We are now well   
   into, and   
   >>>>>>>very close to finalizing, regulations for the oil and gas sector.â€?)   
   But, as   
   >>>>>>>Chris Turner reminds us in his book The War on Science, Prentice quit as   
   >>>>>>>environment minister in November 2010, and the Harper government’s   
   periodic   
   >>>>>>>attempts to demonstrate environmental virtue, even at some hypothetical   
   cost to   
   >>>>>>>the resource sector, pretty much came to an end.   
   >>>>>>>   
   >>>>>>>Of course, it can be hard to tell where the notion of oil and gas   
   regulations   
   >>>>>>>ended. Prentice himself has been sounding much like Harper since he   
   became   
   >>>>>>>premier of Alberta:   
   >>>>>>>   
   >>>>>>>     “Environmental performance is important, but so, too, is our   
   industrial   
   >>>>>>>competitiveness . . . I think this low-price environment is a reminder   
   . . .   
   >>>>>>>that we have to be careful laying on costs, including regulatory costs,   
   on our   
   >>>>>>>industry, because we need to remain competitive.â€?   
   >>>>>>>   
   >>>>>>>But is even that new? From my 2010 article, linked above:   
   >>>>>>>   
   >>>>>>>     “We will only adopt a cap-and-trade regime if the United States   
   signals   
   >>>>>>>that it wants to do the same. Our position on harmonization applies   
   equally to   
   >>>>>>>regulation. Canada can go down either road—cap and trade or   
   regulation—but we   
   >>>>>>>will go down neither road alone.â€?   
   >>>>>>>   
   >>>>>>>So the paper trail on the government’s oil and gas policy is a bit of   
   a mess.   
   >>>>>>>The feds will only impose regulations in concert with the Americans?   
   Well,   
   >>>>>>>there are two problems with that story. First, as Bruce Cheadle points   
   out:   
   >>>>>>>   
   >>>>>>>     An Environment Canada briefing memo revealed last month by the   
   Globe and   
   >>>>>>>Mail shows that the United States, in fact, placed what were called   
   >>>>>>>“significantâ€? limits on its oil and gas sector in 2012.   
   >>>>>>>   
   >>>>>>>     “For oil and gas, recent air pollution regulations are expected   
   to result   
   >>>>>>>in significant greenhouse-gas reduction co-benefits, comparable to the   
   >>>>>>>reductions that would result from the approach being developed for this   
   sector   
   >>>>>>>in Canada,â€? states the June 2013 memo obtained by Greenpeace under an   
   Access to   
   >>>>>>>Information request.   
   >>>>>>>   
   >>>>>>>Second, there is simply no record of a concerted Canadian effort to   
   work with   
   >>>>>>>the Americans on joint regulations. Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird   
   >>>>>>>mentions the Keystone pipeline to U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry in   
   every   
   >>>>>>>meeting and at every phone call. There is literally no record of any   
   public   
   >>>>>>>proposal from Harper to U.S. President Barack Obama to work on the joint   
   >>>>>>>regulations that are now, the PM says, the necessary condition of any   
   Canadian   
   >>>>>>>regulations.   
   >>>>>>>   
   >>>>>>>In this light, I note with genuine surprise that the “U.S.-Canada   
   clean energy   
   >>>>>>>dialogueâ€? that was created when Obama visited Ottawa in 2009 is   
   actually still   
   >>>>>>>a thing. I also note with no surprise at all that the latest joint   
   report,   
   >>>>>>>barely a month old, does not mention joint regulations on oil and gas   
   >>>>>>>industries anywhere in its 10 pages.   
   >>>>>>>   
   >>>>>>>So. The feds have been promising oil and gas regulations for seven   
   years, while   
   >>>>>>>periodically insisting they could produce no such regulations without   
   U.S.   
   >>>>>>>co-operation. They have also refused to seek such co-operation, while   
   refusing   
   >>>>>>>to follow up on helpful U.S. unilateral action. (By “helpful,â€? of   
   course, I   
   >>>>>>>mean “action that would seem helpful if anyone felt like constraining   
   the   
   >>>>>>>carbon emissions of the oil and gas sector. Like, hypothetically.â€?)   
   >>>>>>>   
   >>>>>>>One more thing. If the price of oil is too low for regulations, this   
   would be a   
   >>>>>>>big change from the last seven years, when the Harper government’s   
   argument was   
   >>>>>>>that the price of oil was too high for regulations. There is, in the   
   consistent   
   >>>>>>>messaging of this government, no time when government action to   
   constrain the   
   >>>>>>>carbon emissions of the oil sands is appropriate. When the price is   
   high, it’s   
   >>>>>>>too high. When it’s low, it’s too low. One can assume governments   
   in potential   
   >>>>>>>export markets have noted this message, and will act accordingly.   
   >>>>>>   
   >>>>>>Looks like shortsightedness strikes again!   
   >>>>>   
   >>>>>It's pathetic the way you liberals are worrying about the price of oil   
      
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