XPost: can.politics, ab.politics, bc.politics   
   XPost: edm.general   
   From: doctor@doctor.nl2k.ab.ca   
      
   In article <3apj8apdf6k6ntd84763n4r0ohill4ss8b@4ax.com>,   
   Barry Bruyea   wrote:   
   >On Thu, 11 Dec 2014 13:49:42 +0000 (UTC), doctor@doctor.nl2k.ab.ca   
   >(The Doctor) wrote:   
   >   
   >>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   
      
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