Watch Scheer mumble and fumble during the debate on the topic of climate   
   change.   
   No plan.  No intention to plan.  Undo any plan in place under the Liberals . .   
   .   
      
   Norway had a plan.  *They* owned their non-renewable oil resources; they   
   didn't give them over to foreigners to extract and exploit.  They had steep   
   royalties in place which all went into Norway's government coffers, to be   
   spent on the citizens of Norway.   
        
      
   Alberta pissed away its oil resources for a second time - making just a few   
   very rich shareholders and Albertans very happy.  Now Alberta is on its knees   
   again - demanding help from all Canadians through their federal government.     
      
   And the aspiring Con prime minister, Scheer? . . . well, he's got no plan   
   other than to set Canada's environmental problems onto an even faster track.    
   He would exploit our resources, our air, our water and our oceans for the   
   profit of more foreign    
   corporations and their shareholders.  What's to worry about?   
   ______________________________   
   Oct 4, 2019 - Maclean's   
      
      
   The Tory climate plan unplugged   
      
      
   What is the Conservatives’ position on electric vehicles? The answer is   
   unclear and it says a lot about the choices on offer in this election.   
      
   In TVA’s French language debate Wednesday night, moderator Pierre Bruneau   
   asked Conservative Leader Andrew Scheer if he would cut a federal subsidy for   
   electric vehicles as Doug Ford cut a provincial program when he took power in   
   Ontario.   
      
   â€œWe have assured Canadians that we will continue this program until the end   
   of the schedule,â€� Scheer said. “But we must recognize another fact. The   
   most popular vehicle in Quebec is the F-150. Quebecers are going to continue   
   to buy gas. And I    
   prefer, I have made my choice. I prefer our own gas to gas from the United   
   States. It doesn’t make sense for money from Quebec to leave Canada for the   
   economy of Donald Trump when we have reserves.â€�   
      
   First off, gasoline, like money, is fungible. Gas from the United States,   
   Venezuela or Saudi Arabia is the same as gas from Alberta, and the idea that   
   we should prefer burning good old Canadian gasoline makes as much sense as   
   arguing that it’s    
   unpatriotic to drink California wine.   
      
   We hear this argument a lot because it’s a rhetorical device used to support   
   pipeline construction, but it doesn’t stand up to the slightest scrutiny.   
      
   Secondly, notice the speed of Scheer’s pivot from a discussion of electric   
   vehicles. It is the same in his climate policy, which he released a few months   
   after the 2019 Liberal budget, which included a $5,000 subsidy for every   
   electric vehicle. Scheer†  
   ™s plan says nothing about electric vehicles except for some happy talk about   
   improving charging technology.   
      
   Happy talk is good, but the government Scheer wants to replace had just   
   announced a detailed, costed plan to promote electric vehicles, including $130   
   million on a program to build charging stations, partly to fill in the gaps on   
   the highway system so    
   electric cars are more practical for long trips.   
      
   If we are to reduce Canadian greenhouse gas emissions and meet our   
   international commitments, reducing the chances that we will all die in a   
   climate catastrophe, this is the kind of step governments must make.    
   Transportation accounted for 174 million    
   megatonnes of Canada’s emissions in 2017, second only to oil and gas   
   production at 195 megatonnes. It is possible to dramatically reduce those   
   emissions fairly quickly, although we can expect the people who sell oil and   
   gas to do everything they can to    
    fight that kind of change.   
      
   In civilized Norway, plug-in electric vehicles have already overtaken gas   
   burners. To encourage rapid uptake, Norway has offered electric motorists free   
   parking, tax breaks, access to bus lanes and exemptions from road tolls. It is   
   also easy to charge    
   electric vehicles there. There are 7,632 charging stations. In massive Canada,   
   there are only 5,841.   
      
   The Liberals have a plan to have all vehicles on the road in Canada be   
   electric or hydrogen-powered by 2040, and have rolled out policies aimed at   
   pushing us toward that goal.   
      
   What would Scheer do? He has not said, so we have to guess.  It seems   
   reasonable to think he may pursue policies similar to the Ford government,   
   which have slowed the spread of electric vehicles.   
      
   The previous Liberal Ontario government offered rebates for electric vehicles   
   and had made changes to the building code that would have required that new   
   homes be built with 200-amp panels, so that it would be cheaper and easier to   
   fit them with electric    
   vehicle charging stations. Home builders objected, complaining that the change   
   would add $500 to the price of each new home, so in May the Ford government   
   quietly removed those requirements from the building code, which means that it   
   will be much more    
   expensive to refit buildings later to install charging stations.   
      
   Graham Inglis, who runs a Mississauga company that installs charging stations,   
   says it typically costs $1,500-$2,500 to upgrade electrical service after a   
   home is built, so the changes to the building code don’t make sense.   
   â€œIt’s a short-term    
   solution that might not have the home owner’s long term interest in view,â€�   
   he said in an interview on Friday. “It might save them a little bit of money   
   now, but in the end they’re going to need a service upgrade.â€�   
      
   Ford’s changes to the building code do nothing to encourage the adoption of   
   cleaner technologies.   
      
   The Ford government also killed Ontario’s cap-and-trade system and cancelled   
   contracts for renewable energy, including a nearly finished $100-million wind   
   project in Prince Edward County, at an as-yet-unknown cost.   
      
   [---]   
      
   It increasingly seems as though conservative political parties have been   
   captured by a free-spending petroleum industry that is in a fight for   
   survival. Politicians closely associated with the industry often seem to act   
   not just in the interests of    
   taxpayers skeptical of costly subsidies to green-tech boondoggles, but as   
   representatives of an industry that sees cleaner technologies as an   
   existential threat.   
      
   Scheer, for instance, opposes the adoption of cleaner fuel standards in   
   Canada, essentially taking Donald Trump’s side in a continent-wide struggle   
   over how much pollution our cars produce.   
      
      
   [continued in next message]   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)