Wednesday, September 13, 2006

Environmentally-damaging recycling

The National Post reports on the underwhelming emissions-reduction strategies from the Cons' planned environmental legislation:
In the short term, the government will rebrand a Liberal program to retrofit homes, which was killed after the Auditor-General's department criticized it for failing to justify its hefty price tags with effective results.

The Conservatives have also indicated previously that money will be directed toward new clean technologies such as carbon capture and storage, which experts suggest could mitigate climate change by trapping carbon dioxide instead of releasing it into the atmosphere. The technology for capturing CO2 is already commercially available, but storage remains a relatively untested concept. Some estimates suggest up to 90% of CO2 emissions could be reduced by applying carbon capture and storage to a conventional power plant.

But while the government will maintain its commitment to reducing greenhouse gas emissions in the longer term, it is likely to be attacked for having no short-term plan. The Climate Action Network, a coalition of 40 environmental groups, reiterated its call yesterday for the government to regulate carbon pollution under Canada's existing environmental protection law.
It's worth noting that the Cons' plans are even less original than suggested by the article. In addition to the retrofitting idea being nothing more than a repackaged program which was slashed earlier this year, the Cons were also completely dismissive of previous plans to study carbon capture this spring.

If the Cons wanted to take credit for another party's ideas to deal with greenhouse gas emissions, they didn't have to look far for a plan which would actually make a dent in the problem. Instead, it looks like they're salvaging only a small portion of the Libs' patchwork plan which itself fell fall short of meeting Canada's obligations. Which means that any attacks on the Cons' shortsightedness, whether from the Climate Action Network or elsewhere, will be well-deserved.

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