# 8 Support for Enbridge pipeline increases from 35% to 42% despite negative statements about carbon tax.

The Canadian public and officials in other countries are very much opposed to the Northern Gateway pipeline project which will transport oil from Alberta to the West coast for transport to Asia. The objections stem from the poor operation and maintenance records of Enbridge, the pipeline company and the dismal environmental records of the Canadian Government.

In 5 E mails to Enbridge I have shown how little the press reports on the main problems and solutions, how the internet is flooded with articles about their neglect and  4 recent spills without mentioning that due to these disasters some regulations have changed and that their pipeline proposal includes several important improvements over any line constructed in the past. I also suggested that they summarise how the past failures occurred and how things have improved since. Enbridge responded with detailed comments, referred me to some of their blogs which are hard to find and encouraged me to keep involved.

I wrote 3 E mails to the Canadian Government to show how little factual environmental information is published in newspapers and magazines., how hard it is to find, even on the internet, any proper response to all the bad news which shows up in websites and blogs. Even before president Obama announced that the US would become more serious about climate change we were rated as # 58 out of 61 countries based on 5 environmental criteria. The US was at that time rated #41. While 10 US States and one Canadian province have a successful carbon pricing system neither country has a national system. In Europe it has also been shown that carbon pricing has no economic disadvantages yet here carbon tax is opposed because little attention is given to how the proceeds are used to re-reimburse the taxpayers. This leads to very misleading figures both in the US and Canada. I have urged the government to consider these flaws and implement a revenue neutral carbon tax. This would improve our environmental reputation and make additional pipelines more acceptable.  At present the pipelines are full and we lose at least $ 15 billion per year because of transportation problems  It is recognised by many financial institutions and  at least 8 CEO’s of energy companies that a carbon tax is much easier to implement and administer than cap and trade. It is also more effective because it taxes all fossil fuels and when a global agreement can be reached in 2015 there will be no need for countervailing duties.  Until a global carbon tax has been established, demand for oil and coal will increase so we may as well supply it rather than give the business to other countries. The Executive Correspondence Officer for the Prime Minister's Office replied “You may be assured that your comments have been carefully considered. Once again, thank you for taking the time to write”

 Since those E mails the support for the Enbridge Northern Gateway pipeline has increased substantially as explained on November 21^st in http://www.vancouversun.com/news/metro/Support+Northern+Gateway+project+increasing+Poll/9194584/story.html

We are not so fortunate with the carbon tax. Mr Harper still does not accept that by opposing the tax we hurt our environmental image, creating more opposition to pipelines.  A November 13^th article http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/canada-politics/harper-government-praises-australian-government-efforts-repeal-carbon-181702013.html reports his praise for Australia’s attempt to repeal the tax. His government echo’s the same argument as used in Australia : “Subsequently, Conservative MP Ryan Leef stood in the House to make this claim.The Liberal leader has lent his support to the radical NDP centrepiece of irresponsible economic management, whose $20-billion carbon tax would raise the price on absolutely everything. However, our government rejects that idea to impose a job-killing carbon tax that would increase the price on everything, including gas, electricity, and groceries--a tax on all Canadians”.

 Not mentioned is that under a revenue neutral system the $ 20 billion is paid back to the same Canadians via reduced income tax and special grants and that nobody suffers. It is just a tax shift to make green energy more competitive around the world.  Until a global tax has been established we delay China’s development of green energy by sending them cheap tax-free oil.

For a summary of the pipeline problems and our poor environmental records see points 12 and 8 of the second article in post 1