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 21st 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 13th 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