Provinces ignore Harper, set own Greenhouse emission standards
macksamillion
the Harper government standing alone like the fools they are. Good for you, Quebec !
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Quebec adopts California car emissions standards
Rules will gradually lower greenhouse gas emission ceiling for cars
Last Updated: Tuesday, December 29, 2009 | 12:33 PM ET
Quebec is adopting California's stringent auto-emissions standards next month, in a move
to tackle the province's polluting transport sector.
When the new emissions standards take effect Jan. 14, Quebec will become the first
Canadian province to follow California's lead in reducing greenhouse gases with cleaner
light vehicles.
The standards will impose increasingly strict limits on maximum greenhouse gas emissions
for light vehicles manufactured between 2010 and 2016, and sold in Quebec.
By 2016, provincial standards will require light vehicles to produce no more than 127
grams of greenhouse gas per kilometre.
The new rules come after two years of consultation on California's controversial
standards, said Line Beauchamp, the province's environment minister.
California's emissions program is "really interesting because it is accompanied by a
system of penalties, but especially, a system of rewards" for cleaner cars, Beauchamp said
in French at a news conference in Montreal on Tuesday.
The emission caps apply to a manufacturer's total vehicle fleet, which means companies
that manage to come under the limit can either bank their credits, or sell them to others,
Beauchamp explained.
When the West Coast state first introduced its standards in 2004, it was beset by judicial
challenges from the auto industry, a reaction Quebec noted with interest, the environment
minister said.
But with the advent of Barack Obama as president, and a slow spread of California's
standards to other states, Quebec is ready to take the plunge for stricter standards "with
much pride," Beauchamp said.
The minister noted that several states neighbouring Quebec are among those that have
followed California's lead, including Vermont, Maine, Massachusetts, New Jersey and
Connecticut.
The Obama administration has also signalled its intent to adopt equivalent standards for
all of the United States by 2012.
In Quebec, the transport sector generates about 40 per cent of the province's greenhouse
gases, half of which is caused by light vehicles.
dipsy
<macksa...@work.now> wrote:
>Watch the individual provinces take control of Greenhouse emission standards - and leave
>the Harper government standing alone like the fools they are. Good for you, Quebec !
>
Harper represents Alberta oil interests, look who he sent as part of
the Copenhagen delegation - Mike Holmes! The guy has a Home Depot
sponsored show on TV huh? Big corporations running the show.
AntiSpin
"macksamillion" <macksa...@work.now> wrote in message
news:gyv_m.128280$Wf2....@newsfe23.iad...
> Watch the individual provinces take control of Greenhouse emission
> standards - and leave the Harper government standing alone like the fools
> they are. Good for you, Quebec !
>
This is one of those political decisions that may sound like a government
is doing something but in fact, isn't.
The fact that California set the standards in 2004 and other states have
followed means that the defacto standards have now been, or are in the
process of being set by governments other than Quebec.The auto makers really
have no choice but to follow this lead, if they haven't already. In other
words, Quebec appears to have made a committment but in reality hasn't.
Quebec is piggy backing on the work and risks of other states without any
risk to itself. Where have we seen this before? It's a farily cynical move
on Quebec's part - easy to do, costs nothing, makes you look like you're
doing something when you're not - perfect political posturing.
To look at it another way, Alberta now has the same vehicle standards as
California too.
To use this as an example of positive action by a province suggests a lack
of critical analysis. To use it to berate the federal government over it's
inaction suggests the same. One key reason that the provinces are acting
ahead of the federal government is the nature of Canada's constitution. The
federal government cannot enact carbon limiting legislation that affects the
constitutional domain of the provinces without consulting the provinces.
Thus even if Harper wanted to shut down the oil sands he couldn't because
mineral resources lay outside Ottawa's constitutional jurisdiction (well,
that and NAFTA, which prevents the feds from limiting export licenses).
Ditto Onatrio's use of thermal generation (which McGuinty has promised three
times now to eliminate).
(An area where it may be possible for Ottawa to act unilaterally is water
quality in the Athatbasca watershed but good luck with that.)
Could Canada do with a First Ministers' Conference on the Environment? Sure,
if the premiers and prime minister actually wannted one.