The #climate and GHG question I would have asked
In today’s Edmonton Journal/Calgary Herald on-line leaders debate (a great format, BTW), the leaders were asked the following question: Do you believe in climate change? What should be the provincial government’s response to climate change, or should the provincial government wait for a plan from the federal government?
Your oilsands royalty primer
Bitumen royalties accounted for 10% of total Alberta government revenues in 2010-2011, and that is expected (according to the most recent Alberta Budget) to climb to approximately 20% of total government revenues, or $9.9 billion dollars by 2014-2015. Both royalty revenue estimates and royalty rates make for contentious subjects in Alberta, and this post is intended […]
Questions I’ll be asking #abvote candidates
What will determine my vote on April 23rd? I suppose it will surprise no one that I will vote based on the energy and environmental policies of the parties. My key issue list includes 5 categories: 1) Savings, transparency, and accountability; 2) Market access; 3) Local environmental management; 4) Global environmental credibility; and 5) Getting […]
Forecasts are wrong, but that doesn’t mean we should ignore them
Oil price forecasts are wrong. That’s not going to change. Today’s Alberta budget has one in it, it’s aggressive, and it will be wrong. Will it be proven to be too high or too low? I haven’t a clue. But, in a province where approximately 1/3 of future provincial revenue depends directly on energy prices, […]
Some clarification please, Mr. Mulcair.
Yesterday, NDP leadership candidate and environmental hawk Thomas Mulcair announced his intention to implement a, “new comprehensive plan to combat climate change.” According to his press release, “Mulcair’s new plan would still be industry-focused and based on the principle that ‘polluters pay’, but it would expand beyond the 700 largest emitters in Canada to cover […]
Alberta PC Leadership Q&A
With the co-operation of each of the PC Leadership candidates, I will be putting together an Energy and Environment Q&A on the Globe and Mail‘s Economy Lab site. This evening, I have sent the following three questions to each of the candidates, and asked that they respond, in 200 words or less for each question, […]
On the NDP and budgets
As information continues to trickle out about the NDP cap-and-trade program, I thought I should go back to the NDP budgets quickly. An issue arose today with respect to the eventual gas price impacts of their cap-and-trade policy, and whether an NDP policy which does not price transportation emissions could reach their budget targets. It […]
On the gas price impact of NDP cap-and-trade
Here’s what you need to know about the NDP program and gas prices. The NDP cap-and-trade program would require “big emitters” including oil refineries and major producing sites including oil sands facilities to buy emission permits at auction, with a price floor at $45/ton. This will increase the costs of producing oil and refining gasoline. […]
Tory platform’s dirty secret – my latest Economy Lab post
There’s a hole in the Conservative platform…a hole so big, you could fit Canada’s oil and gas sector or every single one of our fossil-fuel power plants into it. The hole is projected to get bigger, and will be large enough to fit every single car, truck, SUV, train, bus, and ATV in Canada into […]
My latest Economy Lab post
The corporate tax implications of each of the parties’ greenhouse gas (GHG) policy proposals will run in the billions of dollars per year. GHG policies will induce significant expenditures, whether they follow the regulatory approach proposed by the Conservatives, the cap-and-trade approaches proposed by the Liberals and the NDP, or the broad carbon pricing approach […]