Year: 2011

Gas prices: Who benefits from tax relief?

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Since oil prices began their steady march back to three-digit levels, the cries for government intervention in gasoline markets has risen in tandem.  These calls have reached a fever pitch this week with reports we will soon see a US-style dressing-down of the oil executives by federal MPs as well as calls from politicians including Ontario PC Leader Tim Hudak to consider tax relief at the pump.

Often, the case for government intervention in energy markets is premised on protecting low-income consumers from the effects of price increases.  A quick look at Stats Can data suggests not only that this would be what Kevin Milligan has termed a “price solution to an income problem,” it would be an expensive and regressive policy change to say the least.

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On the NDP and budgets

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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 could. In fact, the math lines up very nicely. The practical likelihood of getting such a system on line in 2012 remains minuscule, but let’s put that aside for now.

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On the gas price impact of NDP cap-and-trade

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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. … Read more

Tory platform’s dirty secret – my latest Economy Lab post

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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 … Read more

Are the NDP’s cap-and-trade numbers believable?

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Earlier today, I had a quick Twitter exchange with Macleans’ Andrew Coyne (@acoyne) with respect to the NDP revenue projections from their cap-and-trade proposal.  Coyne’s points, with which I don’t entirely disagree, were that the NDP platform costing document contains implausible claims that  a) an auction would yield $3.6 billion revenue in the current (2011/2012) fiscal year, and b) that an auction of 100% of the permits would yield only $7.4-billion in year 4.  I thought I would look at both in a few more than 140 characters.

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Oilsands debate in Edmonton Centre

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I was very happy to see this discussion posted on line on the Edmonton Journal YouTube Channel. The video features each of the candidates in Edmonton Centre weighing in with their positions on the oilsands. I can’t resist the chance to look at some of the arguments, and provide context on each relative to the parties’ positions.  I should make very clear that I am not a resident of Edmonton Centre, that I am not member of any political party, and that I am not a supporter of any of the candidates.   This post should, by no means, be taken as an endorsement of any of the candidates in the race.

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My latest Economy Lab post

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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 … Read more

Common sense on Keystone XL and GHGs

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The US State Department released its Supplemental Draft Environmental Impact Assessment on the Keystone XL oil pipeline today, and it contains a lot of good news for Alberta.  You can read the Executive Summary of the Assessment here or the full report may be accessed here.

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A question for the Green Party

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A few of my readers have pointed out that my previous post asking debate questions omitted the Green Party.  I firmly believe that the Green Party should have been invited to the debate. While the point is now moot, I feel that if their qualification for federal party funding that is triggered by 2% of … Read more