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

My Latest on the Globe and Mail’s Economy Lab

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Here’s how my latest post on Economy Lab at the Globe and Mail ends: “If you are going to let GHG policy influence your vote, you owe it to yourself to get engaged in the discussion and get beyond the easy sound bites.”  If you want to read the beginning, click here.

More sophistication, please

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Since Sunday’s release of the Liberal party platform and the non-announcement of a cap-and-trade program, the reaction in Alberta has been sadly predictable.  Many people in the province seem to know exactly what will be in this policy, and they know that it will be bad news for Alberta. In fact, the Wild Rose Caucus has declared the policy to be the NEP 2.0, and they are quick to cite a TD-Suzuki-Pembina Institute report which shows that the costs of the particular cap-and-trade implementation they consider would be disproportionately felt in Alberta. The Sun seems to know that the policy will contain adjustments at the border for high-carbon products.

I would love to write a long post in this space and say that they are wrong.   I would love to say that this policy will be good for Alberta. I would love to be able to talk about how it recognizes the critical role of Alberta’s energy and resource industries in Canada, and will not seek to disadvantage Alberta (and by extension Canada) to score short term political points. I would love to tell you that it will not place a disproportionately high price on carbon in Canada relative to climate leaders such as the EU.  I’d love to say all of that, but I can’t because I simply don’t know what the policy will do because I don’t know what the policy is.

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