Alberta Premier Pledges To Resist Any Efforts To Tighten Carbon Standards

[hatrack]

EDMONTON -- Alberta Premier Ed Stelmach has warned his fellow Canadian premiers that his province will not toughen its climate-change approach, no matter what new national strategies other provincial leaders may propose at next week's premiers' summit in New Brunswick.

He reiterated past statements that any movements toward a system of hard caps on greenhouse gas emissions or a cross-Canada trading market for pollution credits would likely send dollars or jobs out of the country's most petroleum-rich province. "The message is very clear: Don't mess with Alberta. Alberta's boom is Canada's boom," Stelmach told a news conference yesterday.

Climate-change issues are expected to dominate the agenda at the three-day conference in Moncton, as they have at other recent premiers' gatherings. Stelmach said he intends to position Alberta as the leader on this front, boasting the first provincial limits on large industrial emissions.

However, Alberta's legislation only forces its energy sector to reduce the intensity of its carbon dioxide output per barrel, not overall -- a regime that critics inside and outside of Alberta have condemned as insufficient to help prevent global warming from harmfully altering the planet, and well below Canada's targets under the Kyoto accord on climate change.

EDIT

http://www.canada.com/victoriatimescolonist/news/story.html?id=14cd3b49-5157-408d-8943-13bd631a478d

[GliderGuider]

1. In case anyone was wondering, it's positions like this that ensure...

Estamos jodidos.

[tom_paine]

2. Sure, because he is filled his bank account with Tar Sands $$$

Alberta Tar Sands, which release TWICE as much CO2 in the extraction process, and are much more energy inefficient than simply pumping oil out of the ground and refining it.

Good money in that, though, now that the cost of oil is on an upward spiral, eh?

[kestrel91316]

3. I'm NOT. GONNA. CONSERVE. You can't MAKE me conserve!!!!

WAAAAHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!