Stephen Harper says oil and gas regulations now would be 'crazy'

Then he should have thought some up in 2007, back when he promised to. Yet another reason to delay action.

I hate to say it, but he is right on this. If we were to regulate only here in Canada, the economic fall out would be huge. Most companies in the oil and gas sector are multinationals, hurt them here, they switch all their resources elsewhere. The worst part for us is all the jobs that would go with it. If the US maintains its policy of keeping its head in the sand, all we can do is keep the dialog going and hope they do something....someday.

Nobody is going to walk away from a couple billion, of sunk cost, over a couple new regulations. So, anything already running is going to continue to run.

The only things that will be harmed will be new development...which is already being harmed, to a much greater extent, by the current price of oil.

Business' can bluff and bluster about it all they want, until they figure out how to move the oil prior to extraction, they are stuck here...or they can go spend even more money elsewhere.

No, he's not wrong. But if we had started energy diversification years or decades ago, then a drastic drop in oil prices would not have the impact that it does.

But in many respects, the US is far ahead of us in renewable energy diversification. And many of the companies doing it south of the border are actually Canadian companies.

Energy diversification and a climate change action plan was something that was promised to be a “made-in-Canada” solution, back in 2006. So far, not a peep. Just a withdrawal from Kyoto, and verification that we won't meet 2020 targets, even though back in 2007 he said Climate Change was “perhaps the biggest threat to confront the future of humanity today.”

The lack of regulations is actually hurting the industry, because of all the pushback it is receiving. The industry has said it would not be averse to a carbon tax.

Why the oil sands industry wants the carbon tax that Stephen Harper hates. http://business.financialpost.com/2013/ ... =db82-7ec0




Unfortunately Stevo has painted himself in a corner with how he attacked Dion - there is no way now he could politically bring in that tax or any other carbon scheme.

and why would we even consider any form of carbon tax? our emissions are less than .01% of the China and under a few % of the US so why hurt our industry without getting the 'real' polluters on board? One of the main reasons Harper ditched Kyoto was because it would not only have massive economic impact, it didn't have all the major polluters signed up.

read the article I posted to answer your question. Actually China and the US have just concluded an agreement on reducing or at least not increasing carbon output. China is way ahead of Canada in the use of renewables. So, harper has always hitched his wagon on what the US does (makes some sense), but now he's not following suit. The best way to start reducing carbon is to tax it.

I look forward to the day when the US and China have made significant progress in reducing carbon output, Harper will insist that it really makes no sense for Canada to follow suit until Lichtenstein is on board.

All this internationalist shit is like getting caught in a drift net. At some point, even in defiance of all fact, logic, or genuine national interest, a country ends up going along because the overall movement towards a certain artificial international goal just becomes too strong to fight anymore. A huge power like the US can fight it longer, or even permanently. A smaller country like Canada though, where we get sabotaged internally by the goody-two-shoes instincts of the Liberals and NDP (both of which are always desperately on the make for some photo-ops and star-fucking with the UN types or with the satraps in Brussels) as much as we are coerced from outside, can't resist it as successfully.

I take the industry's cautious tolerance on things like a mild carbon tax as an indication that they don't see it as the end of the world. I'm as likely to ignore the rantings of a lunatic demagogue like Ezra Levant as much as I am to ignore the crazy eco-catastrophe bullshit from the kind of flat-earther loons that have Andy in their Rolodex. The truth and well-crafted policy will be in the middle somewhere. If the fringes from both extremes can be successfully negated there is always a possibility for some significant progress that leads to some kind of happier conclusion.

Incorrect.

Canada is way ahead of China (and the USA) in the use of renewables.

72% of Canada's electricity comes from renewables.

19% of China's electricity comes from renewables.

14% of USA's electricity comes form renewables.

Incorrect.

Canada is way ahead of China (and the USA) in the use of renewables.

72% of Canada's electricity comes from renewables.

19% of China's electricity comes from renewables.

14% of USA's electricity comes form renewables.

Wrong. Harper's Canada is always 100% worse and evil than any other place on the planet. That's officially approved party ideology coming from the CBC/Lib/NDP sourcebook that Canadian leftoids get their daily talking points from.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Renewable_energy_in_China


http://www.cbc.ca/news/business/canada- ... -1.2774192

Also read that Alberta and Sask, generate most of their electricity by fucking coal. Unbelievable. Aren't they producing any natural gas along with all that oil?

Oh look. Using numbers that have zero relevance in an attempt to prove a point!

Canada produces 72% of her electrical requirements via renewables.

China produces 19% of her electrical requirements via renewables.

Unless your idea is that Canada should over produce grotesque amounts of energy just so we can be the top of the list! Definition of sustainability right there.

Alberta's coal generators are almost as efficient as her gas generators.

Not that efficiency matters or anything like that...hell we aren't generating nearly as much power as China...get the pumps to high and start making MOAR!

you do realize that less than 1% CO2 emissions will do nothing....I am not saying we should not try to do more or look for innovative ways to reduce emissions.

But I won't support anything that cost major money when our total emissions combined is equivalent to a bird farting beside a hurricane.