OTTAWA - The Green Party of Canada is fully in support of Ontario
Environment Minister Jim Bradley’s position that Canada needs national
regulations governing coal-fired power plants. Bradley has reacted with
outrage on Ottawa’s backtracking, saying that it is not in the “national
interest” to have a “hodgepodge” of provincial regulations. The Harper
government is apparently bowing to pressure from the fossil fuel industry by
allowing provinces control over power plant emission regulations.
“On the heels of Canada’s withdrawal from the Kyoto Protocol, now
Harper's Conservatives are backing away from the one step they were preparing
to take to address climate change concerns in Canada,” said Green Party Leader
Elizabeth May. “This news suggests that the Harper government has no
intention to deal with Canada’s growing emissions.”
Regulations to impose carbon capture restrictions on new coal-fired
power plants and phase out coal emissions have been in the works for some time
now. Some climate scientists are calling for the elimination of
coal-fired power in developed countries within this decade. Now, it
appears the regulations will emerge in a weakened state, with Environment
Minister Kent promising flexibility mechanisms to ease the burden of
eliminating coal-fired generation.
“At best, weaker regulations mean that provinces will be able to get
away with reducing emissions less overall, as they will be able to count
emissions reductions they might have made anyway against the requirement to
phase out coal emissions. At worst, the flexibility could allow emissions
to grow if provinces are permitted to set intensity targets or use offsets,”
said May.
“Intensity targets that simply dictate the proportion of energy that can
come from dirty coal allow coal plants to continue to operate, weakening the
effect of national regulations. One can already see that the supposed
equivalencies that provinces would offer could be weaker than the federal
regulations,” said Erich Jacoby-Hawkins, the Green Party critic for Ecological
Fiscal Reform.
“Canada needs federal leadership, working with the provinces to ensure
real and verified emissions reductions. Hollow regulations that fail to
reduce emissions are worse than nothing at all,” said May. “Thank
goodness we have provinces and municipalities that are working to curb climate
change, in spite of the roadblocks from the Harper government.”
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