Rob's Ramblings

A group of local residents occupied a construction site for the South Fraser Perimeter Road (SFPR) for several hours on Sunday and unveiled a large banner reading "Climate Action Now." The action came on the heals of news that BC was the only province to see substantial increases in greenhouse gas emissions during 2008, the first year of the carbon tax implementation. The SFPR is part of the massive Gateway Program which even the proponents admit will increase ghg emissions by over 170,000 tonnes per year. The action along the SFPR alignment coincided with the annual pilgrimage to Burns Bog . rob_'s ramblings Technorati Tags: stopgateway , delta , climate change , vancouver

During the current BC election campaign there has been much discussion about the carbon tax. Some environmentalists have even endorsed the Liberal party based on the tax. But how does it stack up to other climate-related policies? Based on numbers in the modeling done by the Carbon Tax Center, I estimated that the BC Carbon Tax would reduce greenhouse gas (ghg) emissions by 570,000 tonnes annually at the current rate and by 901,000 tonnes by  2012 when the rate is raised to $30/tonne. I used a model developed by the Sightline Institute to estimate emissions from the Gateway Program. I calculated annual increases of 388,000 - 621,000 tonnes.  The Gateway program alone would wipe out one to two thirds of the gains made by the Carbon Tax. During 2001 - 2006 the emissions from Oil and Gas production increased by 1,040,000 per year.  The Liberals have committed to supporting this industry so it can be expected that these increases will continue.  These two policies (Gateway and Petroleu...