Citizens’ Climate Lobby held its 5th Annual Conference in Washington DC June 22 – 24th. It was my second international CCL conference; at last year’s meeting there were 365 CCLers from across the United States, with a few Canadians thrown in for good measure. This year the number of climate-concerned
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Eclectic Lip: Pondering a palatable pipeline…
I guest-hosted TWiE podcast episode 137 a few days ago, an episode devoted to the Alberta oil sands / tar sands. If you ask me (and I realize none of you have 🙂 ) it’s well worth a listen! The week’s guest was US energy analyst Robert Rapier, who had
Continue readingPolitical Eh-conomy: Where’s the tax in BC’s carbon tax?
British Columbia’s carbon tax has been getting some high praise lately. A recent article in the Atlantic called it “the crown jewel of North American climate policy”. Such assessments need some tempering. BC’s carbon tax can tell us important things about the limits of fiscal policy today, which in turn
Continue reading350 or bust: Surprise! Putting Price On Carbon Is A Job-Creating Bonanza
* SAN DIEGO, MARCH 3, 2014 – An aggressively-priced carbon tax in California, with revenue returned to the public, would actually grow the state’s economy and increase jobs, according to a new study released by Citizens Climate Lobby. The study, prepared for CCL by Regional Economic Models, Inc. (REMI), looked
Continue reading350 or bust: A Republican Talks About Changing The Dialogue On Energy & Climate
For this week’s TED Talk Tuesday, former Republican Congressman Bob Inglis spoke at TEDx Jacksonville earlier this year about energy and climate. Mr. Inglis is now the Executive Director of the Energy and Enterprise Initiative based at George Mason University in Fairfax, Virginia, and is a champion of carbon fee
Continue readingB.C. ‘s "textbook example" of good climate policy
High praise indeed from the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). In a recent speech, OECD Secretary-General Angel Gurría praised B.C.’s carbon tax as being “as close to a textbook example as we have.” The praise is well deserved. A paper published in the journal Canadian Public Policy by
Continue readingCowichan Conversations: Green Party MLA Andrew Weaver Changes Colours-Green Mixed with Red Makes Brown
Richard ‘Hub’ Hughes- Political Blogger Andrew Weaver is not wasting much time putting his oar in the water. As the only and BC’s first Green MLA he is under a lot of pressure. I wish him every success pushing both the Liberals and the NDP into greener pastures. Some of
Continue reading350 or bust: Grassroot Activists Gather On Capitol Hill To Lobby For Carbon Tax
* It was no easy feat trying to keep my cool while racing in my high heels between Congressional and Senate offices in the scorching D.C. heat last Tuesday. More than once I wondered about the wisdom of leaving behind the comfortable Red Lake summer to join nearly four
Continue readingThe Canadian Progressive: On climate change, a clear distinction between the major BC parties
By: Pembina Institute | Press Release: VANCOUVER — An assessment of climate change issues in political platforms reveals clear distinctions between British Columbia’s four major parties. Prepared by the Pembina Institute, the assessment looks at the following four election issues with implications for climate change and the province’s ability to meet its
Continue reading350 or bust: Politicians Fiddling While Planet Burns: Scientists Warn 400 PPM Milestone Ahead
From Citizens Climate Lobby Canada: MAY 1, 2013 – “For the first time in 3 million years [1], the average daily concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, as recorded at the Mauna Loa Observatory in Hawaii, is about to exceed 400 parts per million (PPM), a strong indication that
Continue readingSong of the Watermelon: Party Positions on BC’s Carbon Tax
With the release today of the NDP’s fiscal plan in advance of the May 14 election here in British Columbia, we are now finally able to assess where the major parties — Liberals, New Democrats, Greens, and Conservatives — stand on the province’s carbon tax. In my opinion, there are
Continue reading350 or bust: Internalizing the Externalities of Fossil Fuels
It’s time to internalize the externalities of the fossil fuel industry. For far too long, the extremely high price we all pay in the pollution of our “commons” – air, water, and climate, which also affects the health of far too many of us, has been ignored by governments and
Continue readingBoreal Citizen: Lessons from Big Tobacco: When the right to make money trumps the right to clean air
In Manitoba, beach-goers fed up with cigarette butt litter and drifting plumes of smoke have reason to celebrate. The province is the first in Canada to make beaches and playgrounds in provincial parks smoke-free. Now, imagine traveling back in time, and showing that headline to somebody in the 1960s when smoking
Continue readingEclectic Lip: Plug-in electric car sales in Canada, January 2013 (via GreenCarReports)
My column on plug-in car sales in Canada for January 2013, is now up at GreenCarReports. Since it’s hard to write ~600 words about sales statistics in the very small Canadian market, I discuss how Quebec — not B.C.! — is the leading province for plug-in vehicle adoption, and reasons
Continue readingSong of the Watermelon: Carrots and Sticks: How to Fund Public Transit
If we as a planet are going to avoid passing over the two-degree threshold of runaway climate change, we are going to have to start rationing greenhouse gas emissions. Efficiency gains in transportation will inevitably need to be part of that project. Put another way, emissions per person per kilometre
Continue readingBoreal Citizen: From the mouths of Muppets: Why climate solutions are “simply not done”
Last month, while reading and reviewing Too Much Magic, I came across a line in the latter half of the book that really stung: “Not even people who are preoccupied with climate change like to think about it anymore.” It hurts because it’s true. I’m tired, and disheartened by the
Continue readingImpolitical: Mankiw on raising taxes
This is a notable development in the U.S. conservative spectrum, an op-ed from Gregory Mankiw in the New York Times today dares to talk about raising taxes and on the middle class, at that: “Too Much Wishful Thinking on Middle-Class Tax Rates.” Which brings us back to the middle class.
Continue readingLeftist Jab: Absurd Talking Point of 2012: Carbon Tax!
Climate change requires a steadfast and responsible approach from all nations to respond to increased carbon emissions. Or you could douche it up. That’s the Conservative strategy. Demonizing the “carbon tax” and calling “cap and trade” the equivalent to a “carbon tax” is neither responsible nor helpful. Neither is an
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: Oil Producing Countries Asked to Levy Carbon Tax on Exports
Oh this will go over well with Ol’ Shifty Steve Harper.A gaggle of poor nations are asking major oil producers to levy a 3-5% carbon tax on oil exported to affluent countries. The receipts would then be deposited in a “green climate fund” t…
Continue reading350 or bust: Our Carbon Pollution: Is It Different From Raw Sewage?
In a very short time – years or at most decades – humans will look back at our spewing of carbon pollution into the atmosphere with the same disgust and disbelief that we now look back on people in the middle ages in Europe who dumped their…
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