Hard to believe, isn't it, that the Cons here in Canada would try to block attempts by Ontario and Québec to implement a carbon cap and trade system to address pollution issues. This almost sounds like -- no, it exactly sounds like -- the Bushie run EPA in the States, which is trying to block California and fourteen other states from getting a waiver from federal rules so they can impose even tougher vehicle emission regulations than exist already.
It's reverse logic. The jurisdictions that have the worst pollution problems, or at least have administrations that recognize they do, want to do their part to offset and then some the increasing pollution from parts of the continent with governments that still have head in their sands.
The fact is, if leadership won't come from the top, then decisions will have to come from the bottom. In the case of cars and trucks, for example, auto manufacturers decided long ago to go to a "fifty-state emission" system of manufacturing rather than have two separate systems -- one for California and the Northeast, and one for everywhere else. It was simply a matter of cost efficiencies. They adopted the California standard as the "50 state" one; and by default Canadians got the benefit of that as well for vehicles sold here. Until Bushie and Harper, the EPA and Environment Canada never had a problem with this since CARB standards far exceed national ones.
Alberta's government, and by extension Ottawa, shows no real interest in real reductions in pollution. So what does Stephen Harper expect McGuinty and Charest to do? The PM is so high and mighty on provincial rights yet he draws the line when it comes to his own anemic "green" plan.
Kang and Kodos, if you're reading this ...
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