Tuesday, January 07, 2003
The Editor
Calgary Herald
Fax: (403) 235-7379
The Herald's Editorial Board concludes that the auto manufacturing industries absence from the list of big industrial emitters sharing the Kyoto burden favors the East. (Uneven Burdens: Special deal for auto industry proves West's worst fears about Kyoto, Tuesday, January 7, 2003, A12)
This "proof" is without basis. The automotive industry is big. Its emissions are not. Data from the Industry Issue Table indicates that its emissions from fossil fuel use were only 2 million tonnes in 1997. The sector is expected to emit 3 million tonnes in 2010. This is trivial in comparison with expected 2010 emissions from electricity, oil and gas supply, chemicals, and pulp and paper (131, 116, 29, and 20 million tonnes, respectively).
It is thus reasonable to leave automotive manufacturing out of the list of big industrial emitters. It is simply not one of them. The costs of monitoring the thousands of firms involved in automotive manufacture would be prohibitive relative to the minor impact on emissions. The Editorial Board should be praising our federal government for applying common sense to this sub-sector of greenhouse gas emissions. There are other issues which are much more credible to prove fears about Kyoto.
Yours truly,
Duane Pendergast