30 Fairmont Park Lane S
Lethbridge, AB
T1K 7H7
Phone: (403) 328-1804
Sunday, April 24, 2011
The Editor
The Temple City Star
Box 2060
Cardston, AB T0K 0K0
Interestingly, an issue central to the last election, carbon dioxide emissions and global warming has barely been mentioned during this campaign. It has not gone away though.
There is an elephant standing on the platforms of the Liberals and NDP. Both parties are pledging to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to 80% below 1990 levels by 2050. The NDP “will put a price on carbon through a cap and trade system”. “A Liberal government will establish a cap-and-trade system”. Should these two parties, along with the help of the “Sauvon Kyoto” sympathetic Bloc Québécois, form our next government we are in for draconian and punitive economic action which may turn out to be quite unnecessary. Evidence to support extreme global warming postulated by alarmists is still lacking after 25 years of intensive monitoring.
“Cap and trade” is just a market based alternative to the “Green Shift” tax that Stefan Dion campaigned on last time. A massive accounting and policing bureaucracy will need to be established to manage the initiative. Provincial governments will argue endlessly with the federal government and each other over allotment of emission caps and the effects on their citizens and industries. As caps are set and permits issued, prices of carbon based fuel and energy are expected by the proponents to climb in response to the artificially imposed fuel scarcity. It is hoped a whole new energy supply infrastructure will arise which will provide the energy still essential to our society. This will cost trillions - with a “t”. Who will pay? That is clear. You, me, Tom, Dick, Harry, Martha, Henry, and our descendants!
We already have a taste of this right here in Alberta with increasing electricity costs resulting from new transmission lines being built to accommodate wind energy. The emission reduction benefit is infinitesimal. The cost is billions.
I’ve been optimistic that the hysteria over global warming is justifiably subsiding. An NDP, Liberal coalition with Bloc Québécois help will certainly renew it. Is this the outlook for Canada we want? I think not!
Yours truly,
Duane Pendergast