Readers should note that I have reversed my position on whether nuclear energy projects should be eligible under the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM). The CDM was established by the United Nations under the Kyoto Treaty, and allows greenhouse gas (GHG) emission reduction projects in developing countries to earn emission reduction credits that industrialized countries can buy […]

There is no way a North American cap and trade system will emerge in the near future. That prospect died when the U.S. president showed at the Copenhagen climate conference that he can’t, and won’t, pursue the environmental policies the green lobby demands. Probably just as well. The continental price of natural gas, the most […]

The Obama administration last week quietly acquired a potential climate policy super-tool. The EPA announced its “endangerment finding” that a certain mix of greenhouse gases (GHGs) from new motor vehicles “threatens public health and welfare.” This gives the executive branch the ability to regulate GHGs directly, without waiting for congress to develop legislation. Suddenly, the […]

Canada takes a lot of flak for not getting its environmental act together, but you should take this criticism with a grain of salt. It’s either political, which is fair and understandable: Canada is a democracy and opposition parties are supposed to attack the government. Or it’s ideological, which is where it just conflicts with […]

Professional climate policy wonks are watching the spectacle south of the Canada-U.S. border, where a House bill on climate change will receive its first major political test Friday. Political wrangling over what industries get covered (or hit, depending on your perspective), and how they are covered (or hit) has virtually ensured that the bill will […]

In last October’s federal election, Canadians, and especially British Columbians, were unequivocal about their dislike for a carbon tax. But let’s not forget the context. The election came three and a half months after BC introduced its carbon tax. Gasoline prices were exceptionally high at that time—$1.40 a litre when I filled up outside of […]

Are oil company–sponsored windmill ads about to disappear from our TV screens? Oil giant Shell has decided to abandon investments into renewable energy like wind and solar. A Shell executive told the Guardian that the company will no longer put money into investments that don’t compete with Shell’s core business, which is producing and marketing […]

Fighting the climate change war in Alberta is a two-front proposition. There’s power generation and there’s the oilsands. Both are the biggest emitters of their kind in Canada (see article). And unless there is progress in both, or at least a credible plan for progress, customers for the province’s major export, petroleum, will become increasingly […]

Liberal leader Stéphane Dion told his prospective coalition partners, or maybe they told him, that the Green Shift would not be part of the coalition government’s policies. Interestingly, in his televised address on the evening of December 4, Dion mentioned that the Green Party supports the coalition. The book Hot Air was visible in the […]

On an environmental map of Canada, British Columbia looks like the greenest province in the country. One of the most influential Canadian environmental lobbies, the David Suzuki Foundation, is headquartered in Vancouver. The swashbuckling Greenpeace was conceived in and inflicted on the world from Vancouver. The BC Liberal government was the first in Canada to […]