Here's an idea. Call it a fair compromise.
Many countries around the world produce oil. No one is going to call on them to stop producing and I guess that's reasonable. But why not work out each country's carbon footprint per barrel of oil produced and use that to fund environmental remediation?
We know the Saudis pump sweet crude right out of the ground that needs almost no refining. so let's take the Saudi per barrel carbon footprint as the baseline. From that number we can work out the excess carbon production of each other country's oil industry.
That excess carbon will have to be accounted for and rectified by the producer either through actual carbon sequestration or by legitimate carbon trading if necessary.
That sounds fair doesn't it?
Well just float that idea past Steve Harper or Ed Stelmach and watch how fast they get the green apple two step. It'd be worth a buck and a half to watch those two clowns race each other for the biffy. Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha.
While you're at it you might also require these oil producers to front the necessary money for site remediation - restoring top soil, getting rid of those ugly tailing ponds, preventing carcinogens and toxins from leaching into the ground water.
That popping sound you hear is the bursting of skulls of the Tar Barons in Calgary.
2 comments:
Neither the Cons nor the Libs would be willing to do anything that would even just reduce oil industry profits. As much as the NDP likes to talk the talk on the environment, I'm not sure they'd be willing to actually stand up to the oil sands when push came to shove.
There are really only two scenarios under which we will see significant reductions of carbon emissions from Canada's tar sands:
1) Canadians finally become so enraged by the torture scandal, and realize that the Libs have bloody hands also, that we elect a Green minority government, or a Green/NDP/Bloc coalition government.
2) The rest of the world gets so angry with Canada's lack of action, that they impose serious economic sanctions on Canada.
My preference would be for scenario (1), but I consider the odds of it actually happening to be very close to zero. Scenario (2) is negated by the fact that the US wants our oil more than Barak Obama is prepared to actually do something about climate change.
There's an initiative getting underway in several US states to monitor the true carbon footprint of various gasoline suppliers and to levy a surcharge on fuel from the dirtiest.
Of course then Alberta would just sell their product to the Chinese or maybe Burma.
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