How To Tell Bad Policy
October 19th, 2006
I’m still trying to digest Rona Ambrose’s clean air act, but it appears to be just plain bad. How to tell?
A very quick look through The Blogging Tories, Liblogs and The Blogging Dippers, only one of the parties is not talking about it, and it’s the supporters of the party that released the act.
What I’m trying to understand is why the Tories put this front and centre in the past few weeks, when there is nothing there to see. Convince me otherwise blogging Tories, but right now, I’m thinking Ambrose is in over her head.
A couple of things to point out:
1) There was no way, absolutely no way, that the Tories were going to get a break on this one. The opposition is tied so badly to the “Kyoto” ideal that anything else — not more, not less — would never have been accepted.
2) The main difference between the Tory plan and Kyoto is one of achievability. One of the reasons that the U.S. didn’t sign on to Kyoto was that Bill Clinton (who was president at the time of its signing) didn’t think the targets were achievable; and time has borne his belief out. A ten-year timeline is more achievable than a five-year one.
Globe and Mail poll:
Do you support the Harper government’s new Clean Air Act, which is designed to cut greenhouse gas emissions in half by 2050?
Yes
(54%) 1244 votes
No
(46%) 1045 votes
Total votes: 2289
The Conservative plan is 1000% better than Kyoto, it is a plan instead of a dream, and any fines levied for non-compliance stay in Canada, into special funds for research and technology.
Industry (all industry) only has 4 years (2010) to get into COMPLIANCE, or they will be fined! That is aggressive.
Hargrove & McGuinty demanded the voluntary auto emmisions agreement with the Libs, running to 2010, was honored. They got it.
Then there will be regulations with penalties.
Notice of intent (immediate action required) on lots of pollutants.
check out the site. scroll down to 6. for the immediate requirements.
http://www.ec.gc.ca/CEPARegistry/documents/part/CA_NOI/CA_NOI.cfm
There really isn’t much blogging anywhere on the enviro plan, except for the usual anti-anythingconservative. ??
Maybe because there are short term, 6 month, 12 month, 2010, 2050 objectives, it’s too complicated.
Accountability too, mandatory annual reporting, progress (or otherwise) MUST be measured and reported!
I’m a conservative and this Act sucks the big one. Having said that, none of the other parties’ plans are realistic either. They just talk the talk. They know this issue has the potential to break up the country especially if it harms the economies of some of the provinces. Sure shut down the oil sands tommorrow and put everyone in Alberta out of work. Enforce tough standards on emissions so companies can leave the country like what is being considered by some companies in California.
Kyoto is a mess. Rather than forcing countries to reduce pollution, it allows rich ones to keep on polluting by buying pollution credits from poorer countries. That doesn’t fix things, it just redistribute the source of the gases a bit.
It’s also the case that WHATEVER plan the Tories came up with, the opposition would kill it. They don’t have their own plan, they just need to say “do Kyoto” and they think that is all that needs to be done.
So it seems that rather than come up with some short term, bells and whistles nonsense that isn’t practical or effective, it looks like they’ve taken the long term view and setup a framework and set of processes that will lead to actual changes. Climate change doesn’t happen overnight, and neither can a fix.
So for a long term problem, you need a long term fix, and that’s whats been put forward.
Leave the political strategy to the adults please. You probably disagreed with the election platform too.