On
the day Premier Doug Ford pulled Ontario out of an international
clean energy trading market, it spelled the end for 227
emissions-reducing projects across the province, reveals a leaked
document....It is but a small example of the short term thinking and
anti green mindset of the Frord regime.
According
to the leaked document, in Ontario, the money was set to fund 120
commuter cycling programs (each worth $25,000) in 120 jurisdictions
across the province. It was set to help develop 41 green social
housing programs, and 20 improvement or retrofit projects for social
housing apartments. It was also going to go toward 11 electric
vehicle charging stations and one electric-bus pilot in the city of
Brampton (Canada's ninth largest city).....
According
to the Environmental Commissioner of Ontario (ECO), whose office the
Ford government shuttered earlier this year, cap and trade raised
almost $2.9 billion in government revenues from six auctions since
January 2017 — $2.4 billion up to March 31, 2018, and $472 million
in the final May 2018 joint auction with California and Quebec. The
money was tracked in the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Account (GGRA) and
used to “fund, directly or indirectly, costs relating to
initiatives … that are reasonably likely to reduce, or support the
reduction of greenhouse gas.”.........
In
California, cap and trade funds have been collected from polluters
and spent to slash greenhouse gas emissions. Last year, the state
spent US$1.4 billion on such efforts, investing in everything from
electric cars, solar panels and clean energy transit lines. These
programs have helped clean the air of pollution that makes people
sick — reducing particulate emissions by 474 tons in 2018. The fund
is also being used to reduce the amount of water that Californians
use and to plant millions of trees...........
In
Ontario, the cancellation of cap and trade is shown as lost revenue
in the Ford government's first budget. It is mentioned only four
times in the 382-page financial document, with few details about
where the cap and trade funds the government had in its coffers had
been spent. (In previous interviews, Ministry of Environment
spokespeople have said the remaining money in the cap and trade
coffer will allocated for "wind-down costs.").....
The
preceding is just a few highlights from an article published a few weeks ago which can be seen
in full at
https://www.nationalobserver.com/2019/07/09/news/exclusive-doug-ford-didnt-tell-you-ontario-cancelled-227-clean-energy-projects
Add
to this Jason Kenney’s (tax payer funded) inquiry into that
“foreign-funded defamation campaign” against Alberta’s fossil
fuel industry and you can clearly see that the right wing oil (tar)
lovers are in full cry! (see
https://albertapolitics.ca/2019/07/albertas-foreign-funded-fossil-fuel-defamation-inquisition-stand-by-for-an-expensive-gong-show/)
4 comments:
The contrast between Ford's regressive policies and California's bold fight against greenhouse gas emissions is telling, Rural. We were far better off with cap and trade than we are with the federally-rebated carbon tax. And, as statistics have shown, the former was a job-creator as people used subsidies to retrofit their homes, etc. But try telling that to Ford Nation, eh?
I put Frord n Trumph in the same category Lorne, brain dead is being nice..... I fear what is in store for us here come election day!
California's economy -- with all its green initiatives -- is doing quite well, Rural. It undercuts Ford's lie that supporting green energy is bad economic policy.
The state of the economy is of little value if we are all choking on un-breathable air, good health outweighs monetary wealth every time IMHO Owen.
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