Andrew Coyne thinks BC Premier Gordon Campbell's embrace of a "real" carbon tax (i.e., one in which every dollar of income raised by taxing carbon was returned in reduced income taxes) may have won him the election. He hopes it will serve as a template for a new conservative coalition.
Others have noted the discomfort Campbell’s embrace of the carbon tax caused the NDP, under attack throughout the campaign by its traditional environmentalist allies. Less commented upon was the degree to which he was able to draw those kinds of voters to his own party. Simply put, Campbell has reinvented the conservative coalition.
28 May, 2009

Liberal, NDP, and Green party reps at last night's election forum on environmental issues expressed grave reservations about letting Xstrata open its proposed undersea coal mine at Donkin, Cape Breton. CBC reporter Jennifer Henderson has tape of the exchange, which has the potential to blow into a major issue in Nova Scotia's coal communities. Guess what? They have a point. Donkin coal is too dirty to burn in our own power plants under current and planned emissions standards. Why should we export it to be burned elsewhere? Isn't that like issuing a license to pee in the far end of the...

27 May, 2009
windmills-s2 Kings South Green Party candidate and deputy leader Brendan MacNeill was the surprising star [*] of last night's all-party environmental forum. The Acadia environmental studies major, who already has an environmental technology diploma, came across as thoughtful, poised, well-prepared, persuasive. Unfortunately, like many Nova Scotia environmentalists, MacNeill has been seduced by the independent power producers' self-serving lobby for guaranteed, above-market rates for their product. After the jump, a brief explanation of why this approach is wrong-headed for Nova Scotia.  
27 May, 2009

You almost had to feel sorry for Howard Epstein as he struggled to defend the NDP's $28 million carbon subsidy at last night's all-party environmental debate, held at Dalhousie Medical School. Howard is a lifelong energy policy wonk. He knows it would be asinine to use millions in taxpayer dollars to create incentives for Nova Scotians to consume more coal-fired electricity. But alas, that's the heart of the NDP's energy strategy, driven no doubt by focus groups showing "ordinary" Nova Scotians are pissed off about rising power bills. Said Howard: The price signal is important, but you can't ignore the poor....

27 May, 2009
When Flygbussarna, a Swedish airport bus company, wanted to drive home the environmental superiority of riding buses to the airport, it commissioned a 300-tonne ad.

50 crushed cars = one effective bus ad

The Acne Advertising group assembled 50 junked cars into one bus, which it placed along the road to Sweden's largest airport. The resulting sensation raised environmental consciousness even as it slowed airport-bound traffic to a crawl.

. Flygbussarna added a live video cam of the "bus," counted the cars passing the site, and calculated the amount of carbon that would have been saved had motorists taken the bus instead of their cars. It's an inspired campaign, but it also demonstrates why can't have rational discussions during Nova Scotia election campaigns. If a pol here dares even to hint at an inconvenient truth, reporters and rival politicians pile on like pirannas.

23 May, 2009

"The gravest threat to our environment is climate change," says the NDP election platform. So why is Darrell Dexter promising to subsidize electricity consumption by $28 million? That's what it will cost taxpayers to remove the provincial share of the HST from electricity bills. Seventy-five percent of Nova Scotia's electricity is created by burning coal, the dirtiest fuel we have. Subsidize wind power, sure, or tidal, or mass transit. But a $28-million tax break for burning dirty coal at a time when climate change is "the gravest threat to our environment?" That's cynical and irresponsible. Worse, it assumes voters are stupid,...

18 May, 2009

When I was a child my Grandpa would take me Down to old Wentworth Park where we’d feed the birds The majestic old poplars offered leaf-dappled sunshine And a feeling so peaceful it silenced all words. Oh Grandpa won't you take me back to old Wentworth Park We’ll tarry 'neath the shade trees down by the duck pond. I'm sorry my grandsons, you're too late in asking The city’s contractor has hacked them all down (With apologies to John Prine) [UPDATE: Most of the cutting is a fait accompli, but several large trees in the area of the planned tot lot are marked for apparent removal with spray-painted Xs....

17 May, 2009

Kings County council declined to endorse the location of an Eastlink high speed Internet tower at Victoria Harbour, part of the Nova Scotia Rural Broadband Initiative that will bring high speed Internet access to all Nova Scotians by year's end. [Disclosure: I have done consulting work for Seaside Wireless, which is installing similar towers in northern Nova Scotia and Cape Breton.] It seems a nearby organic garlic producer objected that radiation from the tower woud compromise the integrity of his produce. Eastlink offered to move the tower 620 feet further away. Not good enough.  Supporters and opponents of the proposed tower...

17 May, 2009