The pledge, to be announced tomorrow, would be aimed at cutting Canada's greenhouse-gas emissions by four million tons a year by mixing gasoline with cleaner-burning ethanol, or using more biodiesel, which blends vegetable oils with diesel fuel.
It also allows the federal Conservatives to take the election campaign initiative on an environmental plank. The federal Liberals have not moved to a national standard for renewable fuel even though three provinces have already announced they will adopt them.
"This 5-per-cent standard for renewable fuels is good for agriculture and rural Canadians, it's good for the environment and it's good for drivers," said Conservative MP Diane Finley, the party's agriculture critic. "Specifically, it'll mean a four-megaton-a-year reduction in greenhouse-gas emissions."_______
Mandating ethanol may be great for ethanol producers but it's certainly not good for taxpayers or the environment. The research proves it, and even the Green Party is rejecting ethanol as a sustainable solution. For everything you ever wanted to know about ethanol check Clean Air for Citizens of Barrie.
Wednesday, December 21, 2005
Conservatives going down Kyoto road?
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
CTF You Tube Channel
Canadian Taxpayers Federation's Fan Box
4 comments:
When you look at the quote from Harris' speech, he does admit that, "It (ethanol)is a cleaner fuel and it does support farmers...", his criticism is that the total energy savings are minimal (energy used in refining the ethanol nearly equal to energy that ethanol gives when burned).
Of course. Dr. David Pimentel of Cornell University goes further than that. He says it takes MORE energy to create ethanol than it creates by burning it.
True - however if we are going to look at the purely environmental perspective, the energy that goes into creating ethanol can be generated by a "clean" source of power (eg. hydro-electric, wind, even nuclear if "clean" means "less greenhouse gasses").
That being said, with the green party trying to move to the economic right, the Conservatives don't have a whole lot of choice but to try to develop an environmentally "friendly" set of policies - it is sad that the environment (ahead of health care, taxes, government ethics etc.) is the number one factor in how many people will vote.
I think it's sadder that the environment hasn't been an issue before this. Who wants to live in a country where pollution is okay? Where putting hazardous Ethanol distilleries within close proximity of subdivisions/schools etc., is fine? Someone has to start thinking about the environment - before we have no environment left.
Post a Comment