A better idea

So somehow, we need to combat rising energy costs, encourage economic growth, and encourage our industries to go green (or at very least, green-ER), and we need to do all of this pretty much simultaneously. After lambasting Stephane Dion's proposed carbon tax as rather a bad idea for reasons pertaining to the first two, I promised an answer. It's time to deliver on that.

To begin, let's look at why bother going green in out industries. Bluntly, there are two reasons - the first is international pressure from a number of parties, including the European Union and, more recently, the United States to go green in our industries, particularily as pertains our exploitation of the oilsands.

The second reason has more to do with domestic quality of living - ultimately, whether you believe in global warming or not, and whether you're especially concerned about the question of global climate change or not (and opinions vary), anyone who's see the skyline around Hamilton, Toronto, and many of our other heavy industrial/commercial centres has seen the brown haze that slowly descends upon the respective cities. Ultimately, the quality of our air and water supplies, notably in heavily industrialized areas, is sinking badly. This in turn has a negative impact on our health - again, something to be avoided.

Thirdly, rising energy costs are taking their toll on all sectors of our economy and directly affecting our cost of living across the board. Reduction in our use of fossil fuels would help to reduce our overall costs at this point, presenting yet another benefit.
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How do we do this, and still keep a profit? First off, let's do something about taxes that was suggested by my friend Jason in reply to my last post. Let's give tax cuts to greener companies - perhaps even going so far as to give a tax credit to companies who show a proportional reduction in overall greenhouse gas output - as well as improving funding for research into green and non-fossil fuel based energy sources. Further, as I've said before, we need to put forward a dramatic shift in our national energy production platform from coal/oil/gas fired power plants towards a higher reliance on hydroelectric and nuclear power.

Ultimately, the international demand for fossil fuels will, eventually, reduce as the first world nations move towards a greener industrial future, and as emerging economies such as China, India, and Brazil will inevitably do the same. At that point, the market cost of oil will make it no longer profitable to work the oil sands - costing jobs, money, and potentially causing many of our skilled workers to leave the country for greener pastures. That said, that time is not upon us yet. As we move to eliminate our country's dependance on fossil fuels, we need to recognize that many of these emerging economies are both oil-dependant, and that their needs will continue to increase for quite some time. We need to work to meet those needs, and we need to do so for a number of reasons.

First and foremost is the simple economic question. We ramp up production of our oil and start selling it - irrelevant of where it goes - and we're going to make a profit. The companies that are building multi-billion dollar plants will continue to build, expand, and employ, and petro-dollars will roll in from around the globe - producing increased taxation revenue from abroad. Further, as I said, there will eventually come a time when world dependance on oil will end - at that point, the oil sands will go from being worth potentially billions of dollars, to being worth a fraction of that. Quite frankly, it would make more sense to pull as much of the stuff out of the ground and make as much money on it as we can while it is still profitable to do so. Thirdly is a question of foreign affairs. Right now, many players in OPEC are, at best ambivalent towards and at worst downright antagonistic to western interests. Short version to a long story is that petrodollars in Canada's pocket that are taken away from the pockets of some of these other nations are a decidedly beneficial thing from our Foreign Minister's office's perspective.

Anyhow, short version of this is that we move towards a greener Canada through a combination of R&D, tax incentives, and a shift in energy policy at the same time as engaging in aggressive exploitation of our oil reserves to use for export. Just because we're trying to go green doesn't mean that we have to force everyone else to, and certainly doesn't mean that we can't still try to force a profit off the fact that everyone else isn't going to just yet.