Carbon Leakage A boon, not a bust

Image: from Agriland: ... a sensible solution to carbon leakage protection has now been agreed upon.



Carbon Leakage: A boon, not a bust

Does Greta know about this?

Also: Russia has moved to Buffalo.

Seems the only folks paying the cost of "carbon" emissions are the ordinary taxpayers. Industries are finding all sorts of ways of conducting business as usual.  Not only that, but the Russian interference is now coming from Buffalo, NY.  More about that later, but meanwhile Greta cut quite a swath in Alberta this past week and the reception, while apparently polite, has not all been entirely warm and welcoming.

CBC: Hundreds of activists, along with some supporters of Alberta's oil and gas industry, gathered at the legislature.

Actually, there was a "A convoy of counter-protesters, in about 50 vehicles"

Wonder how many protesters were packed into those vehicles? Well, it depends on who's doing the calculating.

The CBC says "hundreds" of people attended the rally.  The organizers said "10,000" and the police said "4,000" and that they were all well-behaved. So, the true numbers and who were for and who agin remains a mystery.

But get this: the CBC report of the event attracted 15,703 comments (by its own count) until they were cut off, many of them refuting Greta's knowledge of science and, just before the cut, the credibility of a pro-Greta, anti-Scheer probable troll named Bea Westy who had the final word at one point until the CBC shuffled things a bit.

I copied down some words from commenter David Lawlor, part of which will be posted later as my Quote of the Month for November so that it doesn't get quickly forgotten:

• If you're in high school and reading this you should understand that school is supposed to teach you how to think, not what to think.
• Google 'free thinking ' and study this because your future is at stake. Be wary of authoritarianism. Learn to be your own master. 

Greta, who is mentored and coached every step of the way, stretched her truth as always: 

• "Today is Friday," Thunberg said early in her remarks. "And as always, we are on climate strike. Young people all around the globe are today sacrificing their education to bring attention to the climate and ecological emergency. 
• "And we are not doing this because we want to. We aren't doing it because it's fun.

Yet anybody who knows teenagers at all knows that if they don't "want to" do something they will fight tooth and nail not to, and that every one of Greta's emulators has been having a great time, with long weekends off school and a chance to legitimately rate out their elders.

It sure grabs attention from the continued upheaval in the Middle East, which, of course, has never seemed to cause much alarm to the general populace hereabouts (except when having to accept the influx of refugees), not even with regard to "carbon" pollution, because, well, the people losing their homes and lives and the children being traumatised for life aren't Judeo-Christian, eh?

Now here's a revelation:

NtlObserver: The little-known colossus behind the Conservatives' anti-climate agenda

• Beyond the tight-knit world of Calgary’s oil patch executives and a redoubt of Ottawa-based conservative activists, few Canadians had heard of the “Modern Miracle Network” (MMN) before The Globe and Mail in late April revealed that the group had convened a private retreat near Calgary for energy industry operatives, senior Conservative advisors and leader Andrew Scheer. The top agenda item, according to the Globe’s account: plotting out a strategy for this fall’s federal election battle with Justin Trudeau’s Liberals ...

There's a Modern Miracle Network on Facebook, but it doesn't seem to have had a colossal amount of traffic.

Well, you had to have known that Scheer would need some heavy guidance, but from a Colossus?  Shades of Trudeau/Freeland/Soros!

Anyway, it's all about "leakage", but you'll have to read through a virtual Who's Who before getting to the actual gist, which is:

• ... that if Canadian natural gas is more costly than American energy, domestic distributors and industrial consumers will import what they need, causing jobs, production and economic activity to shift to the U.S.
• “As a result ... America’s emissions increase, meaning Canadian carbon leaks across the border as well. This offsets the environmental benefits of Canada’s climate action.” Calling last year for a “common sense” climate strategy, he accused carbon pricing proponents of ignoring the leakage issue and called for more research on the phenomena.

I wonder how high a wall has to be to keep someone's "carbon leakage" out of a neighbouring backyard.  Pretty high, probably.

Apparently, "leakage" has been discussed internationally for several years now. Here's a slant from the EU:

CarbonMarketWatch: France

• “Carbon leakage” refers to a hypothetical situation where companies transfer production to countries with weaker climate policies in order to lower their costs. Under the current EU Emissions Trading System (EU ETS) rules, industrial companies that are believed to be at risk of “carbon leakage” are awarded free pollution permits.

One of those industries is Dairy. Cows apparently, well, you know, pass a lot of gas -- "carbon", that is. But because humans need milk (debatable) and the milking machines need power, and the barns need to be warm in winter, and there are workers and transportation costs, and mostly because, like all industries, this one wants to keep its cash ... well, Agriland has the rest of the story.

It's simple: if we non-industrial folk want to drink milk, we must accept leakage and absorb the cost.

In other words, the joke is on We the Peeps.

But we're Canuks; we like jokes. Here's another one: Russia has moved to Buffalo, NY!

BuzzFeed: The Canadian Election’s Surprise Influencer Is A Buffalo Man Targeting Canadians With Viral Disinformation

• Matthew Ricchiazzi has written debunked stories about Canadian politics and once told a US candidate he'd publish "negative articles about [their] opponents" for $400 apiece.

And here I am offering negative articles free gratis.
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