Throwing Fuel On the Fire

 Like, literally:

The long-promised cap on greenhouse gas emissions for Canada’s oil and gas sector will begin as early as 2026 and use a cap-and-trade system that applies by facility, a federal government source said Wednesday.

The outline for the policy that the government is set to publish Thursday will show that industry will not be asked to cut emissions as deeply as planned under last year’s emissions reduction report, said the source.

This will help ensure the framework for the cap is feasible and targets pollution, not production, said the source, who spoke to The Canadian Press on the condition of anonymity to discuss matters not yet made public.

The policy will outline how the cap will work and that it is intended to begin applying sometime between 2026 and 2030. Draft regulations will come by spring 2024, with final regulations likely to arrive early in 2025.

The cap takes into account the expectation that production of oil and gas in Canada will go up before it starts to decline after global demand peaks. For oil specifically, that is predicted to happen before the end of this decade.

Natural Resources Minister Jonathan Wilkinson would not provide any details of the emissions cap policy this week, but did say Tuesday before the Liberal cabinet meeting that the cap “is structured in such a way that we are focused on what is technically feasible” without cutting production.

“Eventually we will see declines in global demand, but that’s not happening right now, so absolutely, that is not the intent, and that is not going to be the effect,” he said.

There is no lack of interest for gas or oil, as Mr. Wilkinson's share-holding wife clearly knows.

Nor is running this country - nay, this globe - possible without that precious stuff in the ground.

Steven Guilbeault is quite mad.

Do it, Pierre.

Filibuster them until 11:58 PM, December 24th:

Disappointment spread through Canada’s agricultural community Tuesday after the Senate narrowly voted in favour of amending a contentious farm heating bill, a move proponents fear would send the bill into parliamentary purgatory.

And Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre vows round-the-clock amendments and debates for the rest of this year’s session unless the Trudeau Liberals reverse course on the move.

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During the Senate’s Tuesday session, senators voted 40 to 39 in favour of a third-reading amendment to Bill C-234, a private members bill that would have exempted propane and natural gas from from federal carbon taxes when used to dry grain or heat and cool barns.

The newly-amended bill removes all but grain drying from that exemption, which is identical to an amendment previously rejected by senators and now ensures the bill will be sent back to the House of Commons.

“I’ve said this before, and I will say it again, it is outrageous that the Trudeau-appointed senators are playing political games with farmers’ livelihoods,” read a statement from Conservative Senate leader Don Plett.

“But, regrettably, the passage of this amendment means that the bill will be delayed and will most likely never see the light of day, as it is now required to return to the House of Commons for further debate.”

Either through poor legislative planning or bad luck for the Trudeau Liberals, C-234 appeared before senators for third reading just as the government made waves in late October by carving-out an exemption in their federal carbon tax for home heating oil, a move widely seen as an attempt to shore-up cratering party support in Atlantic Canada, one of the country’s highest users of the residential heating fuel.

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If passed, C-234 would legislate another carve-out in the Liberals’ keystone policy, something Environment Minister Steven Guilbeault vowed wouldn’t happen again.

Supporters of the bill blamed Liberal-aligned senators for trying to delay the bill, either by frivolously tabling amendments already voted down in the upper chamber, or through accusations of bullying and intimidation by some senators.

Speaking to reporters Wednesday morning, Poilievre blamed the amendment’s passage on intimidation by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.

“Just in time for Christmas, Justin Trudeau has ensured that your turkey dinner will have a big fat growing carbon tax caked on top of it,” he said.

“That is not part of the recipe for turkey dinner that Canadians were looking for.”

Poilievre repeated claims that Trudeau had pressured senators into not passing C-234 unamended, accusing the government of forcing the otherwise independent Senate into preventing a legislated weakening of the carbon tax.

Poilievre also promised the move wouldn’t go unchallenged.

“You’ve ruined Christmas for Canadians. Common-sense Conservatives are going to ruin your vacation as well,” he said.

DO IT.