Recycling and reusing talking points

Clare Demerse provides a very useful overview of policy options for reducing greenhouse gas emissions (if it had been published earlier I would’ve included it in my rough guide).

The Conservatives clearly believe that a good offense is the best defense. But the flurry of talking points should not obscure another unfortunate reality about curbing pollution: the Conservatives’ preferred approach could cost Canada’s economy more than either cap-and-trade or carbon taxes. Rather than pricing carbon — the approach favoured by the Canadian Council of Chief Executives and a who’s who of Canadian industry players — the Harper government now says it will cut greenhouse gas pollution through sector-by-sector regulations on Canada’s industries.

If you polled economists, you’d find virtual unanimity that regulations are less efficient, and thus cost more, than a carbon price. That’s because they’re less flexible, making changes by decree rather than tapping into companies’ ingenuity by giving them a goal to meet in whatever way works best for them. But regulations only cost more than a price on carbon if you’re using them to reach the same environmental goal ... So far, Ottawa has put precious few new regulations on the books. The federal government’s most recent announcement — a set of regulations to cut pollution from coal-fired power plants — have been weakened to the point that they will now allow the oldest and dirtiest coal plants in Canada to run for up to half a century from the date they were commissioned without any limit on their greenhouse gas pollution.