Junk science and junk politics

Not that we needed more reminders of the problems we're already having in implementing Kyoto - but Ralph Klein has officially decided to throw a wrench in the works:

Alberta will not be bound by federal regulations on greenhouse emissions, says a spokesman for the province's Environment Department.

Robert Moyles said Tuesday that Alberta will introduce its own regulations to govern greenhouse emissions - and they will take precedence over federal rules...

He said Ottawa has committed itself to emissions-reduction targets that Alberta considers unrealistic.

Alberta has repeatedly said it does not accept the targets of the Kyoto protocol, which calls on Canada to cut emissions six per cent from 1990 levels by 2012.

As if that wasn't bad enough, it appears that Alberta's supposed justification for the action is its continued reliance on a principle so far removed from reality that even Bushco stopped trying to push it years ago:

The province has set a target of cutting in half the so-called "greenhouse intensity" of its industry by 2020 - that refers to the amount of greenhouse emissions for each unit of economic output.

In short, Canada's wealthiest province utterly refuses to use any of its wealth to actually try to deal with climate change, and plans instead to implement a standard where any economic growth is taken to be an environmental improvement even if emissions don't change at all.

If Canadians are paying any attention, this combined with Klein's privatization fixation should more than undo any positive perception arising out of the Alberta centennial scholarship program. But the more important question is whether the next federal government will fight back - and with actions to enforce the federal standards, not mere words which will then be ignored by the provinces.

Klein's recent actions show only that he thinks Canadians will willingly sell out their environment and their health for a pittance. And no federal party willing to accept those terms should get anywhere near the government side of the Commons.