Promise broken

There was already no reason to take the Sask Party seriously in claiming that their constant push for nuclear power had anything to do with reducing greenhouse gas emissions. But now, there's yet more reason to laugh at the assertion:

The Saskatchewan Party government says it will not be keeping its election promise on cuts to greenhouse gas emissions.

During the 2007 election campaign, the Saskatchewan Party adopted the NDP government's targets to reduce gases like carbon dioxide and other gases linked to climate change and global warming.

The Saskatchewan Party platform called on the province to stabilize emissions by 2010, and reduce them 32 per cent by the year 2020.

But now, Environment Minister Nancy Heppner said that target will have to change...

Instead of the old targets, the province will adopt federal targets, which call for a 20 per cent reduction in greenhouse gases by 2020, she said.

Of course, there's no explanation as to why there would be any reason for reduced economic activity to lead to higher emissions than planned. But now that the Wall government has predictably taken the first excuse available to trash what had been a bipartisan consensus on the need to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, any attempt to use environmental consciousness as an excuse for the rest of the Sask Party's agenda can only look all the more hollow.