Tories Clean Air Act Has Critics Gasping

And not everybody’s breathing easier.

Details of the long awaited legislation were introduced Thursday, and while the plan calls for a reduction in greenhouse gas emissions by at least half, the final deadline won’t be in effect until 2050.

There are no short term targets revealed, but the feds will rely on ever increasing goals for industry to reduce what they put into the atmosphere.

Regulations for large polluters would begin in 2010 and the government is giving itself until 2020 to set national emission-cutting targets for the pollutants that cause smog.

The Tories have long been labeled soft on the environment, and cancelled the Liberals agreed-to participation in the Kyoto accord, calling the provisions unworkable.

But critics are convinced this plan won’t do much to help reduce our increasingly smoggy skies and they plan to give this bill a rough ride in Parliament.

“There is really no news here,” complains Green party Leader Elizabeth May. “Canada stands alone repudiating Kyoto.”

Not true, claims Environment Minister Rona Ambrose.

“When Canada’s Clean Air Act passes, we will have new powers,” she suggests. “We will have the power to set fuel efficiency standards in the auto sector, to establish national air quality objectives based on health and be accountable for reaching them.”

All gas and diesel engines, like those on cars, motorcycles and all terrain vehicles, will be subject to shrinking emission standards, although the government can’t say how big those reductions will be.

But it appears the regs will fall in line with those enacted in the U.S., adding more fuel to the fire of those who oppose what they term ‘lax solutions.’

One of their biggest gripes is that the bill calls for a lot of talk and not much action. The government will hold at least three years of talks with industry about how they plan to reduce their own release of atmospheric gunk.

But the Liberals complain all that legwork was done under their regime and the latest delays will cost taxpayers more without clearing up the air they breathe.

Environmentalists also complain that the plan is too short on specifics.

“No targets means no accountability,” worries John Bennett of the Sierra Club. “This announcement is nothing more than a recipe for delay. Adopting the Bush administrations standards will not lower emissions from vehicles.”

It was the Clean Air Act that may have cost one maverick Tory MP his job.

Halton’s Garth Turner was kicked out of the Conservative caucus on Wednesday, and he believes his criticism of his former party’s environmental plan had a lot to do with his ouster.

There are possibilities that he may now join the Green Party. For more on that, click here.

Clear Air Act Highlights

By 2011, develop new regulations for vehicle fuel consumption.

By 2025, set national targets for smog and ozone levels.

By 2050, reduce greenhouse gas emissions between 45 and 65 per cent from 2003 levels.

No mention of the Kyoto Protocol and the emissions targets the government of Canada comitted to in 2002.

Harmonize vehicle emissions standards with those of the United States over the next 12 months.

Harmonize regulations with those of the U.S. for volatile organic compound emissions in consumer and commercial products over the next year.

Over the next three years, discuss and set “intensity based” targets for reducing greenhouse gas emissions, rather than total emissions targets, for major emitters.

Negotiate with provinces to create harmonized system for mandatory reporting of air emissions, reduction of regulatory overlap.

Create environmental damages fund from non-compliance fines to be applied directly to cleanup.