Alberta Liberal Leader has plan to wage "war on carbon"

This is from the Globe and Mail. It is amazing how many different wars there are that involve stretching the meaning of the word: the war on poverty, the war on terrorism, the war on crime, and now a ' war on carbon'. Common to all cases is a pleading for more resources to be devoted to a problem. Often too it involves regulation or even as in the war on terror a dimunition of rights.
In the case of the oil patch they may worry about their rights to produce and profit without much in the way of regulation. A good environment for them is little regulation and a good environment for profitable investment. It is not clear that this good environment is compatible with the "war on carbon"!

Alberta Liberal Leader has a plan to wage 'war on carbon'

ROY MacGREGOR
rmacgregor@globeandmail.com

February 13, 2008
CALGARY -- Kevin Taft believes he has unique qualifications for bringing an end to the 37-year run of the provincial Progressive Conservatives.
It has nothing to do with him telling a grade school teacher he would one day be premier - politics, right up until he could take it no more, never once entered his mind.
It has nothing to do with being asked by then-premier Peter Lougheed's PC government to serve on a hospital task force while still in high school.
It has nothing to do with having worked, at various times, for the PC government of former premier Don Getty.
And it has nothing to do with his background. Politicians don't chase doctorates in business, and authors - he has written bestselling books on Alberta - tend to turn to print because they're no good at talking.
No, it has to do with China.
When the 52-year-old Liberal Leader was in his late 20s, he organized a series of scientific expeditions to the Gobi Desert. Once there, they would look for fossils - and, whenever possible, extract these dinosaurs from positions they had held for eons.
"Great practice," Taft grins, "for going after the Tories in the legislature."
Taft, in his own way, is a bit of fossil when it comes to Alberta Liberals. He is fighting a second provincial election as leader; the rule of thumb being they get one chance, blow it and are then blown away.
Seven years ago, Taft became the only new Liberal in the province to land a seat when he took the Edmonton riding in which he had grown up and now lives. He only ran, he says, because he could take no more of Ralph Klein running the province like a personal fief.
When Taft led the Liberals against Klein in the last election, taking 16 of the province's 83 seats, it was considered a good enough show for another chance - no one ever thinking for a moment that the chance would come against a force the Liberals once considered the least threatening of all government members: Ed Stelmach.
Stelmach seemed a quietly efficient minister, Taft recalls, but on his feet was considered such a disaster that "it got to the point where you didn't ask him questions because you just felt bad for him."
Now, however, all such sympathies must be set aside. Stelmach became the surprising leader 15 months ago and today becomes, by necessity, the target for whatever attention the Liberals can attract to their campaign.
The Stelmach target seems to add a ring a day - early stumbles over doctors, daycare, openings on lobby legislation, etc. - but hitting it squarely has so far eluded both Liberals and NDP opponents.
Taft himself is big, square of jaw and friendly, but a dynamic speaker only by comparison to Stelmach. He has until March 3 to draw those comparisons favourably in his direction.
Taft knows he is up against the "Liberal" label, which in this province still conjures up images of Pierre Trudeau and the national energy program.
"It's a mixed brand," Taft concedes, "but one that comes with credibility." Alberta, he says, has historically been such a hotbed of new parties - some 70 having existed at one time or another - that Liberals are "the only party that has been here from the start."
Day by day, Taft has introduced new planks in the platform - a performing arts centre for Lethbridge, an aboriginal affairs ministry - but he knows fully well that whatever comes of this election will be decided by two interlocked issues: the provincial economy and energy. Taft is a climate-change believer. He wants "aggressive action" to cut emissions. Stelmach, who wants to go slow after a long period of going nowhere, hints that Taft's plans would cost the province a billion dollars and more than 300,000 jobs.
Taft, of course, scoffs at this and calls it "fear-mongering."
But he understands how easy it is to start people fretting. "If not for the oil sands," he says, "the provincial economy would be flat right now."
But he still feels that climate change is an issue of "national security" and one that will increasingly involve the entire world.
"A lot of Albertans feel like they're caught between a rock and a hard place," he says. It would be wrong, however, "to sit and twiddle our thumbs."
Ralph Klein admitted on leaving office that he had no plan. Kevin Taft hopes to take office with a solid one in place. He would wage a "war on carbon" that would obviously affect - but he believes would hardly kill - the industry. He would use increased energy royalties to create "an RRSP" for the entire province, channelling billions into the Heritage Fund, postsecondary education and various infrastructure.
And if it costs a billion, so be it. This fabulously rich province has a gross domestic product of $242-billion, he says, and "we're willing to bet Albertans will be willing to have one dollar out of 242 invested in addressing climate change."
He has three weeks to sell this plan to voters who for years seemed quite content with Ralph Klein and no plan at all.
"Where are the voters of Alberta on this?" Taft asks out loud. "Well, we're going to find out ..."