With Canada’s Environment Minister Peter Kent reiterating that Canada continues to align greenhouse gas emissions measures with the United States, Canadians interested in what Canada might do need to pay close attention to developments in the US.

One of the more interesting proposals comes from the Energy and Enterprise Initiative at George Mason University in Fairfax, Virginia. E&EI was launched last June by Bob Inglis, Republican member of Congress from South Carolina from 1993 to 1999 and again from 2005 until 2011. Inglis has been described as the “Republican who believes in climate change”.

E&EI responded to the climate change content of President Obama’s recent State of the Union Address by stating:

Getting a legislative solution is essential because regulating CO2 is precisely the wrong solution. Unilateral EPA action will spawn litigation and protracted fights over EPA funding. Meanwhile, regulating power plants would do nothing – absolutely nothing – to move China and India toward action. In fact, CO2 regulations may lead to outsourcing that increases emissions just when we’re starting to see a trend toward emission-reducing  ‘onsourcing’.

E&EI made the following recommendations for a US government climate change program:

Rather than capping, regulating and growing government, we should be talking about a ‘true cost’ comparison between competing fuels –eliminating all subsidies for all fuels, attaching all costs to all fuels through an upstream application of a carbon tax, pairing that tax with a dollar-for-dollar cut in other taxes, and making it border adjustable so it’s removed on exports and imposed on imports.

Not a bad set of proposals, in GallonDaily’s opinion.

It is doubtful that Bob Inglis will have much success with the majority of his former Congressional colleagues in the Republican Party but, with rising public opinion in support of action on climate change, maybe enough Republicans will get on side with Inglis to allow passage of legislation containing some of the proposals. Canada could help its own economy, and help encourage Congress, by moving in a similar direction ahead of any US initiative.

The Energy and Enterprise Initiative can be found at http://energyandenterprise.com/eei-responds-to-president-obamas-state-of-the-union-address/

Minister Kent’s reannouncement of Canada’s continued alignment with the US on climate change initiatives, including a recommitment to regulate power plants, can be found at http://www.ec.gc.ca/default.asp?lang=En&n=714D9AAE-1&news=3FC39747-ABF2-470A-A99E-48CA2B881E97