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A Better Climate Change Plan
| NDP Plan | Campbell Plan |
| Real caps on greenhouse gas emssions from BC's largest polluters. | No caps on greenhouse gas emissions. Polluters can pollute as much as they want. |
| Cap and trade to set a price on emissions - the plan recommended by US president Obama and Canada's National Roundtable on the Environment. | Carbon tax - BC will be the only jurisdiction with a carbon tax on consumers. Rates are too low to be effective. |
| Polluters pay by auction for emisson permits. Revenue goes towards transit and other climate change solutions to reduce emissions. | No revenue from the tax goes towards transit and climate chnage solutions to reduce emissions. |
| End flaring and fugitive emissions responsible for 13% of BC's greenhouse gas emissions. | Promised the oil and gas industry that he is opposed to our plan to end flaring and fugitive emissions. |
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Green Bond program: 1. Low interest loans retrofit homes and businesses. 2. Incentives for new green technology to reduce industry emsissions. 3. Transit project to provide affordable alternatives to car travel. |
No new programs for green alternatives to reduce energy use. |
| Maintain moratorium on offshore oil and gas. | Lift the moratorium on offshore oil and gas. |
Why Not the Campbell Gas Tax:
- Not one cent goes to environmental solutions, and Campbell is still cutting the budgets for environmental protection and Enforcement
- The gas tax does not reduce fuel consumption and emissions. Campbell's claims the gas tax will only reduce emissions by 4% by 2020. Since the gas tax was brought in fuel consumption has gone up 4% - not down. Campbell's chief climate adviser, Mark Jaccard, says the tax has to be raised 24 cents per litre to be effective. But Campbell has no plans to do that. That is why the expert National Roundtable on the Environment and the Economy recently (April 16, 2009) recommended against a tax and for the cap and trade system.
- Gordon Campbell is using this tax as a substitute for real action on pollution such as that caused by natural gas flaring and he uses the tax a cover for his promotion of oil drilling in BC coastal water and his support for coal bed methane developments without environmental standards
- There are many industries exempted in Campbell's tax scheme such as cruise ships, airlines and smelters. Cross border trucking is exempt but local trucking pays.
- People like rural British Columbians without transit and other alternatives pay as much as British Columbians in the lower mainland.
- Struggling businesses and industries like the forest industry have to pay even if they make no profits. School boards, hospitals and other public institutions have to pay even if it raises their costs and reduces services. For example, the Kamloops school district may charge families $20 per month per child for school busing
Carole James and the NDP support a sustainable BC
British Columbians want a real commitment to our environment, not more delay and more unregulated development. Carole James and the NDP will deliver real action on climate change, tough rules for polluters and strong enforcement of the rules. It's time to take back your BC.
Carole James and the NDP will:
- Cap emissions from big polluters and make polluters pay for breaking the standards.
- Implement a ‘cap and trade' plan - just like US President Obama.
- End ‘flaring' in the oil & gas industry, to cut greenhouse gas emissions by 13%
- Implement California's tough vehicle tailpipe emission standards.
- Maintain the moratorium on coastal oil drilling and crude oil tanker traffic.
- Protect endangered wildlife with BC's first species at risk legislation.
- End the sell-off of hundreds of BC rivers to private power interests.
- Help British Columbians to be part of the solution by expanding transit, and fund building and home retrofit programs to cut greenhouse gases.
- Introduce BC Green Bonds to stimulate jobs and investment in green infrastructure and emission reducing technology.
- Enforce environmental rules and regulations
- Stop the dismantling of the Agricultural Land Reserve.
Why Not Gordon Campbell?
The facts about Gordon Campbell's record and plan:
- His gas tax does not provide one cent to environmental solutions and Campbell's own numbers show it won't reduce greenhouse gas emissions enough to meet targets.
- His gas tax hurts average families but lets big polluters off the hook.
- He opposes the NDP commitment to end flaring of waste gases in the oil and gas industry - the source of 13% of BC's emissions.
- He has cut environmental protection programs by 44 per cent.
- He supports lifting the moratorium on oil drilling on our sensitive coast.
- He's fast-tracking coal bed methane projects without environmental standards - ignoring the impacts on our groundwater.
- Hundreds of rivers are at risk because Campbell is selling off public control to his friends in the private power industry.
- He's cutting funding for environmental assessment and enforcement
- He opposes regulating fish farms to protect our wild salmon stocks.
- BC is one of only two provinces without protection for species at risk
"[Gordon Campbell is] going green around the edges and that's it. There's no green in the centre."
- Vicky Husband, former Conservation Chair, Sierra Club of BC, The Tyee, Feb. 23, 2009
