Conservative Party leadership candidate Erin O’Toole declares fossil fuel subsidies “a form of corporate welfare” and promises to phase them out if he ever forms a government, in a 50-page policy platform released Wednesday.
The policy means that “an O’Toole-led Conservative Party would unify with Canada’s four other largest federal parties against giving grants for non-green energy projects,” iPolitics notes.
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But that doesn’t mean all-party agreement on where the money should go instead—nor is O’Toole proposing anything approaching a pathway to climate stabilization.
“The world will still be using oil and natural gas for a long time,” and “domestic energy production—including oil and gas—is an important part of making our country more self-reliant and more resilient in future, as we cannot afford to become reliant on energy from countries like Russia,” the platform document states. An O’Toole government would also position Canada as “a world leader in zero-emissions technologies like nuclear and hydro, and in innovations like making low-emission jet fuel out of carbon waste.”
O’Toole says he would scrap the federal floor price on carbon, replacing it with a “national industrial regulatory and pricing regime across the country,” extend the country’s focus on greenhouse gases beyond carbon dioxide, fund critical infrastructure projects to address climate impacts, and show the world “that we are willing to do our part, while also putting pressure on China, the U.S., and Russia to step up and do better.”
Recent polls have put O’Toole in second place in the Tory leadership race, behind Nova Scotia’s Peter MacKay.
At least he is not a climate science denier or into suppressing scientists. He recognizes the need for action. That said he would not get us to where we need to be nearly fast enough. It will be very difficult to cut GHG production enough fast enough now. I don’t know that Canada and the whole world together could do it even if they really commited. I just know we have to do better, much better.