Rachel Notley implemented Canada's steepest carbon tax, imposed emissions caps, and began the phase-out of coal power generation, in the mistaken belief that demonstrating leadership on environmental issues would help win cooperation from Ottawa and the other provinces. She called this idea "social license". Clearly that strategy is a gigantic failure. You can be sure that Jason Kenney will undo all of that when he becomes premier, and he will be able to argue-- with justification-- that trying to win cooperation by being a "good guy" on carbon has been a failure.
Early on, "social license" seemed to work. People were
"Let me say this definitively, we could not have approved this project without the leadership of Premier Notley and Alberta's climate leadership plan," Trudeau told reporters in Ottawa Tuesday while announcing the go-ahead of the pipeline. "A plan that commits to pricing carbon and capping oilsands emissions at 100 megatonnes per year."
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/edmonton/premier-leadership-climate-plan-factor-pipeline-approvals-1.3873664But now we see how much Trudeau's support actually means. Despite promising that the pipeline will get built at a town hall, the federal government has provided zero action to make that happen, and they show no intention of ever planning to.
Notley now says she's not signing on to a national carbon tax plan until the pipeline gets built. Maybe she should start
**** around with trucks or trains leaving BC-- mandatory safety inspections at the border, maybe-- to force the feds to get off their asses.
-k