Carbon policies become less certain

Alberta has a carbon offset program. Aggregators in that province have been putting together carbon offsets from farmers and ranchers and selling them to industry. Saskatchewan is widely rumored to be on the verge of implementing an in-province carbon trading system modeled after what is happening in Alberta. Similarly, the government of Canada is planning to emulate what happens with carbon reduction policy and carbon trading in the United States. The argument is that Canada needs to follow the policies of its major trading partner. However, Barack Obama’s climate change policy appears to be in trouble. It’s facing numerous legal challenges, including one from the state of Texas. The climate change theory has suffered a number of setbacks in recent months and that has invigorated opponents. It all started with revelations that the Climate Research Unit in England had fudged some of its data, while working to stymie any scientists who had evidence refuting climate change theories. More recently, the head of the Climate Research Unit has admitted that any global warming over the past 15 years has not been statistically significant. Given the newly found scientific uncertainty, policy directions are now less certain as well. I’m Kevin Hursh.