{"id":17725,"date":"2015-11-23T14:13:29","date_gmt":"2015-11-23T22:13:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/?p=17725"},"modified":"2015-11-23T14:13:29","modified_gmt":"2015-11-23T22:13:29","slug":"kudos-to-alberta","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/2015\/11\/23\/kudos-to-alberta\/","title":{"rendered":"Kudos to Alberta"},"content":{"rendered":"

While I do not claim to be an expert on the politics of our neighbors to the north, the more I hear, since Harper and his Harlots got the boot, the better I like it.  The foul oil that comes from the tar sands is Canada\u2019s biggest blight on the continent, so I am encouraged by good news from Alberta.<\/font><\/p>\n

\n

\"1123oil_sands\"Alberta\u2019s carbon footprint, spurred on by the tar sands industry, has been steadily growing<\/a> in recent years. So when the New Democratic Party took power<\/a> in a surprise victory earlier this year, environmentalists hoped it signaled a turning point for Canada\u2019s largest oil-producing province. <\/p>\n

On Sunday, new Alberta Premier Rachel Notely lived up to those expectations. Notely announced new pledges to limit fossil fuels in the province, by phasing out all coal power usage by 2030, imposing a carbon tax beginning in 2017, and placing a limit on carbon pollution from the tar sands industry<\/strong>. <\/p>\n

\u201cThis is the day we stop denying there is an issue, and this is the day when we start doing our part,\u201d Notley said<\/a>. \u201cClimate change is real, it is caused by human activity<\/strong>.\u201d <\/p>\n

The announcement comes after months of statements by high-ranking government officials within Alberta signaling a change in the province\u2019s approach to carbon emissions and climate change. In June, Environment Minister Shannon Phillips promised<\/a> a \u201cnew era of responsible energy development and environmental sustainability,\u201d suggesting that the province could as much as double its carbon tax by 2017. In September, Notley also told the Guardian that the province would look to diversify its energy portfolio<\/a> in the coming years, steering away from fossil fuels and towards more renewable energy sources. <\/p>\n

In the Guardian interview, Notley emphasized greater interest in regulating the tar sands industry\u2019s carbon emissions rather than shutting it down altogether. But the industry itself has been battered in recent months by a slew of government rejections \u2014 from Keystone XL<\/a> to oil tanker traffic<\/a> in British Columbia \u2014 and thousands of lost jobs<\/a> due to the falling price of oil\u2026<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Inserted from <Think Progress<\/a>> <\/p>\n

My one disappointment here is that the Tar Sands need to be shut down altogether.  The environmental regulations protecting Canada mean that the only place left for the industry is to ship the filth to or through our country.  I hope our government will ban shipping Tar Sands sludge here.<\/font><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

While I do not claim to be an expert on the politics of our neighbors to the north, the more I hear, since Harper and his Harlots got the boot, the better I like it.  The foul oil that comes from the tar sands is Canada\u2019s biggest blight on the continent, so I am encouraged […]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-17725","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics","category-5-id","post-seq-1","post-parity-odd","meta-position-corners","fix"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17725","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17725"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17725\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17725"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17725"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17725"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}