Wednesday, February 21, 2007

The cure is cheaper than the disease

It would cost $1 per barrel of oil produced to bring the oil sands into compliance with Kyoto emissions-cutting targets, the Pembina Institute told the Clean Air Act commons committee yesterday.

Cost to produce one barrel of oil - $20-$30
Selling price - $60

Gord Lambert, VP of sustainable development at Suncor, one of the oil sands' biggest producers, said that new technology is the key to curbing emissions, but government funding would be needed for implementation.

Suncor profit in 2006 - $3 billion
Cost of complying with Kyoto - $1 per $60 barrel
Yet Suncor expects taxpayers to foot the bill.
Suncor also wants direct access to Kyoto to purchase GHG emission reductions on its own behalf.
Because big government is bad, very bad, for its interference in the marketplace, unless you can finangle a taxpayer-funded handout out of them.

3 comments:

RossK said...

Alison--

This is such an important point in all sorts of ways.

For example, why is the public footing the bill for the Olympics?

And why is it not the corporations that are making a fortune off of them?

And if they did, that would truly be a real public private partnership.

Anonymous said...

There is no such thing as "the public" because it doesn't constitute a legal entity. Nor do "the people" or any variant of same you or I can come up with.

A "government" is a legal entity, a "corporation" is a legal entity, named individuals are legal entities.

The public doesn't exist other than as a conceptual abstraction.

In order for "the public" to really exist a formally organized corporation or legal society comprised of named individuals would have to come into being.

"The Public Incorporated."

A million named individuals would be a good start.

If you could get it through the registry without an Executive or a Board.

RossK said...

Dana--

Does that mean that the 'private' doesn't exist either?

(I mean, I get your point, and like your idea, but.....)

.

Blog Archive