Oh, and the flip-flop thing? I never believed for a second that he was actually going to run as a Liberal. It just wouldn’t fit, despite what some of those news articles say. So, I wouldn’t really call it a flip-flop.

http://www.ndp.ca/page/6565

* Layton persuaded Harper to send his Clean Air act to a legislative committee at 1st reading, so it could have an all-party rewrite before returning to the House. The rewritten Clean Air and Climate Change bill passed through all stages in the Commons, although Harper then prorogued the House.

* Next Layton got the House to adopt his Kyoto Plus bill to set post-Kyoto targets for GHG emission cuts

* The NDP supports a Cap-and-Trade system, like Barrack Obama does, which legislates hard caps on industry (not ‘intensity-based’ ones like Harper and Baird want) by selling credits, and then allowing companies that beat their cap to sell the room to companies that don’t. Over time, you then reduce the amount of credits made available each year. This:

(i) creates a pool of cash from emitters to fund government programs that assist in the creation of alternative energy sources and greener transportation alternatives, and in reducing personal energy consumption (retrofits, insulation, better furnaces and windows, etc),

(ii) creates a strong financial incentive for emitters to innovate to reduce GHG emissions and a financial disincentive for delaying those changes, plus it

(iii) brings Canada into line with the approach being taken in Europe and supported by both Obama and McCain. Unlike the Europeans, who had a lot of players at the start and not much experience running such a market, we have already operated such a system in North America … it’s what cleaned up the Acid Rain problem in a very short timeframe.

The “revenue-neutral carbon tax shift” the Libs have proposed does not divert tax revenues into fixing the problems, or even regulate emission levels to bring them down. It boils down to a hope that taxing one thing more and another thing less will subtly modify behaviour … in the absence of any available alternatives.

Anyways, Leslie, give it a read.

This might have not worked for a desperate leader who needed to find a way to display leadership after months of leading his caucus is a bold strategy of abstaining from defeating a “terrible, right wing Republican government” (his words).

But I think it certainly qualifies as an environmental plan and likely one that will do as much, if not more for the environment than the Green Shift.

I am not sure what would motivate someone to create panic for no good reason.