Excellent journalism from The Narwhal, as per usual. I realize that many of us are hurting today, but please consider bookmarking this article and coming back to it when you are ready.
Due to the Trump administration, we’ve been seeing how conservative anti-climate policy plays out. This will be an expensive assault on the environment, and we can’t let it stand.
The industrial carbon tax is preventing more emissions than any of our other climate policies, and we can’t afford to have it repealed. The amount of carbon lock-in will be enormous. Allowing more electricity to be generated by burning fracked gas will drive up our electricity costs and make them more volatile. Likewise, repealing the Zero Carbon Step Code for buildings, which is implemented at the municipal level, will lead to more households being stuck with heating systems that are needlessly costly to operate. Fossil fuel heating systems also lack a key climate adaptation benefit that heat pumps have: air conditioning. Forgive me for not mincing words, but if the adoption of heat pumps is delayed or stalled, people will die preventable deaths in the next heat dome.
I have a lot that I could say right now, but I will conclude with some thoughts about LNG. The Conservative proposal to take credit for “emissions avoided through clean B.C. exports” is one of the most ridiculous ideas that I’ve ever heard, in part because its premise is false: in actuality, LNG exports will increase global emissions. Eby knows this—he used to advocate eloquently against LNG. While I had my differences with Eby regarding his handling of LNG, I doubt that he wanted the LNG situation that he inherited. He is still a valuable member of our party, and if he were to come clean about the extent to which LNG has been greenwashed, then that would be immensely helpful in our fight to hold the Conservatives accountable for their coming attack on the climate.
Take care of yourselves, friends. We are now the official opposition, so let us staunchly oppose the spate of injustices coming our way, including climate injustices.