May 13 2009
What’s Your Opinion On The Article Doer’s Drive To Clean The Air ?
Doer’s drive to clean the air
NDP leader wants to model California’s crackdown on vehicle emissions
By Mia Rabson
MANITOBANS could have more than just sunny skies in common with California if Gary Doer is sent back to the premier’s office next month. Doer marked Earth Day Sunday with a series of campaign promises to protect the environment, including forcing all cars on Manitoba roads to spew out fewer greenhouse gases. “We want to work using the California method on vehicle emissions,” Doer said in the backyard of a private residence in Wolseley. California set tailpipe emissions standards 41 years ago, and has long been the North American leader on the subject, including recent plans by the state to cut by 10 per cent the carbon content of gasoline sold in the state.
Cars sold or imported in California must meet that state’s emissions standards or they aren’t allowed on the road, and Doer wants to set the same standards here.
He said he believes the federal government should set a national standard for tailpipe emissions to ensure car manufacturers are forced to act.
“Having said that, just like California is not going to sit back and wait for Washington, we’re not going to wait for anybody else,” he said.
Doer said the tailpipe restrictions will not just be for new cars sold in Manitoba, but also include incentives for people with older cars to cut back on emissions. “We believe carrots are the best in this regard,” said Doer.
Doer repeated his pre-election pledge to pass a law requiring Manitoba to meet its greenhouse gas reductions targets under the Kyoto Protocol by 2012. But, for the first time, he said he’d like to meet that goal with actual reductions, not by buying credits from other jurisdictions that have fewer emissions or have
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cut back more.
Manitoba’s Kyoto target requires a cut of 2.3 megatonnes of greenhouse gases. The province currently emits about 20 megatonnes a year, more than one third of which come from vehicles.
Other promises in his environment platform include building renewable energy sources for the communities in Manitoba that don’t have access to hydroelectricity, and requiring all landfills to capture emissions.
Curtis Hull, project manager of the Manitoba-based environment crusader group Climate Change Connection, said overall the Doer environment platform “looks promising.”
But he said he’d like to see more initiatives to get people out of their cars in the first place, including investments in public transit, particularly in rural Manitoba, and higher gas taxes, though he acknowledged that is a hard sell.
“Increased gas prices won’t be popular, especially at election time, but when it comes to getting people out of their cars, that’s the big one,” said Hull.
Doer was joined at the microphone by Lloyd Axworthy, who was once the senior federal Liberal in Manitoba and is now the president of the University of Winnipeg. Though Axworthy’s presence implied he was endorsing Doer’s campaign, he said that’s not true.
But he did laud Doer for showing leadership on climate change in Canada.
“I’m not here in a partisan way, I’m here because as a citizen of this province I think it’s important we continue to build on what’s been accomplished,” said Axworthy.
Liberal Leader Jon Gerrard, who also made environment announcements Sunday but didn’t get the boost of Axworthy’s presence, sniped that he thought it was funny that Doer felt the only way he’d get credibility for his environment announcement was by having a Liberal present.
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