because the tar sands oil is mostly for export, hard caps make some sense. that's different than domestic energy production (especially relating to coal), where the key issue needs to be replacing electricity generation.

but, what happens if you break the caps? are you summoned to the house of commons for a denouncement? fines are just another cost of business. hey, with prices as they are, fines could keep the oil in the ground.

yeah, i'd like to shut them down altogether, but if this is a serious proposal then it needs to come with...it needs to come with subsidies to upgrade technology. oops.

and, it means actual hard caps, too. not exchanging carbon credits with some company that claims to do business planting trees in the amazon, but is actually registered in the caymans.

i'm just not convinced we have a model for cap and trade that's reliable. in theory, ok - for the tar sands, only. in actuality? the acid rain comparison is kind of sketchy, because it coincided with deindustrialization due to nafta. the system in europe is still up in the air - there's certainly a lot of stories of corruption floating around, and it's happening at the same time as a massive grass roots movement in germany to actually change generation methods. nor has it had really big emission reduction effects. it's reasonable to suggest that the emissions reductions that have been accomplished are due to direct action, rather than indirect action. all i see from the existing cap & trade schemes is that it needs to be tied to direct action to have any results, and is arguably more or less useless altogether.

and, it's only a percentage of the problem, as well. about 10%, in canada.

the reality is that the bulk of our emissions comes from power plants and cars (together, about 80%), and that approaching that requires direct investment, not a market scheme.

it very well might increase prices if, in the end, the fine merely becomes a tax. but, i don't see anybody thinks this actually works to lower carbon, without drinking the neo-liberal kool-aid on markets.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/politics/ndp-losing-ground-as-quebec-support-slips-poll-shows/article26554222/