The link below is one of the best links I could find online explaining the issues, pros/cons of Canada’s tarsands where the Green Shift tax effects corporate profits the most.
http://www.theoildrum.com/node/3839
A quick clip:
“The oil sand industry is one of the major GHG emitters in Canada and the entire process approximately doubles to triples the amount of CO2 released per barrel of petroleum used compared to conventional extraction. The mining process emits about 35 kg CO2 equivalent/barrel, and the upgrading process 45 kg CO2 equivalent/barrel, and the SAGD process 55 kg CO2 equivalent/barrel, (Bramley et al. 2005).
Assuming Bramley’s numbers are accurate, the numbers suggest (and I asked this question many a time with no Con takers) that the tarsands C02 footprint per barrel of oil produced is 135 kgs of C02 per barrel of oil, or 14.81 B0E production per tonne of C02 emissions. If the mining excavation process carbon footprint is excluded, each barrel of oil produces 100 kg of C02 per barrel of oil or 20 barrels of oil per tonne.
So there we have it, nice and neat! For every 20 barrels of oil produced in the tarsands, we have 1 tonne of C02 emmissions as a GHG byproduct.
So here is my point. In January of 2006, gas sold at the pumps for .98 to 1.02 - 1.03 per litre at the pumps nation wide. Today, the price of gas is 40% higher under Stephen Harper’s careful watch.
In the summer, Stephen Harper went to great lengths to sell to the public that the price of gas would go up 40% if Dion won the election and the Green Shift was implimented.
Now… I ask you… how can a Green Shift $40 dollar tax on a tonne of carbon that puts a carbon tax cost of .65 cents to $1.30 per conventional barrel of oil produced, to $2.00 per barrel of oil produced at the tarsands on a BOE priced at $100 bucks a barrel (a 2% rise in cost of production) create Harper's claimed 40% rise at the pumps?!?!?!?!!!!
$40 bucks per tonne of C02 means a $2.00 per barrel tax on tarsands refiners (priced at $100 bucks per barrel). How does an incremental tax from $10 bucks the first year to $40 bucks a tonne of C02 translate into a 40% rise in gas prices?
How stupid does Harper think Canadians are? Oh, one in 13 are illiterate, maybe, but for the rest of us! How assininely dullard does Harper believe Canadians really are? Does Harper actually believe that gas having rised at the pumps close to 40% under his watch, will suddenly rise another 40% from a $2 dollar tax on refined tarsands crude (priced at $100 bucks a barrel 4 years from now) or a $1 dollar tax or less tax on refined conventional crude? In lamens terms, how can gas go up 40% at the pumps from a 2% taxation on refined tarsands crude or 1% on conventional crude or less?
How friggin dumb does Harper believe Canadians truly are?
Now… if refineries can produce 20 barrels of oil per tonne of carbon emmissions which costs them $40 bucks a tonne 4 years from now, I’d say they got a pretty sweet deal for decades of polluting and a chance to clean up their own act at their discretion… Why? It will only cost them 2 bucks a barrel from such a Green Shift carbon tax once fully kicked in and there is no refinery dirtier than the tarsands refineries when it comes to energy inputs vs outputs in the oilpatch so the tax is very specific, being more costly to the tarsands than anywhere else including the oil and gas sector at most other levels. The Green Shift taxes refineries that are without at doubt, the biggest polluters of large C02 emissions where C02 sequestering makes huge sense and a 2 buck a barrel tax can be shaved down to as much as a dollar a barrel with an honest effort to capture C02 and thats not the only treasure behind a cleanup. If Canadians can successfully clean up their act, they will in reality leave a model exemplar for the world to follow (mind you, I believe Norway already has that working model).
And one thing can change everything so far discussed. The world including the oil industry treats C02 as though its a bad thing… but when it comes to the oil recovery of depleted wells, its got value. We could be talking as much as 10% oil recovery from depleted wells with the use of C02.
Why is there so much resistance to change? Why is the oil lobby lobbying so hard (especially through Harper, he sold his ass to U.S. multi’s, especially big oil a long time ago)? In a word, a new $1 to $2 dollar tax and/or the need for new capital raised to clean up their polluting ways will cost them money and human resources and these greeders are far greedier and cheaper and far more polluting than most of us think and like the dinosaur, simply won't change their ways.
So who should we believe, … the guy (Harper) who watched gas at the pumps rise 40% under his watch who states that a $2 dollar tax per B0E will create a 40% rise at the pumps? (cough, hack, choke)
Or the guy (Dion) who says big polluters have to clean up their act, a tax on carbon to the tune of $2 bucks a barrel will provide the incentive, the revenues will be turned back to the people directly in this nation and Shiela Fraser can monitor it freely to insure that this, in fact, does happen and we will all be better off (except oil corps, they’ll have to fork over $2 bucks a barrel in gross profit and/or clean up their act to shave the tax down to a $buck a barrel)
Again, who do you believe? The guy who sold his butt to corps decades ago? Or the guy who sold his buns to the people of this great land decades ago, a true servant of this nation…
Who do you believe? The corporate lobbyist? Or the sociologist. Do you believe a 5 year president of the National Citizens Coalition (Harper), a group that donated $50 grand to Harpers election campaign in 93', a group that exists solely for U.S. multinationals to increase market share of any and all of Canada's economic sectors protected or otherwise? The NCC agenda can be found right here and unsurprisingly, its Harpers agenda where nothing has changed. Fact is... Harper never gave up his old job as a U.S. corporate multinational and the proof is in this link:
http://nationalcitizens.ca/cgi-bin/oms.cgi?rm=show_category&cid=1
And here:
http://nationalcitizens.ca/cgi-bin/oms.cgi?rm=show_product&pid=2
And most definitely here!:
http://nationalcitizens.ca/doc_bin/agenda_canada.pdf
What is Harpers affiliation? Right here but it goes back to the 80's.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Citizens_Coalition
This, I think, will become a daily mantra chant of mine from here on in because people can understand a 2 dollar tax on a $100 dollar tarsands refined barrel. The Greens themselves want an immediate tax of $50 bucks a tonne and are accurately pricing their tax at $2.50 a barrel. People can quickly understand that oil sands producers are making big $$$ and can afford this without some BS 40% jacked price at the pumps claim by a misfit liar who blatantly serves self interests outside of this nation before his own.
Still shaking my head with this intel… please, there must be a dimwitted Harper party member (true Conservatives were chased out of there long ago) out there who can tell me why Harper believes gas will go up a whopping 40% because of a 2 dollar a barrel federal tax at the refinery level. How does a 2% increase… even a 3% increase on a $100 dollar barrel of oil equate to a 40% increase of gas at the pumps?
Man oh man, can Harper tell lies.
Is the price of energy what Harper is seeking a mandate on? A 2 buck a barrel federal royalty kicked back to ordinary Canadians is not as good as his do nothing, watch the environment tank and damage Canada’s international relations is a better plan, Canada is just another extention of U.S. foreign policy, is this the reason why Harper seeks his mandate?
God, can Harper tell lies.
Stumble It!
SphinxMontreal