BC's GHG emissions go down
It's nice to finally see one of the leftie sites finally report that BC's greenhouse gas emissions fell in 2005, contrary to the doom-and-gloom criticism of the anti-government folks around the blogosphere.The Tyee is looking at the why's and how's and attributes the drop to reduced industrial emissions, manufacturing emissions, and, specifically, the paper/pulp industry.
Personally, I think a lot of it has to do with targeted regulation and environmental education. The Tri City News reports that BC is taregting older diesel trucks for emission improvements. These 1989-1993 model trucks pollute 60 times more than their modern counterparts. Going after these trucks makes perfect sense and will pay environmental dividends down the road. Now we need to do the same with RVs, buses, and construction equipment.
The GHG goals set out by Premier Campbell won't be reached through some magic bullet, and certainly won't be hit by allowing the region to become completely gridlocked with traffic. We need to continue to look at what the heaviest polluters are doing, and how we can modernize their operations.
posted by Jordan Bateman @ 8:53 AM
2 Comments:
"..trucks pollute 60 times ..."
It is important to realize that this refers to particulate pollution and not GHG emissions. In fact the new trucks emit slightly more GHGs because the pollution controls have a slight decrease in fuel efficiency.
So it is very good news for human health but doesn't really help GHG emissions.
Part of the reason for the reduction in pollution was the introduction of low sulfur fuel. So, this has already had an effect on RVs, Buses and construction equipment.
"...completely gridlocked with traffic..."
Absolutely, which is why we should NOT be expanding freeways. All the evidence and experiences from across North America indicates that freeways expansion does nothing to solve congestion and gridlock problems.
"...heaviest polluters ..."
The largest source of GHG emissions in the Lower Mainland is transportation. We are not going reach Premier Campbell's targets unless we address this area. And we are certainly not going to meet the targets by putting more vehicles on the road.
We are addressing that area, Rob! More efficient vehicles, stopping cars from idling, and increasing the availability of transit and bike routes across the river that slices this region in half.
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