Media Response to the Throne Speech (1)

Province announces major "green" initiatives in Throne Speech
Miro Cernetig, Vancouver Sun, 13-Feb-2007

Green changes sweeping the province
Miro Cernetig, Vancouver Sun, 14-Feb-2007

B.C. goal: cut emissions by a third
Jeff Rud and Lindsay Kines, Times Colonist, 13-Feb-2007

Many promises but few details
Editorial, Times Colonist, 13-Feb-2007

New emissions strategy will hit home
Les Leyne, Times Colonist, 13-Feb-2007

Premier's green plan will be the acid test for environmental concerns
Editorial, Vancouver Sun, 14-Feb-2007

New rules threaten proposed coal projects
Wendy Stueck, Globe and Mail, 14-Feb-2007

Campbell must come clean with cost of his global-warming plan

The B.C. government is trying to out-do California with a series of sweeping “green” announcements in its Throne Speech today that aims to fight global warming.

Following the script of California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, who rode the green wave to a landslide election in 2006, Premier Gordon Campbell is promising to set up a “climate team” to put limits on emissions from proposed coal plants and automobiles and encourage citizens to conserve.

“The science is clear,” said the government in its Throne Speech. “It leaves no room for procrastination. Global warming is real.”

The aggressive move on global warming is a surprise coming from Campbell, who had been less than enthused about the Kyoto anti-global warming accord. But he is now planning to meet with Governor Schwarzenegger in the weeks ahead and wants to form a united bloc with other states on the U.S. West Coast to set new green standards to fight climate change.

Carbon emissions have soared by about 30 per cent from 1990 to 2004 in British Columbia, one of the worst records in North America. But Premier Gordon Campbell, who has apparently decided to try and out-do The Terminator on battling climate change, is setting what may be some of the continent’s toughest targets which include:

• Reducing greenhouse gas emissions by at least 33 per cent below current levels by 2020.

• Reducing the province’s greenhouse gas emissions at “10 per cent under 1990 level by 2020.”

“It is an aggressive target and will set a new standard,” the government said. “To achieve that goal we will need to be focused and relentless in its pursuit.”

With 40 per cent of B.C.’s carbon emissions coming from transportation, mainly cars, the automobile is also a key focus in the government’s plan. Consumers will be forced to buy new cars that are cleaner and burn less fuel.

“New tailpipe emission standards for all new vehicles sold in B.C. will be phased in over the period 2009 to 2016,” the speech said. “Those standards will reduce carbon dioxide emissions by some 30 per cent for automobiles.”

In a major move, the B.C. government wants the province to be “electricity self-sufficient by 2016.”

At the same time, it is setting tough new standards for B.C. Hydro, the giant utility that has been proposing building coal fire plants and also now imports electricity into its grid that originates from some coal-fired plants in Alberta and the U.S.

The government is now telling B.C. Hydro that “all new and existing electricity produced in B.C. will be required to have net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2016.”

That appears to mean a tougher approach to two proposed coal-fired generation stations B.C. Hydro has been proposing, the first such coal-fired generation stations in the province. The Liberal government says B.C. “will become the first jurisdiction in North America, if not the world, to require 100 per cent carbon sequestration for any coal-fired project.”

In layman’s terms, that means pumping the greenhouse gases into the ground, a still experimental technology that may make the coal-fired plant impossible to build.

The energy sector, now booming in B.C., will also be forced to clean up its act.

“Under the new energy plan [which will be unveiled in the weeks ahead], British Columbia will reduce greenhouse gas emissions from the oil and gas industry to 2000 levels by 2016,” said the government. “That will include a requirement for zero flaring at producing wells and production facilities.”

Landfills are also going to be told to clean up. The government says it will bring in a law that will phase in technology to capture the methane gas coming from dumps, representing about nine per cent of B.C.’s greenhouse gas emissions.

Individuals are also going to be empowered in fighting climate change, the B.C. government promises. It is planning to:

• Offer assistance to homeowners to carry out “energy audits”, to find out how they can save energy.

• Offer incentives to retrofit old homes, to make them more energy efficient.

• Extend a $2,000 sales tax exemption to anyone who buys a hybrid vehicle.

“Moving to a hybrid car from a four-wheel-drive SUV can cut personal transportation emissions by up to 70 per cent overnight,” the government says. “Beginning this month, all new cars leased or purchased by the provincial government will be hybrid vehicles.”

© Vancouver Sun 2007

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CREDIT: Canadian Press
British Columbia Lt.-Gov. Iona Campagnolo shakes hands
with Premier Gordon Campbell prior to the Speech from
the Throne at the B.C. Legislature in Victoria Tuesday.

VICTORIA -- The B.C. government is trying to out-green California with a sweeping strategy unveiled Tuesday to fight global warming by cutting back on greenhouse gas emissions from everything from cars and industry to the daily energy consumption of ordinary people.

Following the script of California Gov. Arnold Schwarz- enegger, who rode the green wave to a landslide election in 2006, Premier Gordon Campbell is promising to head a "climate action team" that will demand two proposed coal-fired plants pump 100 per cent of their emissions into the ground.

It will also adopt California's automobile emission standards starting in 2009 and encourage citizens to conserve through personal "energy audits."

"The science is clear," said the government in the throne speech.

"It leaves no room for procrastination. Global warming is real."

After seeing greenhouse gases soar in the province by 35 per cent since 1994, one of the worst records in Canada, the Liberal government is promising to:

- Reduce the province's greenhouse gas emissions by at least 33 per cent below current levels by 2020. That would bring the province's emissions to 10 per cent under 1990 levels by 2020.

- Work with the federal government and the states of California, Oregon, Alaska and Washington "to develop a sensible, efficient system for registering, trading and purchasing carbon offsets and carbon credits."

- Make the B.C. government the first "carbon-neutral" administration in North America by 2010 through such measures as making all government vehicles hybrid.

The full details of the initiative will come with the Feb. 20 budget and the government's energy and climate change plans, due to be released in the following weeks.

The sudden and aggressive move on global warming is a surprise coming from Campbell, who had been less than enthused about the Kyoto accord to fight global warming.

The Liberal government's five-year-old previous climate plan set no specific greenhouse gas reduction targets, angering environmentalists.

But the premier said Tuesday he has been moved to action by both the emerging science and his own personal experiences with climate change, an allusion to his recent trip to China, where he found greenhouse gas emissions shrouding the cities he visited.

"I think 2006 is a time where frankly the world woke up to the challenges that are created by climate change," said Campbell after the speech from the throne.

But 2006 was also the year many politicians woke up to the reality that fighting climate change is popular with Canadian voters.

The B.C. premier's advisers, eager to outflank the New Democratic Party on the key issue, began drafting the throne speech's climate change policy in recent weeks.

They consulted with Schwarzenegger's advisers, flying in Terry Tamminen, the environmental consultant and architect of California's plan, for a meeting with Campbell.

The Liberal government's advisers made no secret Tuesday they were hoping British Columbians would now see Campbell in the same light as the Hollywood-star-turned-governor, best known for his role as the Terminator. Shortly after the throne speech, Campbell's staff e-mailed reporters a glowing statement by Schwarzenegger.

"I am pleased that British Columbia has joined the fight against climate change," Schwarzenegger said in a statement. "I look forward to meeting with Premier Campbell and working with British Columbia on this critical issue."

Environmentalists also praised the government.

"We congratulate the province for recognizing the urgency of the science and also that battling global warming can be an economic opportunity," said Sierra Club spokeswoman Lisa Matthaus, who added the government's targets must be put into law, "as California has done."

New Democratic Party leader Carole James denied the Liberal government had outflanked her party on the issue.

James noted the NDP had first called for targets and that the Liberals have repeatedly not delivered on high-minded throne speech promises.

"The question now for British Columbians is, can they trust Gordon Campbell to deliver?" she said in a statement. "Every year, Gordon Campbell picks a new priority for his throne speech and every year he fails to deliver."

Even the province's key business lobby wondered how the government could meet its targets.

"It's not clear how we're going to get greenhouse gas emissions down dramatically within a short term," said Jock Finlayson, a spokesman for the Business Council of B.C. "I think there is a lot of scrambling going on amongst governments, of which B.C. is one."

He said, "there's some uncertainty in how this will come together," adding: "This really hasn't been developed through any collaborative process with industry at this point."

Campbell offered no dollar figures on what the climate-change initiative might cost, though he said much of it is already funded and that revenues could be created down the road as B.C. develops leading anti-greenhouse-emissions technology.

But there is no denying that Campbell is setting what may be some of the continent's toughest anti-greenhouse gas measures.

Noting that 40 per cent of B.C.'s greenhouse gas emissions are transportation-related, Campbell will effectively piggyback on California's plans to crack down on the automobile industry and change consumer buying habits.

"New tailpipe emission standards for all new vehicles sold in B.C. will be phased in over the period 2009 to 2016," the speech says.

"Those standards will reduce carbon dioxide emissions by some 30 per cent for automobiles."

The B.C. government wants the province to be "electricity self-sufficient by 2016."

At the same time, it is setting tough new standards for BC Hydro, the giant utility that has proposed building coal-fired generation plants and also now imports electricity into its grid that originates from some coal-fired plants in Alberta and the U.S.

The government is now telling BC Hydro that "all new and existing electricity produced in B.C. will be required to have net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2016."

That casts doubt on the future of the proposed coal-fired generation stations, which would be the first such stations in the province.

The Liberal government says B.C. "will become the first jurisdiction in North America, if not the world, to require 100-per-cent carbon sequestration for any coal-fired project."

mcernetig@png.canwest.com

FROM THE THRONE SPEECH

How the B.C. government will fight global warming.

- Reduce the province's total greenhouse gas emissions by at least 33 per cent below current levels by 2020. That would bring the province's emissions to 10 per cent under 1990 levels by that year.

- Build a "sensible, efficient system for registering, trading and purchasing carbon offsets and carbon credits" in cooperation with the federal government and the states of California, Oregon, Alaska and Washington.

- Order landfills to phase in technology to capture the methane gas coming from dumps, representing about nine per cent of B.C.'s greenhouse gas emissions.

- Individuals will get help to carry out "energy audits," to find out how they can save energy.

- The government will help individuals retrofit old homes to make them more energy efficient.

- The government will extend a $2,000 sales tax exemption to anyone who buys a hybrid vehicle. "Moving to a hybrid car from a four-wheel-drive SUV can cut personal transportation emissions by up to 70 per cent overnight," the government says. "Beginning this month, all new cars leased or purchased by the provincial government will be hybrid vehicles."

© The Vancouver Sun 2007

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Premier Gordon Campbell plans to out-muscle the Terminator in the fight against global warming by setting tough new targets to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 2020.

In a speech from the throne yesterday that drew immediate praise from California’s movie star governor, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Campbell’s government portrayed climate change as the most dire threat facing the province.

“The science is clear,” the speech said. “It leaves no room for procrastination. Global warming is real. … If we fail to act aggressively and shoulder our responsibility, we know what our children can expect — shrinking glaciers and snow packs, drying lakes and streams, and changes in the ocean’s chemistry.”

Lt.-Gov. Iona Campagnolo, who read the speech laying out the agenda for the legislative session ahead, said B.C.’s greenhouse gas emissions are now 35 per cent higher than in 1990 and growing faster than most of its neighbours.

The government promised to reverse that trend by setting standards to reduce emissions by at least 33 per cent by 2020. The target, if achieved, will place B.C.’s emissions 10 per cent below 1990 levels — and 10 per cent ahead of California, which has led the way on global warming strategies, but only promised to match 1990 levels by 2020.

B.C.’s goal includes striking a climate action team that will set interim targets for different sectors of the province for 2012 and 2016.

“One of the critical components of this is to recognize that government’s not going to be able to do this by ourselves,” Campbell said after the speech. “Citizens are going to have to be a part of this. We’re going to ask people to be much more conscious about their personal impacts on the environment.”

One crucial element of the strategy involves reducing automobile emissions, which account for 40 per cent of the province’s total greenhouse gases. New tailpipe emission standards for all new vehicles will be phased in from 2009 to 2016 to cut car emissions by 30 per cent.

B.C. also will require that all electricity produced in the province has net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2016.

The speech appeared to bode ill for two coal-fired electricity projects in the province. Effective immediately, B.C. will require 100 per cent carbon sequestration for any coal-fired project, which essentially means capturing carbon emissions and storing them underground.

No greenhouse gas emissions will be permitted for coal-fired electricity projects anywhere in B.C. Asked what that means for the two proposed projects, Campbell said one is now considering using biomass fuel instead of coal, while the other is examining the potential for sequestration.

Oil and gas companies will also face tough new standards requiring them to reduce gas emissions to 2000 levels by 2016, and to stop flaring at producing wells. The government itself aims to be carbon neutral by 2010, which means it will drastically cut its own emissions and offset those that are left by, for instance, planting more trees, which absorb carbon dioxide.

Schwarzenegger’s office issued a statement following the speech saying he was pleased to see B.C. joining the fight against climate change. Campbell has invited Schwarzenegger and the governors of Alaska, Washington, and Oregon to visit Vancouver this spring to forge a partnership against global warming. Among other things, the premier hopes to establish common environmental standards for all ports along the coast.

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Back in 2005 the Liberals’ throne speech offered up the Five Great Goals for a Golden Decade, which promised that B.C. would have the healthiest, best-educated population, lead Canada in job creation and support for those who needed help and lead the world in environmental management.

This year’s throne speech gave a nod to the golden goals and tacked on something the called the Pacific Leadership Agenda. The new priorities are global warming, urban sprawl, partnerships with First Nations, homelessness and housing affordability, opening up the Pacific Gateway, economic competitiveness and “quality, choice and accountability” in health and education.

It all sounds great. But having too many priorities is effectively the same as having none.

Most of the immediate reaction to yesterday’s throne speech centred on the government’s commitment to action on climate change. After failing to mention the issue in the last six throne speeches, the government was hammering on the alarm bells. “If we fail to act aggressively and shoulder our responsibility, we know what our children can expect — shrinking glaciers and snow packs, drying lakes and streams, and changes in the ocean’s chemistry,” the speech warned.

The climate-change measures hit most of the right notes. The government acknowledged greenhouse gas emissions are growing rapidly and set a target of reducing them by one-third by 2020. Interim targets for 2012 and 2016 will be set by a new Climate Action Team.

The test, as the speech acknowledged, will be in what the government actually does now to demonstrate that it is serious about meeting those ambitious targets.

There were some positive indications. Two coal-power plants planned for the Interior were effectively killed by a commitment not to allow any carbon dioxide emissions from new coal generation. The oil and gas industry, a major greenhouse gas producer, will have to reduce emissions to 2000 levels by 2016.

But there’s also much that is vague — calls for meetings with U.S. governors and support for a so-far undefined system of carbon-credit trading, promises of tougher emission standards for cars in 2009, a new green building code and tax changes to “encourage responsible actions and individual choices.”

The climate-change focus tended to leave everything else in the throne speech a little blurry.

The government called homelessness in B.C. “a plague,” but offered no serious plan for solving the problem, or the related social chaos caused by inadequate support for people with addictions and mental illness.

It warned about health-care cost pressures, but had little concrete to offer beyond some useful but small system improvements, like a new electronic patient record system.

Ominously, the speech seemed to signal the government has made up its mind on health-care change even before the conversation on health has really begun. It promised “fundamental health reforms that increase individual choice and maximize the supply of health services within the budgets available.”

Mandatory retirement will be ended, probably a good idea although one that risks unintended consequences in workplaces across the province, including tougher treatment for employees nearing the ends of their careers.

School user fees for music, sports academies and other programs will be restored, opening the door wider to two-tier education within the public system.

The most obvious gap in the speech was the lack of measures to deal with the continuing crisis in the forest industry and the coming crash in communities when the pine beetle wood has been logged and timber supplies are slashed.

Throne speeches become increasingly difficult for governments as they move through their original agendas.

This one — apart from the welcome focus on climate change — reads much like a grab bag of partially developed ideas.

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British Columbia crashed the climate change party in a big way Tuesday, elbowing past the rest of Canada and even California in the race to catch up to voters.

If setting ambitious targets and announcing plans to bring all the power of government to bear on a specific issue counts as progress, then the B.C. Liberals took a progressive leap forward in the throne speech. Never has so much of the government’s outline of its agenda been devoted to one issue. Fourteen pages of the 41-page speech dwell on climate change and all the problems that flow from it.

You need a pretty compelling reason for such a single-minded focus, and the B.C. Liberals came up with a doozy. Climate change is described as a threat to “life on Earth as we know it.”

That kind of apocalyptic language is a little startling coming from a tiny jurisdiction within a middling country that rarely gets worked up about anything. It was only two years ago that the Liberals came up with a throne speech that revolved around the theme of “eating your vegetables.”

The dramatic switch from Good Housekeeping nutrition tips to a sci-fi doomsday showdown will certainly catch people’s attention, if nothing else.

“If we fail to act aggressively and shoulder our responsibility, we know what our children can expect — shrinking glaciers and snow packs, drying lakes and streams, and changes in the ocean’s chemistry,” the government warned. “Our wildlife, plant life and ocean life will be hurt in ways we cannot know and dare not imagine.”

Although the Liberals are wholeheartedly buying into climate change and its dire consequences, they are also keen to make it appear that they’ve been on top of the problem for years, which is a bit of a stretch.

Premier Gordon Campbell’s speech noted climate change was part of the party’s re-election platform (a rather small and innocuous part) and is “central” to one of the great goals he came up with in a previous Throne Speech. Climate change was also an important performance objective in the last two strategic plans, he maintained.

The Liberals may have made periodic noises about climate change in the past, but there’s no question that it’s now their defining preoccupation. And there’s no question that people’s abrupt realization this winter that “global warming is real” — as the speech notes — is what drove the Liberals to vastly elevate its priority.

But just because the motivations are political doesn’t detract from the ambitious goal of reworking major parts of modern life so that British Columbia, as a four-million person entity, comes out as carbon neutral at the end of the day.

The targets will bring home to people the enormity of what was outlined in yesterday’s speech.

The long-term goal is to reduce B.C.’s greenhouse gas emissions to at least 33 per cent below current levels by 2020.

Put differently, that means reducing emissions to a volume 10 per cent below 1990 levels by that year. That’s even lower than California’s target, which was stringent enough last year to garner world attention. There are also longer-term targets in mind for 2050 and shorter-term targets coming for 2012 and 2016.

Those are just abstract concepts at this point, but they translate into revolutionary changes in the performance required from vehicles. There will be zero tolerance for emissions for all electricity production. The two coal plants that won preliminary approval earlier are probably dead in their tracks, given that they have to apply new emission technology that’s barely been invented. No more beehive burners, new methane capture gadgets at landfills and an assortment of other measures add up to a whole new ball game when it comes to emissions in B.C.

B.C. got a head start on climate change through two geographic flukes. It’s covered in forests, which count as carbon sinks and offset greenhouse gases. And hydroelectric power was the default generation choice for years, relatively clean and renewable compared to the options other jurisdictions had to pursue.

But we blew the lead as emissions rose through the 1990s and up to today.

Now it’s time to play catch up, and the game won’t be voluntary any more.

It will take the rest of the year before we see details of the mandatory regime the Liberals are setting up.

That’s when the feel-good notion of a government doing something about climate change will start clashing with two realizations.

It’s not them, it’s you who has to do something. And shortly, you won’t have any choice.

lleyne@tc.canwest.com

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Editorial
Vancouver Sun
February 14, 2007

As politicians everywhere learn to talk the green talk, Premier Gordon Campbell has decided to walk the walk.

The throne speech opening the legislature marks a radical change in direction for British Columbia aimed at seriously tackling global warming.

If implemented as promised, Campbell's ambitious green plan will have dramatic effects on the lives of British Columbians and put our province at the forefront of the battle against climate change.

The plan starts with the absolute acceptance of the predictive science that links greenhouse gas emissions to global warming. It follows with the conclusion that calls for voluntary reductions have not worked and that "the more timid our response is, the harsher the consequences will be."

These are strong words that set the stage for strong measures.

The plan lays out reduction targets that, while not as unrealistic as those demanded in the Kyoto Accord, are still ambitious. The goal of a 33-per- cent reduction of greenhouse gas emissions by 2020 is larger than the cut mandated by the federal government's recent legislation and, even more remarkably, greater than the nation-leading goals set by California.

More importantly, the plan launches a raft of measures that both could allow those targets to be reached and give us a sense of how great the costs might be.

Campbell's plan is akin to the kind of campaign launched at home during the Second World War, when Canadians were told to make sacrifices at home to defeat our common enemy.

The enemy in this case is global warming, which we are told "is literally threatening life on earth as we know it."

We will be asked to pay more to get around, through unspecified electronic tolls, which are to go along with increased density and new regional transit in the Lower Mainland, the Fraser Valley, the Capital region and the Okanagan.

The plan calls for British Columbians to follow California's lead with new tailpipe emission standards for carbon dioxide vehicles and a low-carbon fuel standard, both of which will clearly only be possible if Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger is able to achieve his goals for that populous state.

The new energy plan requiring that all new and existing electricity generation be net zero greenhouse emissions by 2016 will give wind and other alternative sources a boost, but it will also add costs to consumers.

The coal-fired electricity plants now on the drawing board are effectively dead because of the requirement that such plants have zero carbon emissions.

The plan also calls for changes in the way we live. It wants us as consumers to make "personal choices that are environmentally responsible."

It wants us to live in smaller houses that are closer together, to use more transit, to walk and to ride bicycles.

Campbell has accepted the extraordinary challenge presented by climate change and given us a plan to deal with it. In many ways, his green plan will be an acid test for all the public opinion polls showing that the environment is the number one concern of Canadians.

Serious questions remain about whether an attack of this magnitude on global warming can be launched and won without grievously wounding our economy in the process.

Those questions can only be answered as the all-important details emerge, along with the costs and benefits of the lifestyle changes we will be asked to make.

© The Vancouver Sun 2007

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VANCOUVER — Tough new regulations for coal-fired electricity plants have cast a pall of doubt over two proposed coal projects in the province, with one proponent saying yesterday he is "extremely disappointed" by the bold provisions.

But the requirements are likely to be welcomed by energy experts who have argued the coal sector needs a push to embrace cleaner, but more expensive, technology.

David Slater, president and chief executive officer of Vancouver-based coal miner Hillsborough Resources Ltd., which is pursuing a coal-fired project with U.S. energy company AES Corp., said his company had not yet decided what its response would be to the new requirements, which specify that any coal-fired electricity project would require 100-per-cent carbon sequestration in which greenhouse gases are injected back into the earth.

But given that such technology is still in the development stage, it's hard to see how proponents would plan, implement and finance carbon-capture systems by 2016, the deadline set in yesterday's Throne Speech for net-zero greenhouse-gas emissions from the province's electricity.

Crown-owned B.C. Hydro awarded two contracts for coal-fired plants -- which would have been the first in the province -- in its call for power last year.

The plants became a hot topic, with opponents slamming them as old-fashioned, dirty facilities that would boost greenhouse-gas emissions.

Along with the 184-megawatt facility proposed by Hillsborough and AES near Tumbler Ridge, B.C. Hydro awarded a contract to a 56-megawatt coal and biomass project by Vancouver-based Compliance Energy Corp. Representatives from Compliance were not immediately available.

"The emissions regulations in today's Throne Speech are obviously going to have a significant impact on those [two coal-fired] plants," said Elisha Moreno, a spokeswoman for B.C. Hydro. "The proponents are going to have to make a decision about the future of their projects.

"That's not something we can address, they're going to have to let us know what they're going to do."

There are numerous demonstration coal projects under way worldwide that feature carbon sequestration or similar technologies.

In Canada, provincial utility SaskPower is in the design phase of a near zero-emission coal plant that would capture and sell carbon to aid in oil and gas extraction, said Bob Stobbs, executive director for the Canadian Clean Power Coalition, a group of coal suppliers and utilities. A construction decision on that plant, which would be much bigger than the proposed B.C. facilities, is expected this year, Mr. Stobbs said.

It's not clear whether B.C.'s stand on coal-fired energy will influence other provinces such as Alberta, Saskatchewan and Nova Scotia, which rely on coal for a significant amount of their electricity supply, Mr. Stobbs said.

"I would suspect the impact on Alberta, Saskatchewan and Nova Scotia would be more influenced by ongoing discussions with Ottawa," than what B.C. is doing, he said.

In a report last year, the International Energy Agency said coal use is climbing worldwide, with no signs that the trend will reverse.

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Premier Gordon Campbell's apparent conversion to the cause of human-induced climate change shows once again how the political fault lines in North America tend to flow north-south rather than east-west.

In Alberta, the oil industry is viewed as a vital source of jobs and government revenue, as it is in U.S. Rocky Mountain states like Wyoming and New Mexico. But here on the West Coast, hotbed of eco-activism, the industry is increasingly cast as a villain -- even though Victoria now relies heavily on it for its funding. And U.S. coastal states like California and Oregon continue to fall over themselves trying to look green.

It is no wonder, therefore, that Premier Gordon Campbell's much-hyped plan to cut greenhouse-gas emissions by one-third from current levels by 2020 is based on what is happening directly south of the border. Indeed, Campbell admitted the scheme would be similar to one announced recently by California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger.

As outlined yesterday by Lt.-Gov. Iona Campagnolo in the throne speech, Victoria says it plans to do everything from setting new auto tailpipe standards to working with select U.S. states to come up with a carbon-credit trading system.

But how much will we have to pay in taxes for all these fine-sounding programs? And what energy use will we have to forego?

Or is this simply a feel-good scheme, seizing on a hot issue for short-term political gain and a possible photo-op with the Terminator?

Either way, Campbell must waste no time in coming clean with the nitty gritty of his plan.

That's so we know how much it will cost us where it really counts -- in the pocketbook.

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