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BC lowers threshold for greenhouse gas reporting

Hundreds more facilities in British Columbia will have to start reporting their greenhouse gas emissions under a new regulation beginning Jan. 1.

“I can tell you the B.C. government intends to introduce a reporting regulation which will require industry starting at 10,000 tonnes per year of emissions to track and report and submit their emissions on an annual basis to the province of British Columbia,” said B.C. Environment Minister Barry Penner.

Penner said industrial emitters now have to start reporting at 100,000 tonnes per year of greenhouse gas emissions under federal regulations, a rate ten times as high as what B.C. is putting in place.

Under the cap and trade system proposed through the Western Climate Initiative facilities would start being affected at 25,000 tonnes per year, he said.

“We think it makes sense to start measuring before people hit that threshold so you get a sense if the industry's moving towards it,” Penner said. “And it gives us more data.”

B.C. is the first province to require reporting at the 10,000 tonne threshold, according to information provided by Penner. "Right now it's the lowest in Canada," he said.

Some 200 facilities are expected to be affected.

Andrew MacLeod is The Tyee’s Legislative Bureau Chief in Victoria. Reach him here.

2  Comments:

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  • morechatter

    2 years ago

    Bad Canada

    BC can tax the h.ll out of carbon and Penner can give his spiel about the carbon reduction but when its all said and done Canada reputation is BAD. And so is the word of the Liberals and its Ministers. And it is particularly ironic that Vancouver's mayor is off marketing Vancouver as an environmental heaven. A hard sell you bet especially with the oil sands operations going full steam ahead. Experts say it destroying the planet and Harper gives it thumbs up as Suncor doubles up on its oil sands operations.

    Here is a good one. What do you get for a prize for reducing carbon emissions from BC Power Smart? Tickets to the biggest polluter in the history of man kind, the Olympics as over 500,000 tonnes of waste is predicated for air travel alone.

  • morechatter

    2 years ago

    Bad Canada

    BC can tax the h.ll out of carbon and Penner can give his spiel about the carbon reduction but when its all said and done Canada reputation is BAD. And so is the word of the Liberals and its Ministers. And it is particularly ironic that Vancouver's mayor is off marketing Vancouver as an environmental heaven. A hard sell you bet especially with the oil sands operations going full steam ahead. Experts say it destroying the planet and Harper gives it thumbs up as Suncor doubles up on its oil sands operations.

    Here is a good one. What do you get for a prize for reducing carbon emissions from BC Power Smart? Tickets to the biggest polluter in the history of man kind, the Olympics as over 500,000 tonnes of waste is predicated for air travel alone.

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    Off the Throne

    About The Hook

    The British Columbia legislature resumes sitting this week, but not before Premier Christy Clark outlined her spring agenda in an appearance on the Vancouver radio station where she used to work in what was pitched as a replacement for the throne speech. That agenda amounted to staying the course: focus on the economy, no money for teachers or anything else, and no higher taxes.

    This from a premier who won the leadership of her party on a "change" platform. Perhaps appropriate then that the government didn't bother with a more formal speech from the throne at a time when polls suggest an increasing number of people are wondering if the premier's going to, as they say, piss or get off the pot.

    -- Andrew MacLeod