Business Leaders Pressuring BC Premier Campbell Against Taking Action On Climate - Too Expensive . .

[hatrack]

VICTORIA -- B.C. Premier Gordon Campbell has been confronted privately by top business leaders who are increasingly worried that his climate-change agenda - one which dubs carbon as "the new tobacco" - is at odds with the province's looming economic challenges.

A string of CEOs has sought an audience with the Premier since December to deliver the same message: The economy that B.C. enjoyed when Mr. Campbell mapped out his climate action plan in February of 2007 has been shattered by the soaring Canadian dollar and the tanking U.S. economy. "Our biggest trading partner is going down the tubes and the government seems reluctant to hear that message," said one executive, who asked not to be named. "At a minimum, they need to not be making it worse."

When Mr. Campbell first announced his plans to cut at least 1/3 of the provinces greenhouse-gas emissions by 2020, the Canadian dollar was floating about 15 cents below the U.S. dollar. By November, when the loonie soared to $1.09 (U.S.), export-dependent industries in B.C. expected the government to retool its green agenda.

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Representatives of export-dependent industries such as mining, oil and gas, and forestry are still in negotiations with the Premier's climate-change secretariat about their share of the carbon-cutting burden. As a result of those ongoing talks, many are reluctant to speak on the record about their concerns. Said another senior executive: "The economy is tailing off faster than anyone expected, and there is not enough focus in that government - at the cabinet level or in the Premier's office - that the economy is an important thing."

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http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/LAC.20080204.BCECONOMY04//TPStory/Environment

[pscot]

1. This is where the whip comes down

How many politicians will be able to take the heat, when they have business leaders and voters clamoring for relief. Economic consequences are immediate and painful. Global warming is "just a scientific theory", with vague, long-term consequences, that might not even happen. We may get serious when Miami is under water.