ACCA somewhat refocused

This is not new news, but I was anxious to hear more details on this, which did not materialize, before I publish anything because the details are sketchy. Well the Accelerated CCA was refocused in Mr. Flaherty’s budget for bitumen producers, to allow only green projects within bitumen producers to qualify for this incentive. I did not see any details in the budget as to what would be the criteria for being a “green” project for this incentive. In addition, the program may still apply for upgraders and refineries, but once again the details were sketchy on this. If someone has some insight here, please share it.

From an environmental perspective, the budget obviously boasted the existing recycled Liberal programs, and introduced the sin tax on gas-guzzlers and incentives for fuel-efficient cars. I was disappointed in the last-minute amendment to include fellow gas-guzzler Impala E85 and Monte Carlo E85 to the list of eligible cars for this incentive. The argument that this move will encourage E85 to be widely available in Canada does seem to be more political then factual to me.

I am interested in finding out how the revised Clean Air Act (if you can still call it by its original name) will play with the Federal Conservatives. I am anxious to see if this will bring strong Conservative leadership on the issue of clean air, or will if it trigger and election. Stay tuned.

If you need some light reading material to fall asleep, here is a link to the budget itself.