Canada's proposed clean fuel standard could actually have more of an impact on carbon emissions than a carbon price will

By Maura Forrest, National Post.

Canada’s environment commissioner Julie Gelfand delivered a stern warning to the federal government this week, declaring that to deal with climate change Ottawa needs to move “from a seemingly endless planning mode into an action mode.”

That will mean more than just putting a price on carbon — to date the only element in the Liberals’ pan-Canadian climate change framework that’s received much attention. The government’s plan also includes a suite of lesser-known policies, including a proposed clean fuel standard that some say amounts to a second carbon tax.

The new standard, likely unknown to most Canadians, could actually have more of an impact than a carbon price in cutting Canada’s carbon emissions to 30 per cent below 2005 levels by 2030, according to some experts.