Stop billion dollar giveaways to oil and gas

CanadaViews.ca:

NDP shows oil and gas subsidies top $2.5 billion per year, divert funds from renewables

With UN climate change talks beginning in Cancun next week, New Democrat Leader Jack Layton said the Conservative government needs to finally get serious about fighting climate change. To start, the government can honour their G20 promise to stop subsidizing profitable oil and gas companies.

Layton released new research from the NDP today, which pegs oil and gas subsidies at over $2.5 billion a year.

“Canada is walking into the Cancun climate change meetings empty-handed, now that unelected Conservative senators have killed the NDP’s climate change bill,” said Layton. “By ending federal subsidies to oil and gas industries, we can save Canadians $2.5 billion per year and show the world that we’re serious about developing a clean energy economy.”

While Canada promised to eliminate these inefficient fossil fuel subsidies at the 2009 Pittsburgh G20 meeting, the government has refused to honour this commitment. While the Harper Conservatives insist their climate change plan will mirror the American plan, the Obama administration has already moved on eliminating tax breaks to the oil industry, worth $36 billion.

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