Environment committee  We can do it more quickly by starting the incentives today. If we were to give technology credits, as opposed to buying international credits, for instance, the domestic technology credits would kick-start today our movement toward clean coal and CO2 sequestration. I like to look at the thing as short-term, medium-term, and long-term, but the signals have to be given today, so we can be ready for those long-term goals we're after.

Environment committee  Everybody is selling their publications.

Environment committee  Very quickly, I'll go back to the words I used earlier: a safety valve in terms of international credits, to try to cushion Canada against heavy price increases, and in instances such as I mentioned before, where we had to go international, because domestically we didn't have a policy regime in place.

Environment committee  I don't disagree with the motives behind the bill, so I'm not trying to come at it, but for me, in terms of running our business operations, I see no way in which you are trying to help me meet those obligations. I see the obligations with regard to the Kyoto period as being very onerous for our company.

Environment committee  I was trying to be specific here, Mr. Cullen. I was trying to say what it meant in terms of the thermal electricity sector, and I was not trying to make a comment in terms of the overall Canadian economy.

Environment committee  It would, and you're very right to point to that. The point I made earlier was that it would take two years to put in place the rules for a trading system. It would take at least three years after that for the offset projects and others to be in place in terms of generating the credits for a trading system to then work.

Environment committee  I think that's a very important question, because I think there is the issue of Canada's credibility internationally as well as Canada's credibility domestically in connection with this. One of the points I would make is that in terms of being a corporate executive, I'm very concerned with attempting to spend a lot of money right now--as I was trying to say in my presentation--on credits purchase, not on long-term technology investment, and then having to turn around, say in 2010, and change the system completely.

Environment committee  We are very close to having the clean coal and sequestration technology available.

Environment committee  That means 18 months. Now, understand that there would be the regulatory and other things. So I don't meant that in 18 months we would be producing power. I mean that in 18 months we would have a project to go forward for regulatory approval, which would be another two years probably.

Environment committee  The product in Chile lowered global emissions. That's the concept that I think we have to deal with, because CO2 is a global problem, not just domestic.

Environment committee  Well, we have proposals in to the Government of Canada today, and my estimate is that the federal, provincial, and other cooperation needed would take about a year and a half to two years.

Environment committee  This is a very good point. It's really central to what we're doing. I think all of us said we can't wait; I know Mark was very explicit on this. We need to move quickly on it. My investors are looking at a new $1.8 billion power plant for Alberta. We want to know what the conditions are going to be for the 40-year life of that pipeline.

Environment committee  Yes, as a company we've been a strong supporter of emissions trading for a long time as the least cost means of addressing that regulatory need. So in principle we're in agreement. We are totally opposed to things like Russian hot air, which is not emissions trading but a transfer of AAUs or credits between Russia and Canada, or Russia and some other country.

Environment committee  I would say no.

Environment committee  No. The electrical utilities would be delivering one-third of the LFE totals. My apologies if I wasn't clear, but the LFE targets when rolled together--oil and gas, electricity, and industry--would total about 15% of the total Canadian target of 270 megatonnes. I was just trying to say there was a huge gap between what industry was being asked to do here and the overall Canadian target.