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No wonder the gurus of carbon reduction such as Mark Jaccard are backing away from $50 or even $250 carbon taxes as a solution to climate change. An “effective” carbon tax would be an economy killer.

Alberta’s Trans Mountain pipeline and Teck Frontier oilsands: Whether these projects have economic and financial merit is now mostly irrelevant.

The estimated cost of the pipeline — nationalized last year by the federal government — has soared from $7.4 billion to $12.6 billion. Trans Mountain CEO Ian Anderson said, “The cost increase has really come about through two primary drivers, one being the starting and stopping of construction, the cost of delays, the carrying cost, the additional regulatory and legal processes.”

In other words, the major reason for the 70 per cent cost increase has been green opposition to the expansion based on the claim — as per the Council of Canadians — that it would add 13 to 15 megatonnes of carbon emissions to the atmosphere, “which would be like adding almost 3.8 million cars on the road.”

The other Alberta albatross hanging around the neck of the federal government, the $20-billion Teck Frontier oilsands mine, will produce 4.1 million tonnes of carbon per year.

In green economics, dollars and sense are off the table. It’s all about the carbon. At 4.1 million tonnes a year, the output would not prevent Alberta from meeting its self-imposed annual 100-million-tonne carbon emissions target. But the added emissions could prevent Ottawa from meeting its so-called net zero carbon emission targets. To make its case, Teck Frontier has concocted a net-zero-emissions plan. Whether the mine would be profitable or not is rarely part of the discussion.