The Oil Drum

Canada's Conservative Party government is working "diligently" to calculate the economic impact of any new rules to curb greenhouse-gas emissions from the nation's industrial emitters such as energy and automobile companies, Finance Minister Jim Flaherty said.

Here are the top ten Canadian emitters of greenhouse gases for 2005 (Environment Canada data, in tonnes CO2 equivalent):

1. Nanticoke Generating Station (Ont Power)- 17,639,437
2. Sundance Generating Plant (Transalta) - 16,181,006
3. Mildred Lake and Aurora North plant sites (Syncrude) - 10,357,330
4. Genesee Generating Station (EPCOR) - 8,949,492
5. Lambton Generating Station (Ont Power) - 8,738,072
6. Suncor Ft. McMurray - 7,694,457
7. Boundary Dam Power Station (Sask Power) - 6,751,088
8. Sheerness Generating Station (Alta Power) - 6,552,557
9. Keephills Generating Plant (Transalta) - 6,143,808
10. Battle River Generating Station (Alta Power) - 5,494,404

Though there does seem to be a pattern here, the Finance Minister is guilty of blowing a little smoke himself when he links the energy and automotive sectors. As any newspaper-reading Canadian knows, the North American auto industry is going through some tough times. They don't need any additional financial burdens at the moment and I, for one, have considerable sympathy for their ill-health. It's partly self inflicted, no doubt, but so are a lot of health problems. The top auto company in the Canadian data is GM's Oshawa assembly plant, at a mere 169,877 tonnes CO2e and with somewhere over 200 facilities ahead of it on a ranked list. Not something you'd single out for a sound bite unless you were looking for sympathy.