Grudging approval for Gordon Campbell

Grrrr. I don't like it when politicians I'm used to disliking do things that I'm forced to praise. So it is with B.C.'s Premier Gordon Campbell, who just issued a Throne Speech that sets targets to have B.C.'s greenhouse gas emissions reduced to 10% below 1990 levels by 2020. These seem like somewhat ambitious targets - a 1/3 cut from current levels - and I'm not sure it wouldn't have made more sense to set 2025 or 2030 as the target, but you've got to give the man credit for ambition and seriousness. (Trying to meet those targets in the next 5 years is obviously unacheivable.) I'm particularly happy to see that he's effectively killed the new coal plants proposed, insanely, by B.C. Hydro and appears to be moving towards clean coal technologies and carbon sequestration. I think that these technologies, along with nuclear power and strict new limits on car emissions (of carbon dioxide, not just pollutants) will take us a long way to actually making the kinds of cuts that could make a difference. Could, that is, if China weren't building a new coal power plant every week. Oh, well. At least we can set an example.