British Columbia announced its green plan to “plant 60 million seedlings, help contain urban sprawl, fast-track green developments, create 100,000 solar roofs, clean up landfills, invest in plug-in hybrid vehicles and hydrogen-powered buses and help save the Vancouver Island marmot.” However, some environmental critics question if these projects will receive sufficient funding.

To achieve the “goal of no net deforestation by 2015,” British Columbia will need to plant more trees, especially in urban areas.

“British Columbia has given business some much-needed certainty on the climate change file, at least as far as its carbon tax plans go.” A price of $10 per tonne will be charged on carbon emissions from fossil fuels beginning in July and will be built into the price of fuel.

Northern communities in British Columbia are opposing the government’s new carbon tax program. Residents in remote areas feel that they are being penalized over fuel consumption choices that they have no control over “due to distance, climate and resource-based livelihoods.”

An outbreak of mountain pine beetles in British Columbia is doing more than destroying millions of trees: By 2020, the beetles will have done so much damage that the forest will release more carbon dioxide than it absorbs, new research indicates.

British Columbia’s carbon tax plays a key role in the government’s plan to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. However, it is being challenged by dozens of northern communities in BC, claiming that the tax discriminates rural and northern residents.

The Tyee

Part one of a three part series in The Tyee that will address some of the issues surrounding climate change policy in BC, which has made radical changes in recent weeks. This edition focuses on some of the concerns voiced by environmental groups about the initiative’s incomplete consulting on the issue, and some of the weaker areas of the policy.

The Vancouver Sun

British Columbia’s new carbon tax, applied to virtually all fossil fuels (including gasoline, diesel, natural gas, coal, propane and home-heating fuel) will be effective on Canada Day, July 1st. Prices at the pump will see a 2.41 cent per litre increase.

Globe and Mail

Article discusses the response of BC to the new carbon tax, put into action today. Highlights some of the many problems associated with implementing the kind of social and political changes that will bring real reductions in greenhouse gas emissions.

Globe and Mail

B.C. Premier Gordon Campbell, responding to criticisms of the federal Liberal green plan by northern premiers, is calling for an end to a dependence on diesel fuel in the North.

“It’s time we stopped having diesel-dependent communities,” he said on Thursday. He had been asked for his view on suggestions by Yukon Premier Dennis Fentie that the green-shift plan proposed by federal Liberal Leader Stéphane Dion would hurt the diesel-dependent territories.