The Ontario government announced this week it will contribute $48-million to help Magna International develop technologies for electric vehicles. For its part, Magna will pitch in $430-million to the research and development effort, which is a sign that it’s probably a fairly safe bet. Case closed, the government has successfully created jobs and prevented global warming in one fell swoop, right?

Not so fast. If this was such a great investment, why isn’t it all being funded entirely with private capital? And would it still be profitable if there weren’t a host of other government subsidies for electric vehicles, such as the $5,000-$8,500 Ontario consumers receive for buying one?

The biggest problem with subsidizing green technologies is that the subsidy itself shows that people don’t want the product. If there was enough demand, companies could make a profit without the government’s help and would have no issues investing their own money.

Last week, the Independent Climate Change Email Review panel headed by Sir Muir Russell released its report on the Climategate affair at the University of East Anglia's Climate Research Unit (CRU). Reason's Ronald Bailey summarized the findings as follows: "All right, people. Move along. Nothing to see here."

Since its release, many critics have begun attacking the credibility of the committee charged with investigating the scandal. But was the report itself a whitewash or are global warming skeptics trying to push an agenda?

Writing in The Wall Street Journal, Cato Institute scholar Patrick Michaels questions the commission's independence:

With the ongoing oil spill continuing to wreak havoc on the environment and economies along the Gulf Coast, many in the environmental movement are starting to show their true colors. There's no doubt this spill represents a huge environmental disaster and that BP has a pretty shoddy safety record. Although the company should be held financially responsible for fixing the leak and cleaning up the mess, calls for additional punishments are going too far.

Ideas such as forcing BP to compensate oil workers affected by a government-imposed moratorium on deep-water drilling, or not allowing it to operate wells that are already in production, amount to little more than screwing the company for its past success. When all is said and done, BP will have paid out billions of dollars to cap the well, clean up the mess, and compensate the locals. It is now crystal clear that oil companies have every incentive to ensure that a similar disaster does not happen in the future. Moreover, we need the oil.

We rely on oil for things like jobs, transportation, and heating—you know, the kinds of things that make living in today's world better than Medieval Europe. In response to the argument that our economy relies heavily on oil jobs, however, comedian Bill Maher's reaction was: "Fuck your jobs!" That's easy for him to say, but the unemployment rate currently stands at 9.7 percent and, if it gets any higher, there won't be anyone left watching HBO.

Driving from Calgary to Vancouver reveals some stark contrasts. The vast farmlands of the foothills morph into the majestic Rocky Mountains. The ominous mountain passes lead to an oasis of sprawling lakes in the Okanagan Valley before climbing into the heavens to traverse the Coquihalla Pass. The desolate mountain landscape then fades away to reveal the lush Lower Mainland before heading into the sprawling metropolis of Metro Vancouver.

If one looks closely, however, another stark contrast can be seen. Between the rocky divide that separates Banff and Golden, one may notice a significant increase in the price of gasoline. The price then increases again when you hit Vancouver. This is because B.C. has much higher gas taxes than Alberta. Residents of Metro Vancouver pay 20.5 cents per litre in gas taxes, plus 5 per-cent GST and a six cent transit tax, compared to just nine cents plus GST in Alberta. If this wasn't bad enough, the "right-wing" Liberal government recently imposed a carbon tax, which adds 3.51 cents to a litre of gas and will eventually reach 7.2 cents by 2012. In a show of just how out of whack B.C. politics is, it was the NDP that campaigned against the carbon tax in the last provincial election.

There was a time when so-called "progressive" politicians could at least pretend their policies were designed to help people. If one promises to steal from the rich and give to the poor, it actually sounds like they intend to help the poor. And while I don't agree with these policies, I can see the rationality in electing someone who promises to give you something for nothing. The remarkable thing about the green movement is that they have somehow made it possible for politicians to implement policies that are designed to help no one.

The issue of man-made global warming has recently gained a lot of attention around the world. The media is full of stories on research that supports the theory of man-made global warming, as well as stories detailing worst case scenarios on how an increase in global temperature could affect our planet. They often neglect the fact that there is a wide variation in scientific opinion on why the Earth’s temperature is rising. There are many groups with both ideological and economic interests in seeing drastic action taken in order to curb CO₂ emissions, and they have done a great job of moving the public's attention past the debate over the causes of global warming, and onto the debate over what to do about it.

This issue is very important to governments all around the world. With public attention shifting toward this issue in many countries, governments will find that their electoral success depends heavily on how they choose to deal with the issue. There are also enormous economic and public policy implications in reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Given the enormous cost of implementing greenhouse gas reductions, it would seem reasonable that all sides of the debate are presented so that the public can make an informed decision on the issue. Yet the debate has been stifled in recent years.