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Old 08-23-2012, 09:36 AM   #7
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Originally Posted by opendoor View Post
"Just happened to" is the key phrase there. Most businesses would produce 10 times the C02 from their energy usage as long as it was slightly cheaper than the cleaner alternative. Examples like this are precisely why governments introduce market incentivies (carbon taxes, clean energy subsidies, etc.) to reduce emissions. Businesses aren't going to make this change themselves because they're in the business of making money, so it falls on governments to artificially change the market if we want to encourage cleaner energy. I'm still unsure why this instance is seen as a counter example to the prevailing energy policy; it reaffirms it if anything.
Except the only reason NG got so cheap in NA was because of technology advances made by private companies that made it easier and cheaper to extract NG. Now there is a glut of NG out there.

Sure, market incentives can work if applied properly, but considering the government(US, and Canada till recently) still subsidized the oil industry, the results are debatable.
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