Ok, they have an awkward name, the Climate Change Emissions Management Corporation (CCEMC) but it's one of the most novel and forward thinking ideas Alberta's ruling party has come up with recently.

Couched in this terrible nomenclature is a seed of a good idea. Set a limit on carbon emissions from your worst emitters, set a cap and tax them $15 a ton or let them offset their activities through the carbon offset market. Then use the money raised through the tax to back greenhouse gas reducing projects and technology.

You'd never think it, or see it reported, but Alberta keeps quite good tabs on our largest GHG emitters. Called specified gas emitters, the CCEMC and it's related family of corporations are in charge of collecting data on Alberta's GHG emitters as well as the upkeep of a small carbon credit system. While you might find the data impossible a little tricky to find, I imagine the majority of them are coal fired power plants with the rest being cement/lime/concrete operations. From this they've raised $121 million dollars. Now what do you do with it?

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