The National Post, through which the Canadian Conservative government has been floating all its climate change policy trial balloons lately, now suggests that “Tories to regulate industries for CO2.”

This would be fabulous news if it were true, and not just “positive spin on a made-in-Canada solution.”

 But this comment, by Pierre Alvarez, president of the Canadian Association Petroleum Producers (CAPP), suggests the government is a long way from rustling feathers in the Canadian oil patch. Alvarez is quoted in the Post story saying, “We have been going forward on the assumption that CO2, as well as toxics and other pollutants, would be covered in the (Tories’ new) plan.” But he said he did not necessarily believe that regulation meant a cap on emissions. “You may have to have targets but it does not necessarily mean a cap, and certainly not a hard cap.”

You can imagine a soft cap, one that the industry could wear backwards or throw in the closet when it gets warm out.