In the aftermath of yesterday's green plan approach non-announcement by the Conservatives, Rona Ambrose is defending her party's plan against the critics, not the least of which was Jim Ibbitson of the Globe, who leveled a frank but devastating critique of the Conservatives.

Ultimately, the Tory smog plan will outline the rules that will allow smog and co2 producing industries to increase the amount of pollution they eject into the environment through the establishment of "intensity based targets". An intensity based target is a crony-fied piece of industry jargon, invented by George Bush, that specifies a reduction in emissions per unit produced (i.e. per barrel of oil or per tonne of coal). The problem is that if production increases (i.e. more units) the total amount of pollution is going to increase according to the following formula:

current pollution - small per unit reduction in emissions x BIG increase in production = BIG F@#!IN' INCREASE IN SMOG!!!

That is a real problem for Canada where oil sands production is expected to at least double by 2015. The net result? In the coming years you can look forward to more greenhouse gases, more global warming, more smog and more asthma.

Personally, I believed that the Conservative's plan approach would deliver some minimal amount of real results on smog, while my problem has been his attempted snow job on the issue of global warming. Instead, Harper's approach has been a snow job on all fronts while fulfilling the opposition's dream - by demonstrating how out of touch he actually is with Canadians desire for real action on environmental issues.