HOW THE PRANKSTERS OF YESTERYEAR MAY END UP DOING WHAT ALBERTA NEEDS

Alberta’s new environment minister, Shannon Phillips, once cowrote the introduction to a book called An Action a Day Keeps Global Capitalism Away.

It’s about having teenage fun while toppling the rich, shutting down the oilsands, saving the climate, inventing hoaxes for the media, chaining yourself to large objects, harassing politicians, etc.

Now Phillips is a major Alberta politician in charge of the environment, climate change policy and much more — the sort of person her collaborator, Greenpeace activist Mike Hudema, might size up for a pie in the face.

Phillips and Premier Rachel Notley say she was never very involved — just checking grammar for comma- challenged Mike, you see — but Phillips was on the job, no doubt of that.

The publisher cautions that some calls to action could break federal or provincial laws. You should see a lawyer before organizing, say, “radical cheerleading” with verses like, “The rich get richer while the Earth gets sicker, so kiss the back of my butt!”

The Phillips- Hudema introduction flouts the legal warning. “Do not use this book with caution,” it says. Now, the minister insists she never condoned law- breaking.

One lesson for politicians is never underestimate an opponent, no matter how irrelevant she seems, because that person might just rise up and stomp you one day.

Second, the Progressive Conservatives bungled the environmental and climate issues so badly, and for so long, that the very people they discounted as trivial are now in charge, with high public approval.

And the pranksters of yesteryear may end up doing exactly what Alberta needs.

Phillips announced some serious new climate measures Thursday — not radical, just serious.

The price paid by heavy industrial emitters who fail to meet carbon targets will double to $ 30 per tonne by 2017. The emission-intensity goals also get harder to meet, rising from 12 per cent to 20 per cent.

These measures don’t start taking effect until Jan. 1, 2016. This hardly looks like heavy punishment for the oilsands, the coal industry or anyone else. It’s not “kiss the back of my ...” from the Notley government, just real action that should have come long ago.

The policy prompted some fascinating responses, include a promise to develop “world- class solutions the world needs for a cleaner energy future.”

That came from Tim McMillan, president of the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers, not Mike Hudema.

McMillan also said: “We developed the technology to get the oil out of the sand — and we are just as committed to getting our carbon out of the air.”

When the book was published in 2004, a CAPP leader who said that would have been lynched in the Calgary Petroleum Club dining room.

There was a moment in 2008 when the PCs could have turned this around; a real opportunity to show the world that Alberta was serious about combating climate change and emissions.

That was a big year. On April 24, barely a month after thenpremier Ed Stelmach won an election, Greenpeace unfurled a banner during a huge PC fundraiser in Edmonton.

It said, “Stelmach: the best premier money can buy.” And below that, “Stop the Tarsands.”

One activist who dropped from the ceiling in a harness was Denise Ogonoski, a part- time employee in Notley’s Edmonton-Strathcona riding office.

Less than a week later, 500 ducks died after landing on a Syncrude tailings pond.

Celebrities were soon piling on — Neil Young, James Cameron and many others — all painting Alberta as one vast tailings pond.

The major government response was to charge heavy emitters for missing targets. It was a good start.

Combined with many other measures, it could have revived the oilsands and the province’s reputation.

But then, not much happened — in fact, the carbon levy remained unchanged until Thursday, despite constant PC promises to update the policy.

The damage of laxity was enormous. Pipelines stalled. Opposition rose up not just in the U. S., but across Canada.

Today, the thought dawns that because of all the PC stalling and intransigence, Greenpeace won.

Then the NDP won. And now, Shannon Phillips is in charge of reviving the image of both the province and the industry with a climate- change policy that will go far beyond a carbon tax on just the big industrial gas- blowers.

Alberta is noted for crazy ironies, but this one is almost cosmic.

And here’s another — it could even work out for the best.