Premiers Higgs, Smith call on MPs to abandon carbon pricing program

A back and forth debate raged for the first 25 minutes of Thursday's meeting as Liberal MPs and McCauley traded barbs on the relevance of the witnesses and the process through which they were invited.

Premier Blaine Higgs, testifying at federal committee about the carbon tax hike — which he opposes — made a push for exporting LNG to Europe, saying there's increasing demand for the liquified natural gas in countries like the Czech Republic.

Both Smith and Higgs called for an alternative greenhouse gas emissions reduction policy centred on article six of the Paris climate change agreement.

Smoke and steam rise from a coal processing plant that produces carbon black, an ingredient in steel manufacturing, in Hejin in central China's Shanxi Province.

In order for that plan to work, China or European nations would have to agree to transfer credits for emissions reductions from their home countries back to Canada.

It points out that if China or a European country pays the market rate for LNG, they have little incentive to give Canada part of the credit for emissions reductions.