Tim Weis — Mar 11, 2010
When President Obama came to Ottawa last year, one
of the few items that was agreed upon was to engage in a so-called "Clean
Energy Dialogue". Looking at the budgets that the governments on both sides of
the border have released since then, it appears as though our American friends
have a lot more to talk about.
Last week, we raised some concerns about the lack of federal spending on sustainable energy technology in
the 2010 federal budget. Our initial analysis done in the first few hours after
the budget was released found that the U.S. was set to spend at least 14 times
more per capita than Canada on renewable energy in 2010 (coincidentally the
same ratio we'd calculated last year
when comparing the countries' respective stimulus spending.) Having had a few
days to digest all the details, a closer look at the numbers done in
partnership with Environment Northeast found that the gap in spending on
renewable energy between the U.S. and Canada this year is widening to nearly
18:1. (The ratio of the two countries' overall
spending on sustainable energy is also set to rise to more than 8:1, up from
6:1 last year.)
Tim Weis — Mar 04, 2010
We must be close to a turning point in investing in the environment, because the budget tabled today couldn't do much less.
A token $25 million for the next four years allocated to renewable energy in the forestry sector shows that this government sees renewable energy technologies as "boutique" experiments, not the mainstream solutions that they are in other parts of the world — and, more importantly, what they need to be in Canada.
If the government is going to live up to its election promise of generating 90 per cent of its electricity from sources that don't produce greenhouse gas pollution by 2020, we will need a ten-fold increase in renewable power in the next 10 years. Currently, 77 per cent of our electricity comes from "non-emitting sources" (defined by the government as large hydro, nuclear, carbon capture and storage and renewables) — but to close that gap on a national scale will require a serious ramp-up of investment in renewable power. New nuclear or carbon capture and storage cannot be rolled out in a meaningful way in only 10 years, in spite of the $1.5 billion allocated to them in the last two years.
Tim Weis — Jan 18, 2010
A new wind farm approved recently for east-central Alberta will not only be the province's largest, but will also be one of the last to benefit from federal support through the depleted ecoENERGY for Renewable Power program.
The federal funding, which will grant Greengate Power Corp. one cent per kilowatt hour for 10 years of wind farm operation, proved pivotal to bringing the project forward, the Calgary Herald reported this week.
Despite its success in creating clean energy and new jobs across the country, the federal government's support for renewables through the ecoENERGY program effectively ended when the money quietly ran out last month - more than a year ahead of when it was supposed to, due to its popularity.
Tim Weis — Dec 21, 2009
I just got back from Halifax, Nova Scotia where I
participated in the 4th and final
public consultation on renewable energy. The new government has set an
ambitious goal
of achieving 25% of their electricity from renewable sources by the year
2015.
Julia Kilpatrick — Dec 16, 2009
In the most comprehensive scientific review to date, an international panel of doctors, scientists and environmental experts have concluded that the noise and vibrations from wind farms do not pose a risk to human health.
