Can BC Hydro provide the electrical energy required to achieve the “reduced emissions” goals set in the provincial government’s Clean Energy Act 2010? The British Columbia government believes it can, now that the Site C Hydro project is completed.… Read more
The discord between reality and rhetoric is playing out in real time as the politics driving a warp-speed shift from predictable electricity generation collides with the physics of delivering constant power with inconstant supply.
It is impossible to overstate the stakes if the energy transition runs off the rails. Electricity is civilisation’s nervous system; without it, everything will collapse. What is happening is akin to conducting a proof-of-concept experiment on an incubator with a child inside.… Read more
Recently a professor from the University of Regina, Emily Eaton, proposed that we stop subsidies to oil and gas companies and no longer consume fossil fuel energy. She has funny ideas: Unlike electric vehicles, battery manufacturing, solar panels and other beneficiaries, the oil industry is not subsidized.
These comments follow those of editorialist Phil Tank of the Star Phoenix, a month or two ago, also suggesting oil production in Saskatchewan should cease and desist.… Read more
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and others predict that global warming caused by increasing carbon dioxide emissions from the burning of fossil fuels will have profoundly negative effects on plant and animal ecosystems in the U.S. and around the world in the coming decades. It is predicted that effects will negatively impact the provision of market goods and services produced from these ecosystems. … Read more
Contrary to predictions that changes in climate are going to cause forest, cropland, and rangeland productivity to decline over time, recent data show that the known fertilizing effect of additional carbon dioxide (CO2)—which is literally food for plants—has offset many of the predicted adverse effects by enhancing drought tolerance and plant growth. … Read more
For thirty years, climate has been one of the “third rails” of Canadian politics—politicians do not dare touch it lest they are accused of being “climate deniers,” on a moral par with Holocaust deniers. And so politicians do not speak out against “The Science” of climate, even when it is clearly flawed.
The silence, at least in B.C., was broken in 2022 by then-Liberal MLA, now Conservative Party of B.C. leader John Rustad, who supported a Tweet by climate skeptic Patrick Moore that “the case for CO2 being the control knob of temperature gets weaker every day.”… Read more
According to the Trudeau Liberals there is almost nothing ordinary Canadians do right. These eco-zealots have utter contempt for our way of life.
We don’t heat our homes with the right furnaces. We don’t drive the right kind of cars. Our electricity doesn’t come from the right (renewable) sources. Those of us who farm insist on using fertilizer and pesticides. We like driving holidays and are in favour of new and upgraded highways. We stubbornly refuse to buy electric vehicles.… Read more
The idea that vehicles on British Columbia roads should be 90% electric by 2030 and 100% by 2035 is unworkable.
For a start, the province will lose hundreds of millions in revenue—not only is it subsidizing purchases of EVs but, compared to a tax on CO2, it will lose huge amounts of revenue from fuel taxes—perhaps a billion dollars a year. Moreover, a per-kilometre-driven tax on EVs would cause a backlash from owners and scare off potential EV buyers.… Read more
Net-zero energy policies in the Pacific Northwest will produce staggering costs to individuals and businesses without providing any meaningful environmental benefits, warns a new research report from Discovery Institute’s Reasonable Energy program.
The authors find that Washington’s and Oregon’s plan to reach zero energy-related greenhouse gas emissions by 2050 will double existing electricity demand at the cost of $549.9 billion, a burden which would be shouldered by Pacific Northwest households and small businesses. … Read more
This is a link to a wide-ranging, 22-minute YouTube interview by Carole Taylor with B.C. Conservative Leader John Rustad on Sept. 12, 2024. To watch the video, click on the image.
