Professional climate policy wonks are watching the spectacle south of the Canada-U.S. border, where a House bill on climate change will receive its first major political test Friday. Political wrangling over what industries get covered (or hit, depending on your perspective), and how they are covered (or hit) has virtually ensured that the bill will […]

The green lobby’s massive Earth Hour public relations campaign seems to have worked in Ontario. Where last year power generation in Ontario actually increased during Earth Hour, this year it dropped. Unfortunately, power sector emissions went up. And since emission reductions are, or ought to be, the whole idea of Earth Hour, we have no […]

Eight years ago, European elites reacted with puffed-up outrage when the new U.S. president, George W. Bush, decided he wouldn’t ask the Senate to ratify the Kyoto Treaty. Though Bush’s decision was based on sound energy policy and sounder politics (see article), the euro-elites haughtily struck him off their Christmas list, permanently. Most have yearned […]

The Ontario Energy Board wants to know what you think of the Ontario Power Authority Integrated Power System Plan (IPSP). And the Ontario Power Authority (OPA) wants to know if you think the IPSP reflects the government’s wish to reduce peak electricity demand, increase the contribution of renewables, and cap nuclear capacity.The reason this all […]

Over the past year I have suggested emitting jurisdictions become involved in cap-and-trade systems. Even though the European Emission Trading Scheme, or ETS, is deeply flawed and in desperate need of stronger support from the member countries that tout it (see article), I recommended becoming involved in cap-and-trade as a way of easing into a […]

Readers of this blog may have noticed my disdain for the mainstream environmental movement’s take on electricity investment in Canada. I think the greens are a bunch of Luddite misanthropists (see article). They either don’t understand basic things about modern electricity systems, or they do understand them and advocate policies that are harmful nevertheless. Either […]

This week, the Ontario Liberals jumped onto Richard Branson’s latest campaign to save mankind and the planet.
Called Flick Off, the campaign is yet another attempt to convince people that electricity is bad for the environment. This notion is dubious, but common sense vanishes in the presence of celebrity. Hoping some of the cool shine would […]

Two weeks ago, on The Agenda with Steve Paikin, I participated in a debate on the pros and cons of nuclear power expansion in Ontario. One of the other debaters, Dave Martin of Greenpeace, suggested that industrial power users could reduce their environmental footprint by using combined heat and power. Also called cogeneration, combined heat […]

Last week I talked about the proposed ban on incandescent lights that is sweeping across the country. I said that the energy savings from replacing incandescent bulbs with energy efficient compact fluorescents are negligible. Let me quantify that statement.
I have 16 100-watt incandescent lights. If I replaced them today with 29-watt compact fluorescents (the package […]

Advertising guru David Ogilvy once wrote that good advertising is the fastest way to sink a bad product. This applies just as much to dumb ideas. We’ll see how right he was if and when various provincial governments across Canada jump on the stupid ban-the-incandescent-lightbulb bandwagon.
When Canadian consumers respond to the hype about the environmental […]