Mention the phrase “hydrogen economy” these days, and most people will laugh at you. That’s because the phrase reminds most people of the endlessly unfulfilled promises of fuel cell–powered cars and hydrogen refueling stations. Even Arnold Schwarzenegger, with his famous hydrogen powered Hummers, has dropped talk of the Hydrogen Highway in favour of something a bit more practical: […]

When it comes to media play, French nuclear giant Areva is a juggernaut. The chart below shows how Areva’s media coverage in the past three months compares quantitatively with that of its two competitors in the Ontario reactor competition. As you can see, Areva out-pulled arch rival Westinghouse three to one, and Ontario incumbent AECL […]

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 […]

Are oil company–sponsored windmill ads about to disappear from our TV screens? Oil giant Shell has decided to abandon investments into renewable energy like wind and solar. A Shell executive told the Guardian that the company will no longer put money into investments that don’t compete with Shell’s core business, which is producing and marketing […]

On Canada Day, I bought 43 litres of gasoline at a filling station just north of Parksville, British Columbia. This was the first day of the provincial carbon tax of 2.4 cents per litre, so the tax accounted for about $1.03 of my purchase. Of course, I didn’t figure that out until later. At the […]

So I’m watching the Sunday U.S. political talk shows. I notice a Honda ad, plugging the “ultra low emission Accord.” You know that whoever advertises on these shows wants to curry favour among those-in-the-know. Go to honda.com, the ad says.
So I go to honda.com. This is about ten seconds after watching the ad. There’s nothing, […]

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 […]