Did anyone hear Scott of the ECA saying we shouldn’t have electric cars on NS roads because we generate electricity with coal?? Come ON, Scott! We generate with wind, solar and water too! AND individuals can do this at their homes! Are you trying to scare the stupid NS government from doing what ON and QC have already done? Let’s clean up our power plants, but at the SAME TIME get electric cars on the road! In spite of what YOU say, electric cars go 50% further than gas guzzlers for the same amount of carbon pollution. WAKE UP!
This article appears in Jul 31 – Aug 6, 2008.
You’re simply wrong here. The vast majority of Nova Scotia’s electricity is generated with coal, via the four coal plants, among the largest GHG emitters in Canada. The fight right now is to control the growth of electricity, which is at about two percent a year, via energy efficiency programs and an increase in renewables (wind, primarily). But even if those programs are successful, it does not reduce the amount of coal burned— it only levels off the increase.If the programs are not successful, then Nova Scotia Power has already said it will seek to build a new coal plant, its fifth, at a cost of over a billion dollars. (Nova Scotia Power, to its credit, recognizes that it’s actually cheaper to run the energy efficiency program than to build a new coal plant, but the government is moving very slowly in implementing the programs, and activists are worried that the whole thing is about to fall apart.)Adding electric cars to the mix is crazy. Yes, it works in Quebec, where electricity is generated mostly with hydro. But here in Nova Scotia we’re not even stopping our increase in coal use yet. Presently, Nova Scotians emit on average 25 tonnes of greenhouse gases each per year, among the highest rates on Earth. Almost half of that comes from electrical generation alone.And yes, on the greenhouse gas front, burning gasoline is much, much better than burning coal, and even more so when you consider that the coal burning is two steps removed from the automobile.I do think that ultimately electric cars are a big part of the solution, but clean burning power plants have got to be in place before the switch is made.
You’re simply wrong here. The vast majority of Nova Scotia’s electricity is generated with coal, via the four coal plants, among the largest GHG emitters in Canada. The fight right now is to control the growth of electricity, which is at about two percent a year, via energy efficiency programs and an increase in renewables (wind, primarily). But even if those programs are successful, it does not reduce the amount of coal burned— it only levels off the increase.If the programs are not successful, then Nova Scotia Power has already said it will seek to build a new coal plant, its fifth, at a cost of over a billion dollars. (Nova Scotia Power, to its credit, recognizes that it’s actually cheaper to run the energy efficiency program than to build a new coal plant, but the government is moving very slowly in implementing the programs, and activists are worried that the whole thing is about to fall apart.)Adding electric cars to the mix is crazy. Yes, it works in Quebec, where electricity is generated mostly with hydro. But here in Nova Scotia we’re not even stopping our increase in coal use yet. Presently, Nova Scotians emit on average 25 tonnes of greenhouse gases each per year, among the highest rates on Earth. Almost half of that comes from electrical generation alone.And yes, on the greenhouse gas front, burning gasoline is much, much better than burning coal, and even more so when you consider that the coal burning is two steps removed from the automobile.I do think that ultimately electric cars are a big part of the solution, but clean burning power plants have got to be in place before the switch is made.
I thought there was some rule about naming names here. Or is that just bullshit?
The EAC are simply a bunch of lefty loonies. Nothing they say can/should be taken seriously until they cut their NDP ties and stop acting as a left wing political lobby group.