Does A New Minority Conservative Government Mean A New Renewable Energy Agenda?
The 2008 federal election has resulted in another Conservative Party minority government (and one that will, by most estimates, survive for a couple of years). What strategies for curbing greenhouse gas emissions and the development of renewable energy sources can we expect from this minority government?
The Conservative platform claims a commitment to “building a clean energy superpower” by ensuring that our “energy development is clean and environmentally sustainable”. Upon review, it would appear that our expectations for new programs should be low, as the Conservative platform merely repeats initiatives that the Harper government has already announced. Initiatives in the Conservative platform include:
- investing $1.5 billion over the next seven years into the production of biofuels. This is a reference to the ecoEnergy for Biofuels plan, which began in April 2008. Interestingly, this does not take into account the ecoAgriculture Biofuels Capital Initiative, a $200 million program that provides repayable contributions for the construction or expansion of transportation biofuel production facilities – a program that will expire in March 2011.
- investing $1.48 billion over four years into incentives to produce more wind, solar, geothermal and tidal power - enough, say the Conservatives, "to generate 14 million megawatt hours of clean electricity". This is a reference to the ecoEnergy Renewable Initiative announced by Prime Minister Harper in January 2007. The goal of this initiative is to make clean, low-impact renewable energy more available in Canada and less expensive. The initiative provides funding to two programs:
- ecoENERGY for Renewable Power, which provides incentives for solar water and air installations in the industrial, commercial and institutional sectors; helps develop renewable thermal energy industry capacity; and contributes to clean air by displacing fossil fuel-based energy use for space heating and cooling and water heating; and
- ecoENERGY for Renewable Heat ,which aims to increase the supply of clean electricity from low-impact renewable sources such as wind, biomass, hydro, geothermal, solar photovoltaic and ocean energy through a production incentive of one cent per kilowatt-hour over ten years on eligible projects.
- as part of the Turning the Corner plan, generating 90% of Canadian electricity needs are met by “non-emitting” sources such as “hydro, nuclear, clean coal or wind”. Note, while the Turning the Corner plan does contain statements about facilitating the generation of “clean” electricity, the 90% proportion is not a specific target.
In addition, presumably, the Conservative government will continue with the other goals of the Turning the Corner plan, which include continuing the development of a carbon credit offset (a.k.a. carbon credit trading) system, set to be implemented by 2010 – but it is interesting that the Conservative Platform does not refer to it.
Of course, the Conservative minority government’s ability to implement these initiatives will depend on the agreement of at least one of the opposition parties. Since each of the other parties in Parliament have made environmental issues prominent features of their own platforms, it would seem that implementation will be a matter of sorting out the details – which will largely depend on the willingness of the parties to work with the Conservative government.
The biggest hurdles to achievement in renewable energy initiatives, it seems, will not therefore a lack of ideas and programs, but the politics of the minority-led Parliament and the need to address the current economic downturn. However, as they say, in every crisis there is an opportunity. We can be hopeful that as Prime Minster Harper proceeds through his six point plan to guide Canada through these turbulent times, the federal and provincial governments will not neglect the role that renewable energy projects, public and private, can play in not only creating new investment opportunities and jobs, but also solving our long term energy needs in an environmentally sustainable way. Perhaps the EU will serve as a good example.
