“Clean” energy promise a dirty lie

subscribe

The federal government used the throne speech to promise it will switch Canadians on to clean energy by balancing the need for power with climate change.

To achieve that goal, it pledged to ensure 90% of all Canada's electricity comes from "non-emitting sources" such as hydro, nuclear, clean coal and wind by 2020.

"The key is nuclear and also other clean energy sources," Environment Minister Jim Prentice said. "Clean coal is a part of that. We need to see improvements in terms of technology there, but this is a realistic objective."

Environmentalists, however, say describing energy sources such as nuclear and coal as clean is misleading.

"The issue here is what defines clean power," said Dave Martin of Greenpeace Canada.

"Nuclear energy is not clean. It creates radioactive waste that stays deadly for a million years."

Martin also says there is no such thing as clean coal and experimental technologies — which claim to capture coal emissions — have yet to be proven or widely used.

According to Statistics Canada, Canadians get 59% of their electricity from hydro generating stations, 14% from nuclear power and 26% from fossil fuels.

Martin argues that by labelling some energy clean the government could achieve its promised goal of moving to 90% from the current 73% without actually cutting emissions.

The government also reaffirmed its promise to reduce greenhouse gas emissions 20% by 2020 and pledged to join a North America-wide carbon cap and trade system touted by U.S. president elect Barack Obama.

Quite controversially, the throne speech also promised to continue support for biofuels such as ethanol. The policy of subsidizing fuels made from food crops was widely criticized by international aid groups for driving up the price of food for the world's poor.

Related News

california impending shortage

California's Next Electricity Headache Is a Looming Shortage

LOS ANGELES - As if California doesn’t have enough problems with its electric service, now regulators warn the state may be short on power supplies by 2021 if utilities don’t start lining up new resources now.

In the hopes of heading off a shortfall, the California Public Utilities Commission has ordered the state’s electricity providers to secure 3.3 additional gigawatts of reserve supplies. That’s enough to power roughly 2.5 million homes. Half of it must be in place by 2021 and the rest by August 2023.

The move comes as California is already struggling to accommodate increasingly large amounts of…

READ MORE
Electricity Market Headed for a Reshuffle as Province Vows Overhaul

Electricity Market Headed for a Reshuffle as Province Vows Overhaul

READ MORE

site C

When did BC Hydro really know about Site C dam stability issues? Utilities watchdog wants to know

READ MORE

Idaho Power Settlement

Idaho Power Settlement Could Close Coal Plant, Raise Rates

READ MORE

doug ford

Hydro One stock has too much political risk to recommend, Industrial Alliance says

READ MORE