Developers lament loss of wind subsidies

Canada ecoENERGY wind program faces non-renewal, risking wind power growth as federal incentives lapse. Industry warns of lost investment, jobs, and competitiveness versus US policies amid clean energy transition and climate policy harmonization.

The Canadian Wind Energy Association is expressing disappointment with the federal government’s recent decision not to expand or extend the so-called ecoEnergy program — which delivered subsidies to renewable energy developers — in its new budget.

According to the association, the program has been a success, and without it, Canada’s ability to compete with American developers in the U.S. clean-energy market is jeopardized.

“The failure to extend and expand the ecoEnergy program will slow wind energy development and leave renewables blowing in the wind and reduce our ability to compete with the United States for investment and jobs at a critical time in our economic recovery,” the group’s president, Robert Hornung, said in a statement.

Mr. Hornung’s group suggests that the Canadian government is backpedaling on its robust clean-energy endeavors and risks losing out on green energy as it seeks to harmonize climate change and clean energy policies with those currently evolving in the United States.

“While we remain committed to working with the federal government to find ways to attract new investment in the world’s most rapidly growing source of electricity, we are shocked and disappointed that it has chosen not to extend a cost-effective program that facilitated record levels of investment and job creation in Canada’s wind energy sector in the midst of the recession of 2009,” Mr. Hornung said.

The decision not to maintain the program, which was started in 2007, means that there will be no support for new wind energy projects built after March 2011. Federal incentives for renewable energy projects are not up for renewal until after 2012, prompting analysts to push for Ontario wind tax breaks as a stopgap measure. The fear among Canadians in the industry is that this will lead investors to move their cash from Canada to the United States.

“While the federal government continues to identify clean energy and job creation as a priority, the actions taken in the 2010 federal budget make it clear that it has decided to download responsibility for attracting wind energy investment and jobs to provincial governments,” Mr. Hornung said.

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