A Must Read For McGoonty, Harper...

Stimulus-Backed ‘Green’ Bankruptcy of the Week: Ener1

Ontario approves 40 large green-energy projects - Moneyville.ca

...The new wind projects will get 13.5 cents a kilowatt hour for their power, while the solar operators will receive 44.3 cents a kilowatt hour.

...currently cost per kw/hr:

Energy Retailer 5-Year Fixed Price
Bullfrog Power
Retail Price+ 3 cents/kWh
Separate bill for 3 cents/kWh for "greening" your energy. Global Adjustment won't apply if you are still an RPP customer.
Canada Energy Wholesalers
5.5 cents/kWh
You pay their wholesale cost plus 0.8 cents/kWh with a price cap of 5.5 cents/kWh over the 5 years
Direct Energy
6.99 cents/kWh
They only seem to offer 3 year contracts
MyRate Energy
7.09 cents/kWh

Green Holy Grail...

David Frum: Two countries, one carbon tax

David Frum  July 31, 2010 – 9:00 am

 

A loophole Canada once demanded in the U.S.-Canada Free Trade Agreement now threatens to bite the Canadian energy industry.
The loophole allows either country to impose tariffs on the other for health and environmental reasons. Now, that loophole creates an opportunity for the United States to impose sanctions on oil from Canada’s oil sands.
Here’s how. Read More »

...talking about elephants:

Margaret Wente

Taming my elephant – and yours

Just when you think you’ve got the beast of irrationality under control, he goes on the rampage again

No You Can't Marni! Environut's Priorities Are Paramount

Marni Soupcoff: Too bad about the frogs, but can I pick the humans? Environmentalists have strange priorities

Posted: May 12, 2010, 1:39 PM by Marni Soupcoff Filed under: Marni Soupcoff

 

Several things struck me about this Toronto Star article, reporting on the UN's latest warnings about the growing threat to wildlife and "an alarming loss in biodiversity." 1)  It's funny the way environmentalists can wax on poetically about the sacred worth of all flora and fauna, then in the same breath get so nasty about an invasive animal that you'd think it was the anti-Christ. Here's how the Global Biodiversity Outlook report describes the Canada goose: “It is a pest species causing habitat modification such as trampling and algal blooms from eutrophication caused by nutrients from roosting geese." True enough, I'm sure, but what's the lesson? We must spare no resource or expense to save the precious Arakan forest turtles that are the lifeblood of our planet, but these evil, foul geese? May they die a slow agonizing death!

Click here to read more...

Mon May. 10 2010 4:53:55 PM

Ontario e-waste recycling scheme works despite failing to meet targets: minister

The Canadian Press

In this file photo, John Gerretsen speaks to the media after being sworn in at Queen's Park on Thursday Oct. 23, 2003. (Tobin Grimshaw/ THE CANADIAN PRESS)

TORONTO — Ontario's $40-million electronic recycling program isn't a failure even though it has fallen far short of provincial targets to divert tonnes of discarded TVs and computers from landfills, Environment Minister John Gerretsen said Monday.
Ontario Electronic Stewardship, an industry-led corporation that's supposed to collect the waste, isn't living up to its commitments to the province, he acknowledged.
The agency promised to recycle about 33,000 tonnes of electronic junk in the first year of the program, but collected only 17,000 tonnes, he said.
"It is absolutely not a failure: 17,000 tonnes are being diverted from landfill sites that otherwise would have ended up there," Gerretsen told the legislature.
Critics say the original target was actually 42,000 tonnes, but that was reduced to 33,000 tonnes partway through last year.

Most of the province's e-waste is going to landfills or being illegally exported, said NDP critic Peter Tabuns. And Gerretsen's "Pollyanna perspective" doesn't cut it when consumers are paying an extra $2 to $26 on new electronic gadgets to help fund a program that isn't working.

"If you throw electronic waste in (to landfills) that's got mercury and other toxic substances, you're talking about potential threats to ground water, you're talking about the well-being of people in this province," Tabuns said.

"He should have been acting very aggressively to recycle the material. Obviously he's shown he can't do it."

OES, which counts executives from Best Buy, Sony and Sears among its directors, "is proud of the progress" it's made in establishing the recycling program, said executive director Carol Hochu.
It recently expanded the program to include cellphone, digital cameras and music players, she said.
"We recognize that there are areas for improvement in the electronic waste recycling program's operation, and that is why we are in the midst of consultations with our processor partners and other service providers," Hochu said in a release.
"We will soon put forward proposals for new incentives and other improvements to the system, so that we can collect and recycle even more electronic waste and ensure that it doesn't end up being dumped here in Ontario or anywhere else."
It's clear that the program, which has collected an estimated $40 million from consumers since it started last year, shouldn't be left in the hands of electronics manufacturers and sellers, Tabuns said.
"We have a lot of experience with public agencies running waste collection," he said.
"We have experience with collection of materials that (Gerretsen) should have been able to draw on and put in place."
Gerretsen said the government will hold OES responsible for falling short of its targets, but isn't about to scrap its partnership with the industry.
"I don't think that we should make too much of this at this stage," he said. "It is one year into the program."
There are improvements, including higher fees for collecting, transporting and recycling the junk, he added. For example, collectors are paid about $235 per tonne of waste, up from $165 per tonne.
The government is trying to toughen Ontario's waste diversion laws and may ban electronic waste from landfills to overcome some of the challenges the recycling program faces, he said. It also wants stiffer penalties to make sure provincial targets are met.
"We want to make sure that this stuff stays out of our landfill sites, and we also want to make sure that it isn't being shipped to Third World countries," Gerretsen said.

HMM! Another Ontario Success Story...

E-waste diverted, but where exactly?

Ontario’s high-profile electronic waste disposal program is failing to recycle millions of computers and televisions it promised to keep out of landfills. 10 May 05:00 MORE

Green Holy Grail...

New GST won’t cool the planet

By LORRIE GOLDSTEIN, QMI Agency

The next time a Canadian politician, environmentalist or pundit calls for “putting a price on carbon” to fight global warming, remember this.

Screwing Voters Goesd Beyond Conflict Of Interest...

Shea caught up in turbine conflict
Maher: A CONFLICT of interest involving a grant to Fisheries Minister Gail Shea’s son-in-law shows that Conflict of Interest and Ethics commissioner Mary Dawson isn’t following the act, says a watchdog group and the Liberal ethics critic

ATTENTION: Dulltoon And Those Who Voted For Change

...you "promised" this would save the province! Should we add this to the list of broken promises....

Wind Turbines Leave Clouds and Energy Inefficiency in Their Wake

Downstream wind turbines can lose up to 30 percent of their power

By Jeremy Hsu Posted 01.22.2010 at 4:13 pm 14 Comments

Hamilton: Samsung deal keeps jobs from going south

Mon Jan 25 2010 (28)

Imagine, in an alternate universe, Ontario had been in lengthy negotiations with Samsung Group to bring 16,000 green-collar jobs to the province, part...
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  Tories want probe of deal

  
  
  
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  McGuinty hopes deal nets 15,000 jobs

  
  
  
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  Solar power glut means falling prices

  
  
  

Like H1N1 Greening Is Spreading...

John Baglow: Green bins and why we hate them

Posted: January 18, 2010, 3:00 PM by NP Editor
Filed under: Full Comment,John Baglow

Maybe it's the onset of the Grumpy Old Man syndrome, but Ottawa's new Green Bin program is giving me the pip.

Friends have excitedly asked me if I have received one, and if I'm using it, and in response I'm starting to sound like those nutbars who idle their SUVs on Earth Day. I'm planning, in fact, to repurpose the city's gift (which will actually cost me a chunk in taxes) as a planter. But I will pay the weekly costs of green garbage pickup regardless, which, the city soothingly assures us, will be "less than the cost of a latte."

Some readers might be surprised to learn that I don't drink--or is it "sip?"--latte. But I'd be prepared to start doing so in protest. Go figure out the politics of that one.

Click here to read more...

Ottawa Green Bins A Waste For Waste

Ottawa Green Bins A Waste of Waste Part 2

Obama & McGinty Have Something In Common?

Cash for clunkers junked…but dealer ads still running

July 30, 2009 08:57 PM by Michelle Malkin

33 Comments | 13 Trackbacks