It’s Getting Hot In Here

By Bruce MacKinnon, Halifax Herald Ltd.

Little re-cap: When PM Stephen Harper took office, 80% of climate change funding in Canada was retracted. Little of that has been replaced or redistributed. Since then, the summary of the last two years has been, “Until the U.S. does something, why should we?”  Recommended motivation: Canadians have the largest carbon footprint per-capita in the entire world.

This week was a big one for Canadians – President Barack Obama made his first foreign visit, a quick jump across the border to Canada. Canada is traditionally the first country that the American President visits, a tradition altered by President Bush who went south to Mexico.

Obama’s tight itinerary included meetings with Canadian Prime Minister, Foreign Affairs Minister, Finance Minister and Environment Minister. A quick press conference and a meeting with the Leader of the Opposition and that’s a wrap. 

I’m most interested in the lunch conversation with our Environment Minister, Jim Prentice. Turns out that a “U.S.-Canada Clean Energy Dialogue” is what came after the Pacific coast tuna, prairie bison and Acadian wheat berries. Here’s the low-down.

It has three main goals:

1. Expand clean energy research and development
2. Develop and deploy clean energy technology
3. Build a more efficient electricity grid based on clean and renewable generation

1. Energy research will be directed towards advancing biofuels, clean engines, and energy efficiency. This is good. Biofuels need to be further developed so that they do not involve using virgin food supplies. Bio-waste, post-consumer plant or waste material, is what needs to be used in biofuels. It is imperative that we veer towards using materials and resources already in our hands, and not creating new ones – particularly those that have a higher use, such as pure nourishment. We’ll take clean engines, and we’ll take energy efficiency.
2. “Clean energy technology” could mean solar cells, ways to better store wind energy, smart energy and heat systems for buildings, etc. But in the case of this discussion, it means carbon capture and sequestration. The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act directs $3.4 billion, and Canada’s Clean Energy Fund uses part of $1 billion, towards carbon capture and sequestration. I feel as though there is a place for carbon capture and storage research and large-scale pilot-projects, but that it is too often seen as the ‘easy way out’, and is taken as a first step, rather than a final-step.
The reasoning behind this is that both the U.S. and Canada are keen to use our own energy source, which is currently oil. In the words of the agreement, “as we use our own energy resources to power our economy.” Note to both countries: we also have local energy sources of wind, tidal, hydro, geothermal, solar, biomass, etc.  What is Denmark doing? What about Switzerland? Sweden? Germany? Green technology. Growing economies. Low- or no-carbon energy resources to power their economy. “The stone age didn’t end because we ran out of stones, and the oil age won’t end because we’ve run out of oil.”
3.  ”The modern, 21st century electricity grid will need to be bigger, better and smarter than the system developed during the 20th century that our countries share.”  I’m being reminded of sand-box days: “My toy dump truck is bigger and better. AND, my sister’s smarter than yours.” Editing revision suggestion: “We will work to make the modern, 21st century electricity grid decentralized, increasingly efficient and based on intelligent technology…”
I’m happy to see this section include renewable power, smart grid technology, smart meters, and digital distribution systems. The U.S. has $11.01 billion for smart grid technology. I’m disappointed to see that it is assumed that the grid size must physically grow. It should be in our best interest to reduce electricity consumption to a level at which new infrastructure is not needed. I believe this to be entirely possible.

As Bill Clinton has said before, which is forever applicable: “If we work together on this, it’s hard to see how we can fail. If we don’t, it’s hard to see how we can succeed.”  A Canada-U.S. partnership is a must. A clean energy future is a must. And achieving this in a way that is both environmentally and economically sustainable is ideal. May the ideal become possible, the possible be sought, and the sought be achieved and conquered. Together.
The full text of the dialoge can be found here.