Green Energy Act Paradox

The Ontario Green Energy Act, passed in May 2009, is extremely popular with the public notwithstanding both its infringements on basic individual and democratic rights, and also the substantially higher electricity rates it will cause. This post suggests that close coordination between government, renewable energy businesses, and environmental organizations, particularly government funding of environmental groups, helps to explain the political success of the legislation. This video was part of a panel presentation by Tom Adams at the York University Osgoode Hall Law School Professional Development conference June 15, 2009.

Category:

News & Politics

Tags:

• Ontario
• Green
• Energy
• Act
• environmental
• politics
• feed-in
• tariffs
• FIT
• Tom
• Adams
• McGuinty
• government
• GEA

[tomadamsenergy]

Olig,

Your logic is as good as your punctuation. The feed-in tariff program is hurting the German economy like it is in Spain and Ontario. Many manufacturers and other consumers suffer from feed-in tariffs and a few benefit from the subsidies they provide. What could be weaker than pointing to a few winners and concluding that feed-in tariffs are economically beneficial?

[scruss0]

Tom consults for AMPCO, the Association of Major Power Consumers in Ontario, who basically want cheap power at any cost.

[oligiscool1]

yo, check this out. do you know of a country called germany? yeah, the one that is basically the backbone of the EU. do you know that they are right now world leaders in renewable technology manufacture? this is because they implemented feed-in tariffs in the 90s. Green Energy Act = Ontario's feed-in tariff for renewable energy. the bottom line is that GEA as an environmental benefit pales in comparison to its need to establish Ontario as an innovator in...something.

[Tylesaurus]

Wow this is hard to follow. Tom please be more careful in choosing your words and cuts. The editing is really choppy!

[swampagIsCool]

This whole "green" thing doesn't work. It's way too costly and everyone always backs off after playing the "game" for a while.

[oligiscool1]

we can't rely on scale economies in the automotive sector anymore, tom. it just isn't working. do you remember the deficit spending on those companis, tom?

[villagedog]

The reason this Act is so popular is that people understand the benefits of green energy and are willing to pay a bit more for them. In short time we will be conserving more which will offset the extra cost anyways. It will also create a new green energy industry in Ontario, and we will be able to export our products and know-how to places that didn't have the foresight to develop their own GEA. The same-old isn't going to work anymore.

[comfyfur]

So!

I pay for electricity in my home. I want cheap power too.

As to cost, do you really think paying 80 cents a kWh for solar PV is worth it when other forms of electricity cost an average of under 6 cents?

[revanche100]

Kyoto is all cost; no benefit.