Canadian Green News
I thought I would share a couple green national headlines I recently came across on CBC’s website.
You may recall my posts about the latest Tory environmental announcements (you can find them here and here). Well it seems that Prime Minister Stephen Harper made a pretty major announcement on Friday, while in BC.
The federal government is putting $1.5 billion into funding alternative energy technologies, Prime Minister Stephen Harper said on Friday.
Harper said a 10-year incentive program, the so-called ecoEnergy Renewable Initiative, will be established to fund eligible projects to be constructed over the next four years.
He said the money could be spent on wind, solar, geothermal and other forms of renewable energy.
The prime minister said the first component, ecoEnergy for Renewable Power, will boost Canada’s supply of clean electricity by “offering generous incentives to spur production.”
The Conservatives say they’ll budget for $1.48 billion for an incentive of one cent per kilowatt hour for up to 10 years to eligible projects constructed over the next four years that generate clean electricity from renewable sources.
These sources can include wind, biomass, solar, geothermal and wave technologies, all of which generate few or zero harmful emissions.
Full story (CBC): Tories announce $1.5-billion renewable energy plan
It should come as no surprise that there have been critical things said in response (by environmental groups and the other political parties). The Liberals and NDP, while both happy to see environmental actions from the Tories, claim Harper is simply re-packaging initiatives launched by the Liberals when they were in power (but subsequently cut from the budget by the Conservatives).
All I know is that it’s nice to see Harper and his crew making some green changes - more importantly, I think is a great indication that Canadians want to see some progress on the environmental front (we know FULL-well Harper isn’t doing this because he’s an environmentalist!).
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Another interesting article from CBC: Canada can get rich by going green, Dion says
In what he called his first major speech as Liberal leader, Stéphane Dion told a Toronto business audience Tuesday that Canadians can make enormous profits fighting climate change.
“Yes, Canada will cut megatonnes of emissions, but we will also make megatonnes of money,” he told a joint breakfast meeting of the Toronto Board of Trade and the Economic Club of Toronto.
At the same time, he expressed skepticism about expanding nuclear power — which some see as a way to reduce heat-trapping carbon emissions — because he has no answer to the problem of radioactive waste.
I love that concept - making ‘megatonnes of money’ while cutting megatonnes of greenhouse gas emissions.
I for one don’t see why environmentalism and capitalism have to be mutually exclusive - and it seems that Dion agrees.
Technorati Tags: stephen harper, conservatives, tories, environmental news, climate change, renewable energy, alternative power, climate change, environment, NDP, Liberals, Dion, nuclear power
Written by Bentley on January 22nd, 2007 with
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