BY NADINE ARMSTRONG
The Hants Journal
NovaNewsNow.com
“Imagine telling Albertans they can't sell oil?”
That statement by Brian Watling, President of Fourth Generation Capital Corporation, went to the heart of the matter during a recent roundtable discussion on Renewable Energy in Windsor. Several so-called ‘green’ companies had their chance to take the floor and have the government sit up and listen.
The Oct. 3 session was hosted by Kings/Hants MP Scott Brison and Deputy Liberal leader Michael Ignatieff. It was presented as a fact-finding mission by the Liberal party and an opportunity to hear first-hand the barriers faced by local businesses working to develop alternative energy sources.
Brison said he's well aware of the potential for renewable energy in Hants and wants to ensure businesses and the community at large are able to tap into the economic and environmental benefits. The way to do that, he said, is to identify the roadblocks.
“We've got the highest tides here. Put it with wind/solar and we've got an amazing resource of renewable power in Hants County,” Brison told the panel. “We'd like your to help give us some concrete ideas of federal policy that will make it easier to do what you’re doing.”
Although the consensus was Hants County has made several inroads toward developing renewable energy, the problem addressed that afternoon was how the federal government could help bring those resources to market and make them accessible to consumers.
Backtracked on promises
As president of an emissions trading company, Watling said technologies today are ideally-sized and economically efficient for the small community or neighborhood, and large business consumers could now efficiently produce their own green power.
However, he said the current government has backtracked on several promises of policy support that would allow independent Green Energy producers to have the right to sell the energy they produce to individual customers.
“As a result, we continue down the road as the world's worst per capita polluters. We fail utterly to take advantage of the fastest growing economic sector on the planet and deny Nova Scotians the right to profit from the energy supply they have been granted as their common birthright - the wind,” Watling said.
Watling would like to see the federal government assist in creating high voltage, direct current transmission lines that would allow for the production and export of energy. He said doing so would be comparable to the construction pipelines that move Alberta gas and oil to central Canada or the Trans-Canada Highway to permit truck haulage of freight and intermarket trade.
“It will allow a Nova Scotia product (wind energy) into the market, put earnings into the hands of the local producers, create high-paying jobs for Nova Scotians and skills that are exportable, right from Hants County.”
He said the development of the wind power could do the same for Nova Scotia that oil does for Alberta.
Key recommendations
Scotia Windfield, a community-owned company founded by Fourth Generation, made several key recommendations. First, to change the current approach to environmental assessments for renewable energy projects.
“Right now, every assessment starts at ground zero,” said CEO Barry Zwicker. “Windfarms have been around long enough to be able to anticipate certain impacts without conducting further assessments.” He said environmental assessments still take 12 months and that timeline becomes a liability.
His company also suggested the federal government procure educational funding for the general public, set the standard by coming down hard on serious energy polluters by putting a tax on carbon credits, and refusing to buy power that doesn't come from a renewable source. “There should be some disincentive to burning fossil fuels,” Zwicker said.
Tidal energy on the horizon
Minas Basin Pulp and Power, already an industry leader in green technology, plans to take the initiative further by tapping into tidal energy. They already supply 50 per cent of their own power through an existing hydro generating system.
John Woods, vice president of energy development for MBP&P, said Nova Scotia has already lost out on wind power technologies, but tidal power is still within reach. “It’s inconceivable to me that our government hasn't moved on this. We need to develop appropriate access to the energy embodied in the Bay of Fundy.”
The Atlantic Tidal Energy Consortium (ATC Power Inc.) hopes to partner with Minas Basin in the creation of tidal turbines. Managing Director John Wightman said tidal power is 10-15 years behind wind energy and more funding is needed develop that resource. “Turbines have the capacity to be environmentally safe and effective and potentially create up to 20,000 megawatts of energy.”
But to make tidal energy a reality in Hants County, they need to look at the big picture. Woods
said the government first must reduce financial and regulatory risks by giving producers access to the global market. “We want the potential manufacturing of tidal turbines to be viewed as a global opportunity, building employment and investment here in our region.”
Important issues
Ignatieff responded to the presentation by stating what’s really needed is major infrastructure investment. “How do we determine who pays for it and how do well sell it to the public? This is where we have to step in.”
He told the panel it’s the federal government’s responsibility to get renewable energy on the market by working with business leaders. “I'm sensing suppressed excitement and frustration. To be so close to a different energy source for this region is very exciting.
“I was unaware of many of the technologies available in Nova Scotia. I admit I don't know Atlantic Canada as well as I should, but Scott is a serious champion of green energy and he's getting me on the right page. We need national leadership on this, but we can't do the job we're sent to Ottawa to do unless we listen.”
In a subsequent interview, Brison said Ignatieff’s presence at the roundtable as Deputy Leader of the Liberal Party was indicative of the importance the party attaches to building a green economy and developing renewable energy. “It’s crucial to talk to people across the country about national issues in order to understand any local impacts or opportunities.”
Brison said that Nova Scotia and Kings-Hants have a lot of potential in clean energy and he was pleased that he and Ignatieff were able to hear first-hand the progressive projects being pursued locally.
“This business community is ahead of the Harper government when it comes to the opportunities around the green economy. The roundtable participants were very clear that Harper’s regressive environmental policies are hurting Canada’s ability to compete and succeed in the fastest growing part of the global economy, clean energy.
“Clean energy is the biggest economic opportunity Canada has in the 21st century. Every region of the country can be a part of that economic success if given the right tools. That is what I believe a Liberal government will do, and that will be one of the areas we will fight for in the next election. As industry critic and co-chair of the national election platform committee, I can guarantee that the Liberal Party will be in the forefront of this issue.”
