Green Government?

Ya here's a thought: quit complaining.

According to this report, people in Europe pay twice what we do and they seem to be surviving OK. Norway, the world's 3rd largest oil exporter has a climate similar to ours and significantly higher fuel prices.

Trailhead, way to add useful imput.. Its nice to see you care how our money is spent!

Trailhead wrote" Quit complaining"
You missed the point Trailhead, next time read the entire letter and inwardly digest before you shoot your mouth off.
If you do not fully understand what I was saying then I would appreciate a query first instead of an ignorant blast, if I did not know any better I would think you are part of our government.

David R Gildea

Perhaps you miss the point David. There already is a regional tax on fossil fuels. Greater Vancouver residents pay an extra 6 cents per liter surcharge to Translink that we in the rest of the province don't pay. They also have to pay for Aircare checks that we get to conveniently avoid, so that out gas guzzlers can pollute as much as we want. How fair is that?

As I understand it, the new fuel tax is supposed to be revenue neutral, meaning that all revenues collected are intended to be given back as personal income tax cuts and a one time $100 bonus per person. So what's the big deal? It's not a punitive tax unless you use an excessive amount of gas. The intent is to get people to use less fossil fuels, which everybody seems to agree is a good thing, yet nobody wants to do.

Well, Trailhead, at least you are now debating in a fair manner, Thankyou for that, greater Vancouver pay the 6 cents a liter to fund Translink I beleive, something that we have not had here, although I understand now we have transit underway, so does that mean that shortly we will be paying also ?
As for revenue neutral, I will beleive that when I see it, it seems to me that all governments have all of a sudden turned Green, given the nature of politicians I am sceptical of anything called revenue neutral.
One of the points I was making was that we here in the Kootenays and indeed people living outside of major urban areas have no choice but to travel greate distances and most times put up with and fight through bad weather/road conditions to get to work, we, just by the nature of our location use more gasoline, natural gas and hydro, whilst I totally agree with "Green" I happen to think that this is not all that it is cracked up to be, time will tell, I suppose, but you know, we as Canadians are a very apathetic race of people and politicians love that.
Gasoline went up drastically over the last few years but it really did not slow consumption, so that begs the question, will this tax really slow consumption, in my opinion, until government gets serious about alternative energy sources, wind, solar and electric vechicles, not much will change, lip service and taxes will not solve the problem.
I stand to be corrected, but I beleive there is a canadian car manufacturer of good electric cars that at the present time cannot even get government approval to put them on the road, I don't hear of any politicians beating their chests over that.

David R Gildea

Dave, you are correct about that Canadian electric car which is presently approved and available in about 40 US states, but our short sighted politicians and incredibly stupid bureaucrats are not allowing it to be sold and used in Canada. There are actually two, The ZENN car and another from the Lower Mainland that has since closed up shop and moved out of the country to be manufactured elsewhere.

Interesting topic for sure. I thought I'd add one thing about the electric cars. In general, electric cars don't cause global-warming related pollution at the point of charging (your home), but that electricity is generated in different ways. In BC there is definitely a lot of hydro, which has its own environmental impacts but none really associated with CO2. Although, BC is currently a net importer of electricity from Alberta where almost all electricity is generated using coal and natural gas so there is a definite impact from electricity usage in BC.

I'm pulling a stat off the top of my head here so it may not be totally accurate but I think that if the US were to convert their transportation from gas/diesel to electricity, they would need to double their electricity generating capacity (again, 50% of current electricity production in the US is from coal). So moving to electric cars without addressing electricity production (capacity and fuel) would lead to devastating the grid or the same or more CO2 pollution as now. I can understand the reasons to stay away from electric cars for now.

I was hoping that the tax would be used to increase renewable energy usage, but I don't really see the motivation to switch. I just see the motivation to use less, which is a good reason too. Personally, I find that I watch my fuel consumption when prices increase.

One last thing. The earth doesn't care where we live. We all need to make our sacrifices and by choosing to live in this area with its lifestyle, we shoulder more of the responsibility.

Brendan, I am not sure were you are coming from regarding electric cars, but surely a more rapid change from gasoline would be a benefit,the refusal to change from gas to electricity is more based , I think, on governments reliance on gasoline industry. I think the points I am trying to make are that firstly governments are playing at being green not really serious about taking on the oil barons, secondly, to blindly trust a government is wrong, I think all canadians should always question thier politicians and thirdly, I too watch my gasoline consumption but at the same time do not have much choice when I have to deliver goods and work, I agree that we all have to make sacrifices, I just feel that the playing field could be a little more level, it seems that as I said earlier, our provincial politicians seem to make most decisions without taking into account regions other than Victoria and Vancouver.

David R Gildea

There is a story on the Zenn car in today's Toronto Star http://www.thestar.com/Business/article/306200

Companies such as ZENN Motor, Vancouver-based Dynasty Electric Car, and market newcomer Electrovaya of Mississauga say they're manufacturing in Canada, creating jobs in Canada, but aren't allowed to sell to Canadians who want to drive these electric vehicles in their own communities. In many respects they represent the future of transportation, and a stepping-stone to highway-speed made-in-Canada electric cars.

Maybe this is worthy of a letter writing campaign to politicians. I've already written a few.

David, definitely agreed on the government giving more attention to Van/Vic.

My point on the electric cars is that transportation uses a lot of energy. We don't produce enough electricity to satisfy that need and electricity generation causes a huge amount of pollution by itself so just switching to electric cars may not do anything for CO2. We need to both use less energy and generate electricity without fossil fuels. If we could generate all of our electricity without producing CO2 and could generate enough to power our cars, electric cars are the way.

In Canada, transportation accounts for 24% of GHGs and electricity generation accounts for 17%.