The Greening Of McGuinty: New Legislation Faces Old Economic Pitfalls.
Nobody is thinking about clean energy now. We are into what week is it now? Bad economic news followed by bad economic news is like a self-fulfilling prophecy. However, our Premier Mr. McGuinty has proposed some comprehensive green-energy legislation, which is set to change the whole economy. The only problem is the timing is all-wrong.
It happens all the time. Just ask Stephane Dion about his Green Shift? It’s like we can hardly remember now. That idea has been bandied about for several years now and makes sense to some people, but in the last federal election it was a millstone around every Liberal candidates neck. For candidates who were defeated much of it was all about timing. Ditto for Premier Dalton McGuinty and his new proposed green energy act.
This is what Premier McGuinty said in a recent interview with Tyler Hamilton of the Toronto Star.
There are some tremendous opportunities to be found in building a green economy. When I say a green economy, I don’t mean it to become a replacement somehow for the existing economy. It’s about extending the foundation of the Ontario economy by exploring green opportunities. There are few things that we know with absolute certainty. One, oil and gas (prices) are going to go up. Two, when we receive oil and gas from other parts beyond (Ontario), we don’t create any more jobs. I do know over time, though, that the price of solar, wind and biomass will come down with economies of scale and the evolution of technology. I also know that by investing in those areas we can create jobs, sooner rather than later. We can also generate clean electricity and we can assume a greater responsibility in the fight against climate change. (Premier McGuinty in ” Premier Defends Green Plan” March 9th, 2009)
Sounds good doesn’t it? Let’s hope he gets it right. However, with a deep global recession taking place, it may not be the right time. Nobody is going to buy into green solutions if they are without jobs. However, McGuinty hasn’t defined himself as the green saviour. I think he’s savvy enough to know right now it’s all about the economy, and that doesn’t necessarily mean green. So watch for him to get this done incrementally. Much of what he says above makes perfect sense.
McGuinty is our modern day pragmatist. He dodged an election bullet last time when the nearly departed John Tory blew the election by proposing public funding for faith based schools. That effectively wrote his ticket to another five years as Premier. Throw the family day holiday into the mix and it just was that much easier.
So now he’s poised to go green even more with his new energy act. We’ll see. It will all balance on the knifepoint of where the economy goes and how much howling comes from the electorate.
Case in point is Ontario’s recent experience with biofuels. A long, long time ago when Dalton McGuinty was in opposition he promised to give Ontario 10% biofuels in their tank by 2010. The thought at the time was it was a plus for Ontario farmers, rural communities, rural jobs and it was green positive, a real boost for the environment. Little did we know they that this opposition leader would eventually become the most successful Liberal premier since Mitch Hepburn. Once elected, he would be expected to deliver on such promises.
To McGuinty’s credit, he delivered on part of that promise. With $520 million dollars committed to help build an ethanol infrastructure, he got it done. By the end of this year Ontario will produce almost as much ethanol as needed to fulfill the Ontario government requirement of 5% ethanol in all gasoline burned in Ontario. It is truly a government success story. They wanted to get biofuel into Ontario gasoline in a big way and they did it.
Needless to say they didn’t want to stop at 5%. The Liberals had promised a 10% blend of ethanol in Ontario gasoline by 2010. However, suddenly corn prices went up, the media projected ethanol as a dirty word, effectively saying food diverted to fuel was “immoral.” From an Ontario farming perspective none of that was true, however, the damage had been done and McGuinty lost his guts. The 10% ethanol commitment was effectively shelved and never to be seen again.
At the end of the day with ethanol, Premier McGuinty blinked. Effectively a little bit of bad news effectively nixed more “green” ethanol getting into our tanks. Will it happen again this time with the green energy act? I think so. Society loves being green when it feels good. However, nothing in this economy feels good now. For McGuinty and his green legislation, that will surely be his greatest challenge to bringing it to fruition.