PEOPLE POWER is a six-chaper 50 minute DVD designed to help activists launch grassroots community-based campaigns to protect public power and the environment.
Clean tech sector gets $100-million boost: residential conservation program gets another
Posted March 3rd, 2010
Vancouver Sun
Finance Minister Colin Hansen announced in Tuesday's provincial budget that the province is also adding $35 million over three years to the LiveSmart BC program which has already provided $60 million in financial support for household energy audits and energy efficiency retrofits.
The $100 million will be spent over three years to support transportation infrastructure, support for development of biofuels from wood waste, and research and development of green power technology including wind, solar, geothermal and tidal power.
"Development of clean and renewable green energy will be one of the highest priorities for the province, with the intention of making B.C. a green energy powerhouse," the government says in a strategic plan document accompanying the budget.
"Electricity self-sufficiency and clean, renewable power generation will be integral to our efforts to fight global warming."
The document says developing a range of green power sources "will require greater investment in the short term. However in the long run they will produce exponentially higher economic returns, environmental benefits and jobs." The government says a Clean Energy Act, to be introduced in this session of the legislature, will encourage new investment in green power production -- leading to creation of new jobs in the sector.
Paul Kariya, executive director of the Independent Power Producers association of B.C., said the $100 million clean tech announcement was "welcome news."
"It's clear that B.C. is preparing to power out of the recession and keep our spot as a global leader and innovator."
Melissa Davis, executive director of BC Citizens for Public Power, said in a prepared statement that the budget shows the government's determination to proceed with its energy policy "despite serious concerns about its environmental integrity and the conspicuous absence of any business case to justify their trajectory of privatizing BC's electricity sector."
Davis noted a recent report by BC Hydro's large industrial customers suggesting that the Crown corporation may be forced to sell electricity at a lower price than what it's paying in contracts with independent power producers.
Matt Horne, Pembina Institute energy solutions director, lauded the $35 million addition to the LiveSmart budget, but said the government could have taken stronger action to curtail greenhouse gas emissions.
Horne said B.C. could have sent a "stronger signal" to natural gas producers to curtail their emissions, which are one of the largest sources of greenhouse gas in the province.