EDITOR:
Another provincial greenwashing announcement was disseminated today, under the heading “Province acts to address climate change.”
This announcement contains the customary self-congratulatory comment about how well we're doing and mentions an undefined “Low Carbon Economy Fund” which most likely will never see the light of day (remember “Hydrogen Village,” anyone?)
Then suddenly we're discussing “the city” – no segue, so at that point one can only assume it is Charlottetown. Ah yes, it is, with more self-congratulatory verbiage, most of it false, about how the city has been working for years, blab, blab, blab. Just one actual-fact example is that every single vehicle owned by the city is fossil fueled, with no real plan to use alternative fueled vehicles which have a lower life-cycle cost and don't continue the poisoning of our environment.
Then we get to the crux of the announcement – throwing the population a rebate on electric taxes. No justification in terms of climate change impact, but it's coming onto election time.
The rebate is also extended to other sources of heat, including wood, with the totally false assertion that wood is a lower emitting fuel. From a large UK study, speaking of emissions, we see this: “harvesting wood from naturally regenerating forest...(produces) a staggering five times that of coal.”
Dylan said it best.: “Clowns to the left of me, jokers to the right.”. Are we ever going to get serious about doing our part to address climate change in any meaningful way?
Harry Smith,
Bonshaw
