Howard Epstein on Energy Sustainability

Excerpt from Hansard: November 9, 2006
Bill No. 84, Wind Turbine Facilities Municipal Taxation Act
The honourable member for Halifax Chebucto

Subject: Energy Sustainability

… I still want to go back to the main problem with energy, particularly electricity policy in Nova Scotia …It does have to do with whether government is going to wholeheartedly embrace a policy that says to us, let us move enthusiastically, wholeheartedly, aggressively towards a sustainable basis for the energy sector … So far, this continues to be one of the major problems of our time, and one of the major avoidances by this government …We will never be in a position to say, we didn’t know what the consequences of our inaction were. We knew. We always knew. The information has been in front of us. If we continue to hesitate, if the government in particular continues to hesitate, we’re left wondering what it’s waiting for. Is it waiting for better scientific information, better scientific evidence? Are the government still doubters on the science of global climate change? If so, they ought to say so, and we could have a scientific debate. If they’re not doubters about the science, then why don’t they tell us what they’re worried about? Are they worried about how to deal with the existing electrical monopoly? That’s a fair point, but we ought to debate that…[The government should] become engaged. If it’s not the position of the monopoly electrical utility, if it’s not financial market issues, perhaps it has to do with the fate, the ultimate fate, of the existing generating stations…that’s something that should be debated here on the floor of this Legislature, and undoubtedly will be at some point. But the debate has to start, the government has to get the ball rolling here. If they don’t, what will ultimately happen is that in other jurisdictions, the transformation will take place. In other jurisdictions, the technology will be developed. In other jurisdictions, the economic models will be developed. In other jurisdictions, steps will be taken, and are being taken, that will have implications here …Everyone else will have moved ahead beyond us and at some point we’ll be left to say, okay, whatever has been done in Ontario, in Vermont, in California, we will at last – the last in North America perhaps - finally do it ourselves. That is a policy mistake. We don’t have to be put in that position, but we’re putting ourselves in that position by failing to move quickly… There will also be economic consequences …We’ll be buying our electricity from somewhere else - someone else will be manufacturing the solar panels, the wind turbines, the wave and wind generating machines … We’ll be buying that technology and the dollars will be going out of our province. The scientific expertise will not be developed here – it will be developed somewhere else and we’ll just pay for it … So I put this to the minister not just on the basis of a question of dealing with the atmosphere or dealing with global climate change, I put to him if he can’t identify with those concerns, on the basis of the future economics of our province… Surely his government can understand that if you don’t get ahead of the wave, it’s just going to come crashing over you.

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