Uh oh. Just when things were looking up for the Liberals, along comes the Globe and Mail to pull the plug:
Plans to hire more people and expand production are on hold as demand for solar parts wavers and stock sits unsold. Several companies who install solar panels have been unable to pay for their orders because they’re waiting for assurances the power projects will be connected to Ontario’s electricity grid. A backup in the approvals process has brought the fledgling industry almost to a standstill.
The province’s green-energy economy should be roaring, but it’s not. Thousands of jobs and $20-billion worth of investment commitments from around the globe are at stake.
“The possibility of expanding in 2011 would require a miracle, and I don’t expect it to happen,” said Paolo Maccario, Silfab’s chief operating officer.
Some companies are already regretting making the move into Ontario.
“If I had thought that the utilities would simply not obey the rules and the government would do nothing about it, I would have never started here,” said Michael Carten, chief executive of Calgary-based Sustainable Energy Technologies, which makes solar inverters.
Who could have predicted that, like everything else Dalton McGuinty has tried, the "green energy" market would have turned into a colossal waste of time, money, and productivity? It's gotten so bad that our international reputation is at stake:
The European Union has joined Japan in complaining to the World Trade Organization about Ontario’s subsidies for green energy projects in the province.
The EU’s concerns are very similar to those expressed in Japan’s WTO complaint filed last September: that the provisions in Ontario’s Green Energy Act, which pay high prices for renewable power generated with equipment built in the province, provide unfair subsidies to local suppliers.
I guess making the EU and Japan angry with us is all part of Dalton McGuinty's strategy to "stand up for Ontario." I mean, you don't see Harper going around picking pointless price wars with other countries, so I guess Dalton has decided to do a complete 180 from all that. We don't want the same cabal of not-pissing-off-other-countries-over-nothing kind of people running the country, city, and province!
(By the way, has anyone noticed how, for the Liberals, Ford has somehow become the only mayor worth talking about in the province? More on this later.)
And why are green power producers so mad? Because of job-killing red tape and slow moving bureaucracy, two things that a Tim Hudak government will exterminate. They might even vote for us in October!
It's not just red tape and bureaucracy; reality is that 'green power' is only viable when heavily subsidized. In other words, the poor consumer must pay grossly over-inflated rates for their electricity so 'green' becomes economic.
ReplyDeleteQuite apart from the inherent inefficiency of both wind and solar for electrical production, these technologies have a grave disadvantage in that they are at the mercy of mother nature. Solar isn't going to work well north of 60; it doesn't even work well in our shady yard. Wind power depends on the availability of wind and - as others have discovered to their cost - wind tends to die down in cold weather, just when power demand increases. In short, wind and solar absolutely must have almost 100% backup by conventional sources of electricity, the much-dispised nuclear and coal plants. Without such backout, reliable electrical power is not possible.