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Two new and very different electrical vehicles are coming to the streets of Nelson in the next month or two. The Kootenay Carshare Coop is bringing two Low Speed Electrical Vehicles in for anyone to use in the city. Kootenay Carshare Coop manager Colleen Doyle on what these new pollution free vehicles will look like.
Clearcut logging is planned for the east slope of Kootenay Lake between Argenta and Johnsons Landing. We have reported over several years how a small citizens group from the area has been pushing the government to protect this corner of Kootenay Lake from clear cuts. But cutting is slated to start next month. Gary Diers from WilletWildernessForever.ca shares their concerns.
And a guest appearance by a Tyrannasaurus Rex…
LINKS AND EVENTS
Kootenay Carshare Coop. CarshareCoop.ca
Campaign to protect Argenta-Johnsons Landing face: https://www.willetwildernessforever.ca/
EVENTS FROM West Kootenay Climate Hub. https://www.westkootenayclimatehub.ca/
Shoreline Cleanup at Chahko Mika Mall in Nelson
Saturday, April 16, 1-3 pm
Join Friends of Kootenay Lake for their second cleanup of the season! Garbage from the mall parking lot builds up along the shoreline, easily making its way into Kootenay Lake. Get your hands dirty and join other passionate lake lovers to clean up this area.
You can find out more and register at https://www.friendsofkootenaylake.ca/
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EARTH DAY is coming up on Friday, April 22, and there are a number of local events planned.
From noon-1pm, the West Kootenay Climate Hub is holding a webinar on Closing the Circular Economy Loop Locally
Most people have heard of the circular economy. Diverting more of our waste stream for reuse in other products is great news, but there are still significant supply chain issues. What if we can substantially reduce the supply chain and do more of the steps locally?
We will hear about businesses that have taken up this challenge and are recycling plastic into products without leaving the local area.
You can register through the WestKootenayClimateHub.ca website
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Also on Friday, April 22, 3:30-8pm there is an Earth Day Fest at Taghum Hall
Local farmers and suppliers of plant starts for the garden will be set up for a fun family-friendly outdoor afternoon and evening at Taghum Hall. Food will be available for purchase. There will be a variety of Earth Day informational booths, musical entertainment and children’s activities. Come celebrate Earth Day outside by the river, and shop local!
Find out more at taghumhall.ca
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ENVIRONMENT NEWS SHORTS
Major new dollars for affordable and energy-efficient housing, a C$15-billion fund to accelerate clean investment, and a controversial tax credit for carbon capture and storage (CCUS) technology were some of the big-ticket items in the federal budget released last week.
The budget included unding for the $9.1 billion in new measures announced in the government’s Emissions Reduction Plan. But it also put $2.6 billion over five years for the Carbon Capture Utilization and Storage tax credit.
Energy efficient housing got $10.1 billion to double the country’s supply of new units, from 200,000 to 400,000 per year, over the next decade.
The budget also added a new $15-billion Canada Growth Fund aimed at attracting $125 to $140 billion per year in investment for emission reductions, economic diversification, low-carbon industry development, and “critical supply chains in areas important to Canada’s future prosperity—including our natural resources sector.”
Other budget lines include:
• $1.7 billion over five years for an extended range of zero-emission vehicle incentives;
• $400 million over five years for ZEV charging and fuelling infrastructure;
• $548 million in emission reduction incentives for medium- and heavy-duty vehicles, plus $200 million for a green freight assessment program;
• A $1.5-billion carbon price refund for small and medium businesses;
• $2 billion over nine years for an expanded Oceans Protection Plan, including coastal protections, aquatic habitat restoration, and wider emergency management under the Canada Shipping Act;
• $133 million for freshwater protection;
• $377 million over five years for improved wildfire management;
• $887 million over five years for agricultural cleantech and climate action;
• $780 million in new funding for “nature-smart” climate solutions;
• $677 million for new clean electricity initiatives, including interprovincial grid projects, small modular nuclear reactor (SMR) development, a seven-year smart renewables and electrification program, and a new Pan-Canadian Grid Council;
• $120.6 million over five years for SMRs;
• $396.8 million over two years for high-frequency (but not high-speed) rail service between Quebec City and Toronto;
• $193 million over five years for plastic waste reduction;
• A maximum 30% tax credit for batteries, clean hydrogen, and other net-zero technologies.
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The cost of electricity from renewables and batteries has come down so dramatically in the last five years that they are out-competing fossil fuels in most places on the planet, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) concluded in its climate mitigation report released last week.
The demise of fossil fuels has been made possible by the massive reduction in the cost of producing electricity from solar panels in the last two decades, giving real hope that the days of fossil fuels are over. The 85% reduction in price between 2010 and 2019 means solar is now cheaper that both coal and gas.
Onshore wind power, which was already competing with the more expensive fossil fuels 20 years ago, has fallen another 45% since 2010 and also outcompetes the three fossil fuels.
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The Alberta government announced in March that it is renewing and expanding its restrictions on coal mining in the province’s Rocky Mountains. The announcement responds to the public outcry against expanding coal development announced two years ago and to two reports and extensive consultations on the issue.
Coal development will now be blocked on all the lands originally covered by the province’s 1976 coal policy until land use plans, which require public consultation and legislative approval, are complete.
“It’s a big step, especially considering where we were two years ago,” said Katie Morrison of the Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society.
But she also pointed out They haven’t said this is permanent protection of these regions. It’s a protection for now until those land use plans are completed.”
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Last week supporters of the environmental activist group Extinction Rebellion have taken part in a mass sit-down protest in the heart of London’s shopping district.
Several thousand demonstrators with multicoloured flags bearing the group’s “extinction” symbol gathered near Marble Arch on Saturday morning as samba bands warmed up.
Extinction Rebellion, also known as XR, promised before Saturday’s protest that it would “grind the capital to a halt” over the coming week, with new tactics developed in response to increasingly harsh policing that limited the group’s attempts to cause disruption in protests last August.
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On the same day that the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) released its latest, alarming working group report, with UN Secretary-General António Guterres declaring it “moral and economic madness” to invest in new fossil infrastructure, ExxonMobil announced a US$10-billion final investment decision on an offshore drilling project in Guyana.
The U.S.-based colossal fossil is trying to frame the Yellowtail project in Guyanese waters as part of the “energy transition,” DeSmog reports.
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Last week, Environment and Climate Change Minister Steven Guilbeault announced the approval of the deepwater oil project Bay du Nord with 137 conditions, including a requirement the project achieves net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050.
TEnvironment and Climate Change Canada (ECCC) announced the requirement would also apply to all future oil and gas developments.
Those opposed to all new fossil fuel developments were quick to point out that calling any oil and gas project net-zero is misleading.
Angela Carter, an associate professor at the University of Waterloo and a member of the Newfoundland and Labrador government’s Net-Zero Advisory Council, points out that Newfoundland and Labradir and Canada as a whole, are not on track to meet emission reduction targets, and new oil and gas development will make it even harder.
Bay du Nord will be operated by Norwegian energy giant Equinor and its partner company Husky, and includes numerous exploration and discovery licences, the creation of a floating oil production station and the drilling of up to 40 wells in the Flemish Pass Basin. It won final approval April 6.
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BC researcher Ben Parfitt has been a guest on The EcoCentric several times. Now he is reporting on TheTyee.ca that BC’s Chief Forester Diane Nicholls is leaving to take a new job as VP [vice-president] sustainability for North America with Drax,”
Parfitt poijnts out that Nicholls is takeing a senior role in the wood pellet ndustry she helped regulate.
DRAX is the British energy giant that is mowing down BC forests to make pellets to burn for power in the UK. Drax established a dominant position in B.C.’s pellet industry when it bought the assets of Pinnacle Renewable Energy. Drax now has full or partial control of half of the province’s wood pellet mills. In its first year after gaining that position, its share of wood pellets exported from B.C. skyrocketed, almost doubling according to data collected by Statistics Canada.
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