Last Updated:Friday - 09/24/2010

The coming energy revolution

Twenty years ago, an Alberta energy minister made his mark in history by rejecting a report on the viability of wind and solar power in this province by saying that by developing alternate energy the province would undermine its existing petroleum industry. Today, politicians across Canada are still failing to take definitive action to develop alternate energy.

Twenty years ago, Alberta only missed an opportunity to be a world leader in a field whose time was bound to arrive. Today, the governments' omission is much more serious and much less comprehensible. Global warming has become a major international concern, world fossil fuel production is expected to decline sharply after about 2010, and many governments with far less renewable energy sources than Canada are working hard to develop alternatives.

Take Denmark, for example. Denmark requires electrical utilities to purchase wind power, has imposed a carbon tax, gives subsidies to consumers to install solar hot water heating systems and, in 1995, devoted 39 per cent of its energy-related research and development spending to renewable energy sources. In Germany, the figure was 27 per cent; in the U.S., 13 per cent. Canada spent only 4.6 per cent of its energy R&D funds on alternate energy, the second lowest among G-7 nations.

These figures come from a September 1999 report by the Pembina Institute, Lost Opportunities: Canada and Renewable Energy. The institute notes that Canada's attitude toward alternate energy has improved somewhat in the last five years, but that it is proceeding more slowly than almost all other industrialized nations.

A more recent report by five Canadian renewable energy associations - Low-Impact Renewable Energy - notes that while there is a need for more R&D spending, Canada can make significant economic and environmental advances by greater use of technology that already exists. Wind energy costs, for example, are half of what they were 10 years ago - "within nudging distance of price equality with fossil fuels," according to the Economist magazine.

The associations' report notes the greatest need is for marketing of existing technology - basically to overcome the inertia among Canada's electrical monopolies to adapt to the new technology.

Energy companies in a competitive environment - such as Shell and BP-Amoco - are already pouring hundreds of millions of dollars into renewable energy which they believe will provide five to 10 per cent of the world energy supply by 2020 and 50 per cent by 2050. They know they have to stay ahead of the curve to remain competitive.

There is an additional reason to pursue non-polluting energy forms - public health. A 1997 report by the National Air Issues Coordinating Committee estimated that if sulphur dioxide emissions in Eastern Canada were cut in half, it would avoid 950 premature deaths, 1,530 emergency room visits and 209,350 asthma symptom days. The committee concluded that the reduced emissions would cut health costs by $1 to 7 billion a year.

In his 1991 encyclical, Centesimus Annus, Pope John Paul addressed "the ecological question." He said, "In this regard, humanity today must be conscious of its duties and obligations to future generations." We must come to see the earth as God's gift to us. It is not a resource to be exploited for personal gain, but rather a place where we cooperate with God in the ongoing work of creation.

In Canada, we have bounteous amounts of renewable energy resources - sun, wind, rivers and lakes. It is a pity - indeed it makes no sense - that we have not designed and implemented a clear strategy to become a world leader in the coming energy revolution.

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