Good News....Sort of

The BC government announced this week that by 2040 all new cars sold in BC will be zero emission. That is good news. There is no doubt that reducing the number of vehicles on the road that use carbon based fuels to operate will reduce the amount of carbon that is spewed into the air. Forcing car companies to produce more zero emission cars is a great place to start but there are a few problems with this announcement.

1) The announced plan only covers light use vehicles. I think that means that people will still be able to buy pick-up trucks and SUVs that use some form of petroleum. Given that a number of the car companies have already decided to stop making sedans (see my blog of May 15 of this year)because there is limited demand for such vehicles, I am somewhat unconvinced as to whether or not the government's plan will make a big difference. It will only affect those people who are already committed to buying smaller vehicles.

2) While the government has made a commitment to provide some rebates (up to $5000) for those who purchase a new vehicle, the costs of a new electric or hydrogen cell vehicle are still prohibitive for many people. According to a BC Hydro website (https://www.bchydro.com/powersmart/electric-vehicles/owning-an-electric-vehicle/options.html) one can by a small two-seater electric vehicle for just under $27,000. By the time one adds any options, the cost quickly escalates to over $30,000, not including shipping, taxes etc. Larger vehicles start at the mid $35,000 range, again before options and taxes etc. I am clearly not a buyer of new cars in part because I have an aversion to going into debt for five to seven years, but it feels as if that is a lot of money to spend on a small vehicle that as of yet, we have no sense of its resale value after those seven years.

3) The lower price cars have very limited range, no more than a 100 kilometres before recharging. Even the mid range ones can only travel for 120 kilometres. While these distances may be great for those who only drive a few kilometres each day, the vehicles lack the range to even make a round trip from Duncan to Victoria. For anyone living outside of a major city, it strikes me that the range is insufficient for most users. If I had to buy a new vehicle in 2040 I would be forced, unless there is significant improvement in both price and distances to buy a non-electric SUV.

4) 2040 is just too far away. If we are going to make the switch, let us do it sooner. If the car companies know that we are serious about making the change, then perhaps they will get more serious about increasing production/reducing costs and looking at ways of extending distances travelled. I appreciate that there is a significant amount of work that needs to be done in terms of infrastructure etc, but until people see that there are sufficient recharging stations across the province and access to repairs etc, few will get on the bandwagon.

The reality is that in 2040, I will be over 90 and in all likelihood I will not be driving so it is all a moot matter. That is probably true for most of the BC cabinet members who made the decision. It was an easy announcement to make. Any cost will be insignificant for this or even the next government and it keeps the Greens happy. It looks as if someone is doing something to protect the planet. It was particularly easy when none of the members will have to face any of the consequences or figure out how to either enforce it or to pay for it.

It is well past time when people need to stop paying lip service to environment policy and start actually doing something meaningful.

Just Another Oil Spill

It was more than a little bit depressing to type the above title. Depressing because it is, apparently for many people, no longer newsworthy or perhaps even morally correct to become outraged that there is yet another oil spill in some ocean. In spite of the obvious dangers of drilling down into the rock beneath the oceans, especially off of such places as the coast of Newfoundland where the winter storms can blow for days, we continue as a country to insist that off shore drilling or the transportation of oil products in large quantities is safe.

Last week, at a site 350km off of the coast of Newfoundland, at least 250,000 litres of crude oil were spilled - I say "at least" because no one really knows how much oil was spilled as the seas are too rough to either determine the extent of the leak or for that matter ensure that the problem is resolved. The oil well could be still leaking and we just do not know. According to the Financial Post (https://business. financialpost. com/ commodities/ energy/n-l-s-largest-ever-oil-spill-is-now-impossible-to-clean-up-regulatory-board), it is probably now too late to even think about any type of clean up as the spill has been broken up too much by the storm. While there is some concern that the flocks of murres and dovekies are at significant risk, the risk to plankton and all of the species that live off of plankton, either directly or indirectly is incalculable.

We can get really excited when a picture of a cute kitten is posted on Facebook, we can get all outraged if Trump says or does something outrageous (which is an almost daily occurrence) but there is almost no news on what happened just last week, something that will have consequences for months if not for years. If we feel that the risk to the coastline of British Columbia is far too great to allow the expansion of the Kinder Morgan pipeline, should we not be just as angry about governments approving off shore drilling on our other coast?

Why don't we care? It may be that the Province of Newfoundland and Labrador is just a bit too isolate, a bit too far removed from the rest of Canada (Newfoundlanders may feel that way all too often) for anyone to care; it may be that somehow we value some parts of Canada more than others, or it may be that most of us, most of the time, are just selfish, self-centred, two faced twits who lack the capacity to exercise any foresight at all. Regardless of why, we need to develop a cross-Canada awareness of the dangers of oil exploration/exploitation. The Province of Newfoundland and Labrador allows for off shore drilling for exactly the same reason that Alberta has allowed the development of the Tar Sands - they need the money generated by the production of oil to pay its bills. We need to change how the country supports the different regions. We collectively need to discuss and then determine how we want to support each region without expecting them to put their soil, their air or their seas at risk. We need to decide what is important and we need to, again collectively, decide if we are prepared to pay the price of doing the right thing.

But in the meantime, perhaps we could use the various social media platforms to talk about the important stuff; perhaps we need to spend less time posting pictures of cute pets, what we ate or some wise words that some famous person may have said (or not said)and instead to actually share ideas and solutions with each other.