Canadian manufacturing sales unexpectedly edged higher by 0.1 percent in June as gains in the paper industry and a handful of other sectors offset slowing demand for exports like energy products and autos.
In a major energy policy reversal that will cost Ontario electricity consumers as much as a $1-billion, the province’s Energy Minister Brad Duguid last Friday took back a plan to cut solar power subsidies. The subsidies, based on paying 80-cents for a kiloWatt hour of solar power, were to be cut to 58 cents on all projects approved after July 2. But on Friday, under pressure from green energy lobbyists, Mr. Duguid reversed that decision. The new price for solar would be 64 cents–but only on projects submitted after Aug. 13. All proposals that have been submitted before that date–whether approved or not–would receive the 80 cent price.
As my research continued and my knowledge diversified, it became obvious wind, solar and bio-energy, even combined, are incapable of making a meaningful contribution to the huge amount of the energy humanity will need in order to replace fossil fuels, either now or into the future. This was a painful and expensive lesson recently learned the hard way by many countries. One need only look to Denmark, Spain, Germany and California for graphic demonstrations of the pitfalls of large-scale alternative energy installations. - Sean Holt
