http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/ontario-to-spend-7-billion-in-sweeping-climate-change-plan/article30029081/
[Wow! Now to figure out how they square this with a recent decision to
fund more nuclear fleet rebuilds and new builds. Or how this aligns (it
doesn't) with recent federal government musings on driving forward with
new pipeline projects from the Alberta tar sands - currently shutting
down and evacuating due to being surrounded by monster forest fires - to
oceanside bulk tanker terminals on the Atlantic and Pacific.
With this funding and plan, Ontario could well be on the road to getting
off oil before the Energy East pipeline which is intended to cross the
province is completed. Of course, none of the oil to be sent to the
Atlantic is actually intended to displace any oil currently imported for
use in eastern Canada (Ontario and points east).]
environment
Ontario to spend $7-billion on sweeping climate change plan
ADRIAN MORROW And GREG KEENAN
TORONTO — The Globe and Mail
Published Monday, May 16, 2016 5:00AM EDT
Last updated Monday, May 16, 2016 4:30PM EDT
The Ontario government will spend more than $7-billion over four years
on a sweeping climate change plan that will affect every aspect of life
– from what people drive to how they heat their homes and workplaces –
in a bid to slash the province’s carbon footprint.
Ontario will begin phasing out natural gas for heating, provide
incentives to retrofit buildings and give rebates to drivers who buy
electric vehicles. It will also require that gasoline sold in the
province contain less carbon, bring in building code rules requiring all
new homes by 2030 to be heated with electricity or geothermal systems,
and set a target for 12 per cent of all new vehicle sales to be electric
by 2025.
While such policies are likely to be popular with ecoconscious voters,
who will now receive government help to green their lives, they are
certain to cause mass disruption for the province’s automotive and
energy sectors, which will have to make significant changes to the way
they do business. And they have already created tension within the
government between Environment Minister Glen Murray and some of his
fellow ministers who worry he is going too far.
The 57-page Climate Change Action Plan was debated by Premier Kathleen
Wynne’s cabinet Wednesday and subsequently obtained by The Globe and
Mail. Stamped “Cabinet Confidential,” the document lays out a strategy
from 2017 to 2021. It contains about 80 different policies, grouped into
32 different “actions.” Each action has a price tag attached to it, as
well as an estimate of the amount of emissions it will cut by 2020.
The Globe had previously uncovered details of the plan, but this is the
first time the full blueprint has been revealed. The strategy is
scheduled to be further reviewed by cabinet ministers and fine-tuned,
sources said, with public release slated for June.
The many new programs will be paid for out of revenue from the
province’s upcoming cap-and-trade system, which is expected to be
approved by the legislature this week and come into effect at the start
of next year. Together, the cap-and-trade system and the action plan are
the backbone of the province’s strategy to cut emissions to 15 per cent
below 1990 levels by 2020, 37 per cent by 2030 and 80 per cent by 2050.
“We are on the cusp of a once-in-a-lifetime transformation. It’s a
transformation of how we look at our planet and the impact we have on
it,” reads a preamble to the plan signed by Ms. Wynne. “It’s a
transformation that will forever change how we live, work, play and move.”
Highlights include:
$3.8-billion for new grants, rebates and other subsidies to
retrofit buildings, and move them off natural gas and onto geothermal,
solar power or other forms of electric heat. Many of these programs will
be administered by a new Green Bank, modelled on a similar agency in New
York State, to provide financing for solar and geothermal projects.
New building code rules that will require all homes and small
buildings built in 2030 or later to be heated without using fossil
fuels, such as natural gas. This will be expanded to all buildings
before 2050. Other building code changes will require major renovations
to include energy-efficiency measures. All homes will also have to
undergo an energy-efficiency audit before they are sold.
$285-million for electric vehicle incentives. These include a
rebate of up to $14,000 for every electric vehicle purchased; up to
$1,000 to install home charging; taking the provincial portion of the
HST off electric vehicle sales; an extra subsidy program for low– and
moderate-income households to get older cars off the road and replace
them with electric; and free overnight electricity for charging electric
vehicles. The province will also build more charging stations at
government buildings, including LCBO outlets, and consider making
electrical vehicle plug-ins mandatory on all new buildings. The plan
sets targets of expanding electric vehicle sales to 5 per cent of all
vehicles sold by 2020, up to 12 per cent by 2025, and aiming to get an
electric or hybrid vehicle in every multivehicle driveway by 2024, a
total of about 1.7 million cars.
New lower-carbon fuel standards would require all liquid
transportation fuels, such as gasoline and diesel, to slash life-cycle
carbon emissions by 5 per cent by 2020. The plan will also provide
$176-million in incentives to fuel retailers to sell more biodiesel and
85-per-cent ethanol blend. The government will also oblige natural gas
to contain more renewable content, such as gas from agriculture and
waste products.
$280-million to help school boards buy electric buses and trucking
companies switch to lower-carbon trucks, including by building more
liquid natural gas fuelling stations.
$354-million toward the GO regional rail network.
$200-million to build more cycling infrastructure, including
curb-separated bike lanes and bike parking at GO stations.
$375-million for research and development into new clean
technologies, including $140-million for a Global Centre for Low-Carbon
Mobility at an Ontario university or college to develop electric and
other low-carbon vehicle technology.
$1.2-billion to help factories and other industrial businesses cut
emissions, such as by buying more energy-efficient machines.
$174-million to make the government carbon neutral. This will
include retrofitting buildings, allowing some bureaucrats to work from
home and buying carbon offsets.
The actions expected to cause the largest emissions cuts by 2020 are
moving buildings and the electricity system off natural gas (three
million tonnes); programs to make industry more energy efficient (2.5
million tonnes); the low-carbon fuel standard (two million tonnes); the
renewable content requirement for natural gas (one million tonnes); and
switching trucks and buses to liquefied natural gas and electricity
(400,000 tonnes.)
Cutting natural gas, which currently provides 76 per cent of heating,
will require mass adoption of green technologies in buildings across the
province. The plan lists geothermal systems, air heat pumps and rooftop
solar panels as technologies that will be eligible for rebates. It could
also require an expansion of the electricity grid. The plan promises,
however, to subsidize any increased electricity costs for homeowners.
The electric vehicle targets represent a sea change for the province’s
$16-billion auto sector. The 2025 goal would boost to about 86,000 the
number of annual electric vehicle sales, more than 20 times the number
of electric vehicles sold in the province so far this century.
Already, the plan is causing tension within government, pitting Mr.
Murray against Energy Minister Bob Chiarelli and Economic Development
Minister Brad Duguid. Mr. Murray’s colleagues, sources said, complained
that he often did not bother to consult with other ministers as he
drafted the strategy, and ignored their advice when he did.
Energy officials were particularly concerned about the new Green Bank,
contending its functions could be handled by the Independent Electricity
System Operator, sources said. Mr. Duguid, meanwhile, was worried about
the effect on the auto sector. Mr. Murray also aggravated colleagues
with an Economic Club speech last month, in which he chastised auto
companies for not doing enough to fight climate change and mused about
closing down the province’s nuclear power plants.
The behind-the-scenes battle played out at a meeting of cabinet
ministers involved in the climate file two weeks ago, when Mr. Chiarelli
and others confronted Mr. Murray with their complaints, sources said.
After The Globe subsequently revealed the clash, all parties have tried
to play it down.
“We’re working very well together. I’m very excited about it. We have a
very, very good strong team and we’ve worked very hard for two years,”
Mr. Murray said last week.
Mr. Chiarelli, for his part, acknowledged there had been “debate” at
Wednesday’s cabinet meeting, but said it ended with “100 per cent
consensus” on the climate plan.
“We have a normal amount of debate on this issue,” he said. “If you were
to get a leak on every cabinet meeting, you would find out, you know,
that there’s a good airing of points of view on issues.”
Asked if Mr. Murray had to change or water down the plan to get cabinet
buy-in, Mr. Chiarelli cracked a grin.
“You know what? I’d be breaking my oath if I told you that,” he said.
“You know that.”
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