Re-focus Green Spending, Report Claims
Yesterday, the C.D. Howe Institute released their review of the Government’s renewable energy programs where they suggested the need for a re-focusing of tax-payer money.
The report calls for “A redirection of federal funds towards more fiscally cost-effective carbon mitigation.” It finds that the money is being spent inefficiently on subsidizing technologies aimed at reducing our CO2 emissions.
Currently tax-payers contribute $4.5 billion to the EcoEnergy program – the Conservative initiative to subsidize spending on green initiatives. The program works by allowing tax-breaks and subsidies to business and individuals for their investment in technologies that will reduce our ecological footprint. Some improvements worthy of the money are:
- Retrofitting of homes
- Ethanol fetches
- Electricity generated from renewable sources like wind and biomass.
To reduce one tonne of CO2 through the use of ethanol fetches it costs from $295 to $430 in subsidies. Conversely, it costs a mere $30 to $60 for the same result through electricity generated by wind, biomass, biofuels, and solar technology. Roger Samson & Stephanie Bailey Stamler, of the REAP-Canada, claim, “The least efficient technologies are heavily subsidized, while the most cost-effective technologies receive limited support.”
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Tags: ecological footprint, global warming, green spending, renewable energy
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