Juno News - December 10, 2020


Ep. 4 ｜ “Clean Energy” Schemes


Episode Stats

Length

18 minutes

Words per Minute

152.9848

Word Count

2,860

Sentence Count

150


Summary


Transcript

00:00:00.000 Despite the devastating impacts of the coronavirus and the ensuing lockdowns, the government is set
00:00:10.320 on implementing more green energy schemes. At a time when unemployment numbers have reached
00:00:15.360 historical highs, you would think the government would be prioritizing the economy and job creation.
00:00:21.200 Unfortunately, instead, the Trudeau government is doubling down on its green agenda.
00:00:26.400 Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland said any plan to restart the economy following COVID-19
00:00:33.120 must be green, equitable, and based on decarbonization.
00:00:38.160 Talena's question about decarbonization as part of our economic plan going forward, of course,
00:00:47.920 it has to be part of it. I think all Canadians understand that the restart of our economy
00:00:55.840 needs to be green. It also needs to be equitable. It needs to be inclusive.
00:01:03.040 Well, before Canadians give these politicians a blank check to re-engineer our entire society
00:01:08.960 based on wild green fantasies about a new economy, we should remember our own experiences
00:01:14.880 with failed projects and green energy schemes. Even Canadians who worry about climate change
00:01:20.880 and want to prioritize a clean natural environment should be weary of falling for these empty promises
00:01:26.480 from politicians. On today's episode, we take a look at the various failed green energy schemes
00:01:32.720 created by the government. In 2009, the Ontario Liberal government introduced the Ontario Green Energy
00:01:38.720 Act, a utopian strategy that was supposed to make Ontario a green pioneer and a world leader in
00:01:45.440 sustainable development. Many of the high-ranking staffers who worked with the Liberals at the time
00:01:50.560 and were key architects of this legislation, including prominent advisor to Justin Trudeau,
00:01:55.680 Gerald Butts, now later moved on to senior roles in the federal Liberal government.
00:02:00.240 The Green Energy Act was passed by the former Liberal government of Ontario in 2009,
00:02:05.520 and it was supposed to pave the way into Ontario's use of immemorable energy sources, mainly wind and solar power.
00:02:12.080 And what they linked it to was they were going to eliminate the use of coal-fired electricity,
00:02:18.080 which produced 25% of Ontario's electricity.
00:02:22.320 The Ontario Green Energy Act drove countless Ontario households into bankruptcy,
00:02:27.600 forced businesses and manufacturers to shut their doors or flee the province,
00:02:31.840 landed one unlucky Liberal staffer in jail. And meanwhile, well-connected insiders built
00:02:37.440 personal fortunes through green corporate handouts and special backroom deals.
00:02:42.800 Under this scheme, the Ontario government shut down the province's coal energy plants
00:02:47.520 and attempted to replace them with highly subsidized wind and solar energy sources.
00:02:53.440 These sources, however, turned out to be highly unreliable and failed to meet the energy needs of the
00:02:59.280 province. Ontario found itself in the precarious position where it was importing expensive energy
00:03:06.320 during peak hours and then forced to sell excess energy produced at night at a substantial loss.
00:03:13.040 Energy prices in the province spiked by 110%, and the government was left scrambling.
00:03:19.520 Ultimately, they decided to build gas-powered electricity plants to make up the difference.
00:03:25.360 But this presented a whole new problem for the Ontario Liberal government.
00:03:28.640 You see, environmentalists and Liberal allies had spent years demonizing fossil fuel as a source of
00:03:35.840 electricity, and therefore these gas plants became increasingly unpopular.
00:03:40.960 During the 2012 Ontario provincial election, then Liberal Premier Dalton McGinty reversed his decision
00:03:47.840 and announced that he would cancel the gas-powered plants being built in two strategic Liberal
00:03:52.880 ridings in suburban Toronto. That's right, he did this right in the middle of an election campaign.
00:03:57.360 The government intervened and cancelled two gas plants that were, for political reasons,
00:04:02.320 because the local Liberal ridings weren't happy about having gas plants, and so they cancelled them.
00:04:08.240 And the Auditor General said, well, that cost us a billion dollars over 20 years.
00:04:12.880 We basically paid for the four gas plants and we only got two. So it has been an economic disaster for
00:04:21.040 the people of Ontario because it's contributed to about a 100% rise in electricity prices in a decade.
00:04:28.720 It was a political disaster to the McGinty and Wynn governments because it was just one more mess
00:04:35.040 they'd made of green energy.
00:04:36.560 This partisan decision, which helped the Liberals win that election, left taxpayers with a $2 billion tab.
00:04:44.000 That's not $2 billion to build the new gas plants. That's $2 billion not to build them. That is,
00:04:50.240 in sunk costs, cancelled contracts and other liabilities. Billions more were eventually spent
00:04:55.440 in building other gas plants in other parts of the province that weren't as important to the Liberals
00:05:00.560 electorally in order to make up for Ontario's self-imposed energy deficits. And that's not all.
00:05:07.600 The Ontario Liberals tried to cover it all up by misleading the public and quietly destroying the
00:05:12.720 evidence. McGinty's Chief of Staff David Livingston was ultimately found guilty of destroying public
00:05:19.120 documents. He went to jail. McGinty's former Chief of Staff David Livingston was sentenced to four
00:05:26.240 months in jail for his role in wiping government hard drives just before Kathleen Wynne took office.
00:05:32.960 The judge presiding over the case said that the Liberal government's conduct
00:05:36.480 was an affront to and attack on democratic institutions and values. For those of us who
00:05:42.640 lived in Ontario during this scandal, we know firsthand just how disastrous these government-led
00:05:48.400 green energy schemes can be. The government intervened and cancelled two gas plants that were
00:05:54.000 for political reasons because the local Liberal ridings weren't happy about having gas plants and
00:05:59.760 so they cancelled them. And the Auditor General said, well that cost us a billion dollars over
00:06:05.040 20 years. We basically paid for the four gas plants and we only got two. And so what happened then, when
00:06:13.680 the government finally was defeated, they killed a whole bunch of government documents that they weren't
00:06:21.680 supposed to kill. And one of the former premier's most senior advisors went to jail over it. So it has been
00:06:28.800 an economic disaster for the people of Ontario because it's contributed to about a 100% rise in
00:06:35.680 electricity prices in a decade. It was a political disaster to the McGuinty and Wynne governments
00:06:42.080 because it was just one more mess they'd made of green energy. And we're going to be paying for it for
00:06:48.960 the next, what is it now? It's 2020. We're going to be paying for it for the next decade before we can
00:06:54.400 even get out of most of these contracts. We've heard all politicians say this before. They're getting
00:06:59.920 tough on climate change or they're taking climate action. But what exactly does this mean? The failure of
00:07:05.680 the Green Energy Act in Ontario is not an isolated incident. While the elusive idea of renewable energy
00:07:12.240 sounds appealing, in practice, the fact is that technology is just not there yet. Wind and solar
00:07:18.640 will become viable when we develop batteries that can store electricity at the levels needed to power
00:07:25.760 a modern economy. Because the electricity is intermittent, you can't use it in an efficient way.
00:07:33.040 So what a lot of people, including myself, think we should do is we should use the best conventional
00:07:38.560 fuels we have right now, the lowest emitting as the bridge to a decade or two from now when wind and
00:07:44.960 solar and biomass and a lot of these other things will become viable. But that doesn't stop activists
00:07:51.280 in government from pushing these projects and wasting countless dollars in the process. Oftentimes the
00:07:57.680 federal government is just spending money for the sake of spending money on climate change. For example,
00:08:03.120 in 2017 and 2018 there were seven climate change research projects set up by the Trudeau government
00:08:10.720 and funded by you, the taxpayer, to the tune of 10.5 million dollars that were never deployed or
00:08:16.640 conducted. Under the current climate change funding requirements, there are no consequences if funded
00:08:23.200 researchers do not actually submit their climate reports. That's right, climate change researchers are being
00:08:30.320 paid by the taxpayer to do nothing. The evaluation of the Aquatic Climate Change Adaption Services
00:08:37.840 program reads, in 2017 and 18, seven projects were funded for which researchers did not provide reports,
00:08:46.000 hence their status is unknown. This taxpayer-funded government program is costing Canadians 3.5 million
00:08:53.040 dollars annually and this is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the money spent on climate
00:08:58.320 ideology without any regard for the outcome or any measurable improvement to the natural environment.
00:09:04.720 Speaking of useless and counterproductive government climate initiatives, let's talk for a minute about
00:09:09.600 electric cars. Electric car subsidies, one of the most inefficient ways to lower emissions on earth.
00:09:16.960 Electric cars are great until you've got a lot of them. Then you've got to look at the power source. If
00:09:22.800 their power source is coal-fired electricity, then you may as well get a fuel-efficient conventional
00:09:28.000 vehicle. Also, electric car batteries, you need to make those, and to make solar panels, you need
00:09:34.880 rare earth metals. Rare earth metals are mined in countries like China with some of the worst
00:09:41.040 environmental conditions in the world. And when you get rid of those batteries, it's a nightmare.
00:09:46.480 We all know that one guy. The guy who drives a Tesla and thinks he's saving the world one kilometer at a
00:09:52.080 time. While Elon Musk has done a tremendous job marketing his cars as a green alternative to gas
00:09:57.760 guzzling SUVs, the verdict is still out over whether or not electric vehicles are actually better for the
00:10:04.000 planet. I don't usually agree with socialist documentary filmmaker Michael Moore, but in his
00:10:09.200 recent documentary Planet of the Humans, he did an excellent job explaining how the production of these
00:10:15.360 electric vehicles is more harmful to the environment than driving a gas-fueled vehicle. Tesla's electric
00:10:22.160 cars are built with aluminum, which uses eight times more energy to manufacture than steel. They use
00:10:26.640 lithium, which also rely on toxic mining, and even more graphite, which is one of the rarest forms of
00:10:32.960 carbon. In fact, the investors wanted to open several new graphite mines after Tesla announced the
00:10:38.960 gigafactory. But never mind these pesky facts. Governments across Canada have jumped on the electric vehicle
00:10:45.120 bandwagon and are now offering taxpayer-funded rebates to those wealthy enough to purchase an electric
00:10:51.200 vehicle. Currently, Transport Canada offers rebates of up to $5,000 for electric vehicles sold for $45,000
00:10:59.200 or less. The logic is by paying Canadians to switch to electric vehicles, carbon emissions in Canada will
00:11:05.760 go down. But similar rebates in California and other liberal jurisdictions simply helped rich people
00:11:12.400 buying their favorite status symbol. Just look at this report from Los Angeles-based YouTuber Graham
00:11:18.400 Steffen, explaining how he took advantage of various government subsidies, grants, and handouts to buy
00:11:24.880 a brand new luxury vehicle for just $78 per month. So you might be wondering now, how did I get this car for
00:11:32.320 $78.39 per month? I will get back $2,500 from California's EV rebate program. I'll get back
00:11:41.040 another $3,780 from the federal tax credit. I bought this car specifically for business use, which means
00:11:47.920 the $1,438 in interest that I pay financing the car is a tax write-off. I also get to write off the $4,437
00:11:57.040 in taxes, licensing, and registration as a tax write-off. I can also depreciate the value of the
00:12:03.680 car about $8,200 in the first year. All of that combined works out to be about a $14,000 tax write-off.
00:12:11.280 It's effectively like I'm buying a brand new Tesla Model 3 for the out-of-pocket cost of $78.39 per month.
00:12:21.520 Look, Graham is a smart guy and I don't begrudge him for taking advantage of government stupidity.
00:12:27.360 But this is a guy who became a millionaire at age 26. He built a $10 million real estate portfolio
00:12:33.200 and he makes millions of dollars per year on YouTube. He doesn't need government handouts,
00:12:38.000 but this is exactly the type of person who benefits from these green government schemes.
00:12:42.480 And in Canada, when it comes to subsidizing rich people driving luxury Teslas,
00:12:47.040 the government isn't even sure the program helps the environment. In fact,
00:12:50.800 they have no idea if this is the case. Officials from Transport Canada have been unable to determine
00:12:56.560 whether this $300 million program has had any impact on carbon emissions whatsoever.
00:13:02.960 In December 2019, Transport Canada's Chief Financial Officer Ryan Pilgrim was unable to answer
00:13:09.840 basic questions from the Senate National Finance Committee on the cost per ton of carbon emissions
00:13:15.440 reduced. He could only point to a single percentage increase in the number of Canadians who use
00:13:20.720 electric cars from 2% up to 3% since this program was implemented. But that doesn't tell us anything
00:13:28.160 about the usefulness of the program or whether or not it reduced emissions. Several provinces have
00:13:33.840 engaged in similar rebate programs at the taxpayer's expense while producing little or no real results.
00:13:40.960 Up until 2018, the Government of Ontario was offering one of Canada's most generous rebate programs for
00:13:46.800 electric cars, up to $14,000 per car. Again, the province had no idea if this was lowering emissions,
00:13:53.760 and only a select few, those who could afford an electric car, took advantage of the program.
00:13:59.520 In 2017, there were only 7,477 electric vehicles in Ontario, a province of over 13.5 million people.
00:14:09.440 Ontario Premier Doug Ford finally scrapped the rebate program in 2018. Ford predicted that by
00:14:16.000 ending the rebates and ending the cap-and-trade program used to fund them, $1 billion of taxpayer
00:14:21.680 money would be saved over four years. Unfortunately, despite overwhelming evidence that suggests that
00:14:27.040 government rebates on electric vehicles have little to no impact on carbon emissions, both the Ontario and
00:14:33.360 federal government announced in the fall of 2020 that they would be giving millions of taxpayer dollars
00:14:39.520 in corporate welfare to Ford to mass-produce electric vehicles in Oakville, Ontario. The Ontario
00:14:45.600 government plans to give Ford $295 million in funding to be matched by an additional $295 million from
00:14:53.600 the federal government. That's nearly $600 million going from your pockets into the coffers of a
00:15:00.000 multi-billion dollar transnational corporation. This is part of a long trend in Canada, unfortunately,
00:15:06.000 of governments funding multinational corporations to prop up the domestic car manufacturing industry.
00:15:13.680 It's interesting how these politicians talk out of both sides of their mouth. They virtue signal and
00:15:19.280 pretend to champion the environment. All the while, they also subsidize gas-guzzling vehicles and prop up the
00:15:25.440 auto industry. It's almost like they don't care about the environment at all.
00:15:34.160 Whether or not the Earth faces catastrophic climate change, and if this is the case, what can we actually
00:15:39.440 do about it? These are conversations that should be taking place in the scientific realm. These debates
00:15:45.040 should be dispassionate, evidence-based, rooted in the scientific method, and conducted without political
00:15:51.040 rhetoric or name-calling. But instead, the dominant voices in the conversations about the environment
00:15:57.200 and climate change have been the political ones. Just look at the most influential figures in
00:16:02.400 environmental advocacy over the past two decades. We have David Suzuki, a biologist and a celebrity
00:16:08.480 activist. Al Gore, a politician and filmmaker. Greta Thunberg, a teenage protester. And of course,
00:16:16.400 the scores of Hollywood celebrities who get off their private jets to tell us to ditch our cars,
00:16:22.160 stop having big families, and to stop eating meat. It's easy to roll your eyes at these activists,
00:16:27.280 and frankly, their silliness. But we need to understand the power they wield over the politicians
00:16:32.960 whose actions and policies impact our lives. This is why Canada has a carbon tax. Remember, Justin Trudeau's
00:16:39.760 Liberals ran on a campaign pledge to impose this tax during the 2015 election. Could you ever have
00:16:46.320 imagined a political party so brazen about their desire to tax voters and still win the election?
00:16:53.120 Even a lot of Conservatives got sucked into thinking that a carbon tax isn't that bad,
00:16:57.600 or perhaps it's inevitable, without challenging the underlying assumptions.
00:17:02.160 As we heard from everyday Canadians, people aren't even clear what this carbon tax is all about.
00:17:07.760 And yet, the government insists that it has a sweeping mandate for it.
00:17:11.760 Not just a mandate to impose its environmental agenda on Canadians, but also globally. Remember
00:17:17.360 that the Canadian government has spent $2.65 billion given to a United Nations fund for global climate
00:17:24.240 change relief. While foreign actors have spent unknown sums of cash campaigning in Canada against
00:17:31.440 our own industries. COVID-19 brought Canada's economy, and indeed the entire global economy,
00:17:37.280 to a halt. But it's provided opportunistic activists the opportunity to try to rebuild the world in
00:17:43.920 their image. Whether it's the World Economic Forum, you know, the Davos elite calling for a great reset,
00:17:50.720 or Canada's own Deputy Prime Minister suggesting a green restart to our economy based on decarbonization,
00:17:57.680 whatever that means. It's not just this tax credit, or that retrofitting program, or some plan to install
00:18:03.760 electric vehicle charging stations. Sure, these things often come with a steep price tag, but there's
00:18:09.200 something else going on here, something much more fundamental. Governments and activists have teamed up
00:18:14.400 to impose an agenda that threatens Canada's sovereignty, purposefully destroys good-paying middle-class jobs,
00:18:20.720 costs billions of dollars, and often flies in the face of the very science it claims is backing it all up.
00:18:27.040 And that leaves us with one simple question. How dare you?