Energy Strategy Submission

Date: Mon, 14 May 2001 07:39:17 -0300
From: philthompson@ns.sympatico.ca (Phil Thompson)
To: sust-mar@chebucto.ns.ca
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NOVA SCOTIA POVERTY AND ENERGY POLICY
A submission to the NS Energy Strategy Process

Phil Thompson
Saltmarsh Island Institute
April 2001
902-499-0365

We once advanced toward a Nova Scotian Conserver Society, responding
dramatically to the OPEC oil crisis of 1973. Houses were insulated,
carpool parking lots built, bicycle lanes constructed, industry
retrofitted, government made policies for buildings. By the 80's all
Canadians had conserved so much energy, by responding both to price
shocks and federal information programs, that federal government revenue
predictions from the sale of gas & oil fell from $75 billion to $25
billion over five years.

This was too much for provincial and federal politicians, who virtually
cancelled programs promoting conservation and renewable energy.
Efficiency in the 90's became doing more with fewer people...rather than
doing more with less energy...this resulted in major dislocations of
workers everywhere. Each energy-intensive choice to automate, use larger
equipment, get a bigger tax write-off, avoid hiring workers, do it with
machines....each choice has dislocated the semiskilled who crowd in
urban areas huddled in old blankets,  while those who made the decision
to dislocate them drive by, one to a car, in V6 luxury. Is this a just
society?

Nova Scotia needs a balanced intermediate technology approach with
appropriate fiscal and legislative measures to employ more people,
particularly the less skilled, and stop replacing them with energy
intensive equipment. Currently, in most sectors, there is a tax benefit
for buying energy intensive equipment, but a tax (payroll deduction)
disincentive for hiring workers. This must end if we are to achieve
social fairness.

If the increasing costs of expanding urban highways could be redirected
toward jobs and housing for our homeless, if changing to smaller
longline fishing vessels can conserve the fish and hire more fishers, if
ending clearcutting with massive machines leads to selective cutting by
small crews of people with chainsaws, if we can be more energy efficient
AND employ more people why aren't we doing it?



Summary of existing debate/discussion

One side of the debate states:

"It's a free society and I can use all the resources I can afford,
anyway I want." This argument is generally supported within government,
which often takes the position that energy conservation and renewable
energy implementation must take place without lifestyle considerations.

The other side of the debate states:

"There are limits to growth, and limits to resources. You may, in a free
society, use whatever resources you like...but you are personally
responsible for the downstream impact of these choices on others, and
must pay the full cost ." This argument suggests lifestyle
matters....and inappropriate lifestyle choices have led to our using
nearly 40 times of the earth's resources per person, than people in
developing countries, or, indeed, our own poor.


Some quotes which indicate the complexity of this issue:

" We need to reduce energy consumption, but we don't want to do it if it
affects our lifestyle." (suburban couple)

" If the climate is going to change...we have to hurry up and use
everything before it is gone." (Maritime sawmill operator)

"If we don't keep driving cars alone to work, car manufacturers will
lose jobs, but if we keep driving cars to work, we won't be able to
breathe in our city." (Urban planner)

"I really want to help the environment, but I don't have time. Worrying
about the world makes me want to start smoking again...." (NS survey
respondent)

" The homeless people can't shovel sidewalks...that's why we need these
machines." (urban civic worker)

"Now these big tree harvesters...they have to clearcut so they can cover
their fuel and operating costs...why should I hire men with chainsaws? I
get a big tax write-off for the machine....the men just cost me more
money...." (forester)

"I used to hire 12 men with tractors every year, but now I can do all my
land alone with one quarter million dollar machine...don't have to
bother with hiring...." (valley farmer)

"There is no evidence that human activity makes any contribution to
climate change." (Senior engineer at coal power plant)

"If I put meters in all my housing units, the tenants might start caring
about power bills...I got a mark up on that power now, and welfare pays
their rent....so why bother? (Halifax landlord)

"We work hard to teach students environmental issues by example, but all
it takes is one person in the school to use power wastefully...and all
we have saved is lost. There are no policies." (Teacher, SEEDS program)

"We used to walk to this beach from the project, but now the seadoos
come flyin' over from the other side of the lake and scare us outa the
water..." (single mom, Dartmouth)

"They've been laying off caretakers since 1991, when teachers got the
big raise...now the schools are mouldy, roofs leak, power bills have
gone up...we were the only people working in the schools who SAVED the
board money! (School caretaker, Port Hawkesbury)

" This trawler uses lots a fuel draggin, that's why we gotta throw the
small fish over...we can only afford t' keep the big ones now, hey? "
(Fishing captain, offshore, before the cod moratorium)

"Course I like my 4x4...got a big V8...lots of power...it's all a write
off too...." (self employed florist describing delivery vehicle)

"Of course natural gas is going to cost more in Nova Scotia, OPEC just
put up the price for oil! (Sempra Executive)




PROPOSED SERIES OF QUESTIONS THAT NEED ANSWERS:

These questions seek to identify policy options to improve the life of
all Nova Scotians by examining the impact of wasteful energy practices.

1/ How Can We Shelter our Poor against Rising Energy Costs?
 Why do low-income people have the highest energy costs?
 Why is it legal for public utilities to cut off power to the poor?
 Who benefits from subsidized energy costs in public housing?
 Where are programs to help the poor reduce energy costs?
 Who has been economically displaced by energy policy decisions?

2/ What are some Opportunities and Barriers for Low Income Earners?
What are effects of environmentally destructive energy use on the poor?
What is the effect of highspeed highways on energy, pollution and the
poor?
Could solar greenhouses on urban rooftops change the lives of our poor?
Why aren’t NS-built solar hot water heating systems on our public
housing?

3/ How has the High Cost of Transportation Energy Affected Us?
 Why have trucks replaced trains when trucks are less efficient?
 What is the energy efficiency rating of a bicycle?
 Why are Nova Scotians back to commuting one to a car?
 What is the effect of inefficient aircraft on high airfares?
 Why is there so little development of public transit here?

4/ Why isn't our Housing as Efficient as it Could Be?
 Why have our energy efficient houses led to higher electrical
consumption?
 Why doesn't the  number of people served by energy count?
 Why do energy efficient refrigerators use more power than they need?
 Why are appliances “on”, after we turn them “off”, what does this cost?

 Why are operating costs of inefficient equipment allowed as tax
write-offs?

5/ What is the Relationship between Energy Choices and Jobs in Industry?

 What is the relationship of boat size and fuel costs to overfishing? To
jobs?
 What is the relationship between forest clearcutting and mechanization?

 Why do NS farmers use ten times more energy than Chinese farmers?
 What is the energy and job cost of importing out-of-season foods?


6/ Why Do Energy Prices Break All Other Economic Rules?
 How can the price for all energy be linked to oil? What about
competition?
 Why are there subsidies for high prices, but no programs to reduce
usage?
 Why does wind electricity cost more than other forms, but less to
produce?
 How does selling energy to the U.S. affect our common economic future ?

7/ Climate Change Action : Where are  Jobs for Nova Scotians?
 Climate change: what are the missed opportunities for general job
creation?
 What is the relationship between energy use, garbage, and jobs?
 How many low-skilled jobs could be produced by provincial energy
program?
 Who benefits from inefficient suburbs? Can they be made efficient?

8/ The Nova Scotian Conserver Society - Possible or Essential?
 What ever happened to the Nova Scotian Conserver Society?
 Low cost appropriate technology - why do we sell to the world, but not
here?
 How could intermediate technologies help alleviate local poverty?
 How did we become the energy and garbage gluttons of the world?

9/ Education and Institutions: why no control over Energy Budgets?
 Have most schools become energy gluttons? What does this teach our
kids?
 Why are there few clear policies on energy use in our institutions?
 What are the main barriers to reducing energy consumption in NS?
 How does turning off lights at work relate to the increase in
homelessness?
 What is the effect of owners marking up energy costs in leased
buildings?

10/ Are there Disincentives to Energy Conservation? What Else Suffers?
 Why do managers of institutions refuse to participate in energy
programs?
 Why don't office workers care about energy costs at work? Who pays?
 Has the government marginalized conservation and renewable energy?
 What relationship have energy advertisers to suppression of
information?
 Who are our pioneers of energy conservation and alternative energy?
 Centralized vs decentralized power generation: which way to go?
 Who knows the answers?

It’s time to find out....and time to make an energy strategy that cares
about all Nova Scotians. Not just the ones leaving $1,000 tips at oil &
gas lunch meetings in Halifax.


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To Have or to Be - Eric Fromm -Harper & Row





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