Politics, Ontario, Sound Familiar?

If green energy brings in development, investment, jobs and opportunity - why would anyone try to turn back the clock? A conversation at the Small Wind Reception with Mr. Rakesh Naidu of Windsor Essex Economic Development pointed out the stark fact that politics have more to do with energy policy than does technology or economics.

Ontario is at the forefront of wind energy in Canada, with more than 1,300 MW of wind generation capacity operating in the province. The previous government was invested in green technologies successfully leveraging their manufacturing and industrial sectors into leadership positions.

It appears that a misinformation campaign by a more conservative faction lumped the green investment in with the cost of rebuilding infrastructure that had reached the end of it's usable lifetime.  Together with favorable tariffs and other policies, the average rate payer was convinced that rising energy costs could be blamed on the liberal do-gooder tax and spend greenies.

By the time the facts were out - that only 2% of the increases could be blamed on wind infrastructure - the election was over and the progressives were out of power.

It remains to be seen if the previous policies will have enough momentum to weather the political winds.  The basic economics of wind power and wind technologies could have launched the province to world leadership.  We'll be watching developments in Ontario.