OTTAWA — Mark Zacharais, executive director at Clean Energy Canada, made the following statement in response to the 2024 federal budget: “Amid the government’s headline-grabbing commitments in Budget 2024 to help build more homes and support first-time buyers are a suite of measures that will help build something else critically important: a cleaner economy with affordable clean energy. “Indeed, clean energy is the only lasting way to cut energy bills for Canadians. To that end, the federal government’s popular EV rebate program received a $607.9 million top-up to ensure it does not run out. W ..read more

Canada has what it takes to become a global EV powerhouse. But to keep up with the competition, we must leverage our wealth of resources, from clean power to skilled workers and sustainably produced critical minerals. Deal after Deal Canada’s list of achievements is noteworthy: launching the country’s first full-scale electric vehicle assembly plant, landing a trio of highly sought-after EV battery gigafactories from Volkswagen, Stellantis/LG, and Northvolt, and being considered by Honda for an $18-billion EV plant. It’s clear to anyone watching that Canada is loo ..read more

OTTAWA — Joanna Kyriazis, Director of Public Affairs at Clean Energy Canada, made the following statement in response to the federal government’s announcement of an updated Greener Homes Affordability Program as part of Canada’s Housing Plan:  “The Canada Greener Homes initiative has been hugely popular with Canadians, and it’s easy to understand why: switching to clean energy and improving the efficiency of one’s home is a great way to save money every month. The program grew so popular, in fact, that the fund ran out of money ahead of schedule. “To that end, Clean Energy Canada supports ..read more

VANCOUVER —Trevor Melanson, Communications Director at Clean Energy Canada, made the following statement in response to the federal government’s scheduled April 1 carbon price and rebate increase: “A lot of political noise has been made about the carbon price, but the real political scandal is a lack of climate leadership from certain premiers and party leaders offering no alternative. “As a recent open letter signed by over 250 Canadian economists made clear, ‘the most vocal opponents of carbon pricing are not offering alternative policies to reduce emissions and meet our climate goals. And t ..read more

B.C.’s nascent LNG industry evokes strong opinions from all sides. While perhaps the one thing everyone can agree on is that Canada is late to the LNG party, on everything else, common ground is elusive. LNG may have looked like a viable path for B.C. a decade ago, but this isn’t necessarily the case today. In fact, B.C. LNG looks more and more like a bet, and perhaps more than any other in recent provincial memory, it is a bet with big costs and big risks. LNG is a bet on one vision for our economy over another. It’s a bet on a particularly draining use of our electricity system over other pr ..read more

VICTORIA — Expanding LNG in B.C. comes with risks to B.C.’s economy and energy system, finds a new report from Clean Energy Canada, An Uncertain Future. B.C.’s nascent LNG industry has a number of proposed LNG projects, some of which have not yet been built or even approved, but the business and environmental case for expanding the industry is built on questionable foundations. Specifically, it is unclear who will be buying B.C. LNG in the coming years and decades as forecasts for future LNG demand vary significantly. Japan’s LNG imports, for one, have steadily declined over the last decade an ..read more

OTTAWA — Joanna Kyriazis, director of public affairs at Clean Energy Canada, made the following statement in response to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s final Multi-Pollutant Emissions Standards for Model Years 2027 and Later Light-Duty and Medium-Duty Vehicles: “The tailpipe regulations finalized today are good news for North Americans, who will reap the benefits of cleaner cars and fresher air. “The new rules, which automatically apply in Canada, require automakers to reduce tailpipe emissions and improve the fuel efficiency of the vehicles they make, including by selling mor ..read more

“My job is not to be popular.” When the Prime Minister uttered those words amid a passionate, seven-minute defence of the carbon price this week, he must have known he had just written his own headline. In many respects, it was a compelling speech. Far from looking tired after eight years of leadership, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau sounded impassioned, authentic, ready for battle. He really believes what he’s saying, and he happens to be right. Canada’s price on pollution is an effective, elegantly designed climate policy that maximizes emissions reductions while minimizing potentia ..read more

There is indeed a problem with electric vehicles — only it’s not a problem with the vehicles themselves. EVs can scarcely stay out of the news and off social media these days, and while that much exposure for a key climate solution is positive in one respect, in another, it is — more often than not — increasingly negative. A recent study of more than 12,000 climate-related YouTube videos posted since 2018 found that old-fashioned climate denial — think “global warming is fake” — has been replaced by another breed of dissent. While straight-up denying the existence of climate change h ..read more

When the federal government rolled out its Greener Homes Grant in the final month of 2020, it was expected to last at least four years. And yet, just a month into this year, the grant was abruptly shut down amid “skyrocketing” applications. In the last few months alone, hundreds of thousands of Canadians have mobilized to make their homes more efficient. The number of households applying to the grant—which offers up to $5,000 off the upfront cost of various energy upgrades—increased by 55 per cent between November 2023 and January 2024. Heat pumps were the main attraction, with more ..read more