Commentaire
Going by the summary provided, with two exceptions these appear to be commendable amendments. I did not learn in the media that all these environmental protection measures are being re-introduced, now in the Electricity Act. Question, however: What else would be eliminated by scrapping the Green Energy Act? This should be stated. This is omitted in the Explanatory Note to the Bill as well.
As for the two exceptions, one gives power back to the municipalities (siting of renewable energy facilities), the other puts an additional restriction on renewable energy projects (need to demonstrate demand).
Again based on the information provided, I cannot support these two amendments.
While agreeing in principle that a municipality should be able to regulate (or even prohibit) a project, it should be able to do so only on specified grounds, e.g., incompatibility with adjacent land uses. (And that decision should be appealable, not just by the Minister.) The reality is that we need to move towards a low-carbon economy as soon as possible. The "bias" should be towards facilitating that. Provincial leadership requires it.
Needing to demonstrate demand before a renewable energy project is approved is a dubious proposition as the definition of demand is not under the control of the applicant. Rather, it is provincial policy that is supposed to steer the energy mix in a desired direction, optimizing the transition to a low-carbon economy. Again, that is how the province is expected to lead. While even so there may be "no demand" for a particular project due to specific location or timing circumstances, that should be the exception rather than the rule.
Soumis le 2 octobre 2018 4:52 PM
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Abrogerait la Loi de sur l’énergie verte
Numéro du REO
013-3832
Identifiant (ID) du commentaire
6455
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