The greatest threat to the Canadian auto industry, the roughly half-million jobs it supports, the $38-billion in exports it generates annually, and the billions in foreign direct investment it accounts for, is not U.S. President Donald Trump. His threat of automotive tariffs is expected to disappear when Canadian-U.S. trade negotiations conclude.
The existential threat to Canada’s auto industry is our electric-vehicle mandate that mimics California’s.
Ottawa to bring back EV incentives: Minister Joly
As Canadian OEMs who assemble vehicles in Canada continue to announce delayed investments, and scaled back production plans, Canada’s newly-named federal Minister of Industry Mélanie Joly has been meeting with their leaders to encourage them to protect Canadian jobs.
After meetings with General Motors officials in Oshawa yesterday, Joly held a press briefing and answered questions from reporters.
“I’m a very pragmatic person, and I’m not naive. So we need to continue to fight for these jobs,” said Joly. “The auto sector is under huge pressure because of the U.S. tariffs.”
Carney looking after his pals.
With no federal budget in sight there is no way of knowing which of the Liberal government’s grand economic platform strategies and major government interventions are still on Prime Minister Mark Carney’s must-do list. The only item on the official agenda at the moment is a July 1 reduction in the middle-class tax rate from 15 to 14 per cent, a move that will cost the government about $5 billion this year and raise the 2025-26 deficit closer to $50 billion.
Spain’s leading energy companies—Iberdrola, Endesa, and EDP—remain stunned. After the nationwide blackout that cut power across Spain on April 28, the government has yet to provide a clear explanation or take technical responsibility. The companies, represented by the employers’ association Aelec, have denounced “surprising omissions” in the official investigation. They demand that the extreme voltage spikes recorded in the days leading up to the collapse be included in the analysis. They have criticized the preliminary report from ENTSO-E—the European network of electricity operators—for claiming that “the system was operating normally” just seconds before the failure. Meanwhile, severe voltage swings were recorded, going beyond safety limits and triggering automatic shutdowns of high-voltage substations and key refineries.
Mark Carney has made it clear that as part of continued net zero policies, his government will consider imposing a Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM.) That would be a carbon tariff applied to imports, to support Canadian products burdened by domestic carbon pricing.
Proposed in 2021 and included in the 2024 Fall Economic Statement, the Canadian CBAM is a misguided attempt to shield domestic industries. In response to America’s new tariffs, a CBAM has been proposed to pivot trade to the EU and adopt a European-style CBAM.
President Donald Trump signed a series of executive orders designed to fast-track the development and deployment of advanced nuclear reactors on Friday culminating a dramatic policy shift aimed at revitalizing the U.S. nuclear energy sector.
h/t DS
While green advocates commonly use the terms renewable, sustainable, and net zero to describe their efforts, the dirty little secret is that much of the waste from solar panels and wind turbines is ending up in landfills.
The current amounts of fiberglass, resins, aluminum and other chemicals — not to mention propeller blades from giant wind turbines — pose no threat currently to local town dumps, but this largely ignored problem will become more of a challenge in the years ahead as the 500 million solar panels and the 73,000 wind turbines now operating in the U.S. are decommissioned and replaced.
The stench of a cover-up hangs over Spain’s giant blackout, the worst electricity failure in any developed country in modern times.
Faith in the current investigation has reached rock-bottom. The socialist government of Pedro Sánchez is trying to buy time with explanations that either make no technical sense or veer into absurdity.
Red Eléctrica, which runs the grid, is accused of stonewalling everybody.
Over the past decade, the leaders of corporate and international organizations became used to being lauded for making grand but ultimately empty green promises on stages in Davos and at climate summits. How quickly things have changed! Fear of being called out by the Trump administration is forcing many leaders to change course — at least in their rhetoric.
California has long been one of the nation’s pre-eminent eco-warriors, enacting landmark environmental standards for cars and trucks that go much further than those mandated by the federal government. Vehicles across the country are cleaner, more efficient and electric in greater numbers because of it.
But that could all change if Donald Trump and his Republican allies manage to revoke the state’s ability to set its own, stricter emissions standards amid a White House crusade to combat climate-friendly policies.
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) sets and updates its own federal standards for all states on smog and emissions from cars and trucks, which the Biden administration made even stricter last year, saying they will save American drivers thousands in fuel costs and maintenance over the life of a vehicle.
GM Is Pushing Hard to Tank California’s EV Mandate
General Motors went all in on electric cars. Now it is racing to reverse the nation’s most aggressive EV mandate.
“We need your help!” GM said in an email it sent this past week to thousands of its white-collar employees. “Emissions standards that are not aligned with market realities pose a serious threat to our business by undermining consumer choice and vehicle affordability.”
h/t DS
Brian Burke, the famously blunt former NHL general manager, once told team ownership in a job interview, “There will be only two hands on the steering wheel, and they’ll both be mine.” It was his way of telling the billionaire owners that he would be calling the shots and taking full responsibility for them.
That quote is starting to feel more and more relevant to national pipeline policy under the Carney Liberals. Except in Ottawa, it’s not about one person with two hands. It’s more like a guessing game of whose hands are even on the wheel — and whether anyone in the vehicle has a valid license.
A new survey from AutoTrader shows electric vehicle sales have dropped for the third year in a row.
According to the data, interest in electric vehicles has continued to drop since 2022 and the ongoing threat of U.S. President Donald Trump’s tariffs has contributed to the downward trend. Consumers have raised concerns over reduced government incentives, the lack of electric vehicle infrastructure, and cost, the survey said.
WARNING! Farmers, Residents Sound Alarm over Risky Battery Project on Farmland
As renewable energy projects expand across Canada, concerns are rising over the hidden risks of battery energy storage systems (BESS).
A rural community in North Glengarry, Ontario, is resisting a… pic.twitter.com/Js5yn7g7dw
— Rebel News (@RebelNewsOnline) May 19, 2025
Discovery of a Chinese ‘kill-switch’ in a US solar farm sparks fears of widespread power cuts
“Cheap, clean power, to give us energy security,” declared Ed Miliband, as he strode through a grassy field flanked by rows of solar panels.
With a film crew in tow, the Energy Secretary visited Castle Hill solar farm, in East Yorkshire, last Thursday to promote the launch of Great British Energy, the new publicly owned energy company.
If he gets his way, there will soon be many more sites like it. Under Labour’s clean power mission, the Government wants to almost triple the amount of British solar capacity by 2030.
The first notable act of our newly-minted culture minister, Steven Guilbeault, was to recite to media scribes the myth of peak oil. Asked whether pipelines would continue to be a disruptor to Alberta-Ottawa relations, he replied:
“The Canadian energy regulator, as well as the International Energy Agency, are telling us that probably by 2028, 2029, demand for oil will peak globally and it will also peak in Canada.”
Electric vehicle sales have dropped 44 percent since last year, even as the overall new vehicle market grows, according to Statistics Canada’s latest vehicle sales update.
In March 2024, 22,390 new zero-emission vehicles (ZEVs) were sold in Canada, including battery electric and plug-in hybrid models. This year, however, the sales for March dropped to 12,347 ZEVs,
StatCan determined through its monthly new motor vehicle sales survey.
