The Trudeau government’s pledge to achieve “net zero” greenhouse gas emissions in 2050 is impractical and unrealistic, and its 2030 target of cutting emissions up to 45% below 2005 levels could cause significant damage to the Canadian economy, according to a new study by the Fraser Institute.
‘My electric hatchback is as heavy as a Jeep – I needed new tyres after 7,500 miles’
Electric car buyers should be aware of the “astronomical” costs required to regularly replace short-lived tyres, owners have warned.
Car lover Jim Bassett managed just 7,500 miles in his brand new Volkswagen ID.3 before being quoted more than £300 to replace the rear rubber.
The 80-year-old stumped up the cash after being told it was common practice for tyres on his rear-wheel model to degrade rapidly due to the weight of the vehicle .
On Wednesday, May 15th, Gateway Energy Storage Facility erupted into flames—it’s a San Diego battery storage in a border community—and firefighters contained the blaze before handing operations off to the facility’s own team. But by the very next day, the fire reignited and it’s been going ever since. We’re now on day nine, by the way.
Can the RCMP turn North America’s largest law enforcement vehicle fleet green? They’re about to find out.
As Canada’s national police service, the RCMP falls under Ottawa’s Greening Government Strategy — a commitment to lower the environmental footprint of the federal government and get it to net‑zero emissions by 2050.
The strategy calls on the RCMP to replace as many of their approximately 12,000 cars and trucks with zero-emission vehicles as operationally possible by 2035.
Another huge waste of tax dollars coming up …
Environment Minister Steven Guilbeault told MPs the carbon tax reduced emissions by nearly 3 percent in a given year, while department officials said the figure was closer to 1 percent.
During testimony at the House of Commons environment committee on May 21, Mr. Guilbeault said the price on carbon was responsible for reducing emissions by 5 megatons in 2018, 14 megatons in 2019, 17 megatons in 2020, 18 megatons in 2021, 19 megatons in 2022, and 24 megatons in 2023.
If Communist China wants to subsidize the world EV market, let them.
Not long ago, President Biden promised to transform the American auto industry — “first with carrots, now with sticks,” is the analogy the Washington Post used.
Now, I don’t know about you, but I’m not sure I’d trust the president to drive my car much less dictate the future of industrial policy. Yet, Mr. Biden implemented draconian emissions limits for all vehicles, ensuring that within nine years, 67 percent of all new passenger cars and trucks will be electric.
Minister suggests Canada is considering tariffs on Chinese EVs following U.S. move
Canada’s industry minister says Ottawa is “considering all measures” after the U.S. announced it would be hiking tariffs on Chinese electric vehicles and other related goods.
François-Philippe Champagne wouldn’t rule out Canada imposing similar tariffs during an interview with CBC News Network’s Power & Politics on Friday.
A major environmentalist group has found that the carbon offsets beloved by far-left activists are ineffective at best.
Carbon offsetting is the global-warming equivalent of the ancient religious practice of buying indulgences. Carbon offsets offer a financial mechanism to compensate for an entity’s emission of greenhouse gases by paying someone else to reduce or remove their own emissions such as by planting trees, which absorb carbon dioxide. Theoretically, this enables emissions to be canceled out, but in reality carbon offsets are plagued by corruption and ineffectiveness.
Even as the much-vaunted electric vehicle (EV) transition slams into stiff headwinds, the Trudeau government and Ontario’s Ford government will pour another $5 billion in subsidies into Honda, which plans to build an EV battery plant and manufacture EVs in Ontario.
Earlier this week, the Biden Administration announced a sweeping set of new tariffs on Chinese imports. The tariffs target strategic sectors from steel and aluminum to green tech. Headline-grabbing among those were the 100-per-cent levies on Chinese electric vehicles. The tariffs are partly political posturing during an election year, as a prior 27.5-per-cent levy and an exclusion from national tax credits have largely kept Chinese EVs off U.S. roads. More important than the tariffs’ immediate impact, though, are the long-term strategic policy considerations underpinning them.
China has developed a revolutionary car battery that can charge in just 10 minutes and power a car for hundreds of miles before it needs to be plugged in.
A report from the International Energy Agency (IEA) has hailed “remarkable” developments in chemistry that have allowed China to develop new batteries that pack far more energy than existing technologies.
The IEA highlighted EV batteries capable of travelling 250 miles without a recharge. Newer versions announced since the report was written can manage 600 miles.
Buoyant electric car sales are a must if we’re to hit our climate targets. But EV sales in the West are down and if governments want them to recover it may have to be at the expense of their own economies.
The numbers
Any motorway driver will know the feeling: you’re cruising along, miles of open road seemingly ahead and then from nowhere, a slowdown.
Something similar has hit the electric vehicle market in 2024. After years of soaring sales, growth appears to be stalling.
Replacing fossil-fuel-powered cars with EVs is central to the UK government’s plan to meet its climate goals – road transport accounting for 12% of planetary emissions.
The question is whether this is a blip that will soon disappear into the rear-view mirror, or is this going to prove more enduring? And if it lasts, will governments have the stomach to do what it takes to keep the net zero show on the road?
I was struck by some numbers in Robert Lyman’s column in FP Comment yesterday on the costs of net-zero climate policies. The costs he talked about were impressive enough: the units they come in are years’ worth of GDP. But what impressed me almost even more was that, according to a compilation by Navius Research for the Canadian Climate Institute, there are, as Lyman wrote, no fewer than 112 federal and 364 provincial and territorial programs addressed at various aspects of climate change. That’s almost 500 in total.
Newly released figures have more than doubled what the government spent to attend a high-profile UN climate change summit last year.
And, according to information sourced online, COP28’s Canada pavilion featured a four-minute climate change hip-hop set by Baba Brinkman, a Canadian rapper and playwright known for rapping about science, literature and environmental issues, and is also the son of former federal fisheries minister Joyce Murray.
Conservative Party Leader Pierre Poilievre is calling on the federal government to suspend all taxes on gasoline and diesel between Victoria Day on May 19 and Labour Day on Sept. 2 to help Canadians save money and retain their summer vacations amid high inflation.
Speaking to reporters in Vancouver, Mr. Poilievre said many families could be forced to cancel their summer vacation plans due to the rising cost of living, noting the record number of visits to food banks across the country.
Climate change will be a lesser priority in Florida and largely disappear from state statutes under legislation signed on Wednesday by the state’s governor, Ron DeSantis, in a move which experts say ignores the reality of Florida’s climate threats.
The legislation, which comes after Florida had its hottest year on record since 1895, also bans power-generating wind turbines offshore or near the state’s lengthy coastline.
Florida is facing rising seas, extreme heat, flooding and increasingly severe storms.
“Climate change” will eventually join repressed memory in the hysteria hall of fame.
