Zapping taxpayers won’t validate green energy
A few years back, I had a chat with a reporter who had recently moved to Calgary from Europe, where he covered energy issues. In a discussion about renewables, he gave the oft-heard opinion that Europe was, of course, “ahead” of Canada. His eyes widened with admiration for how Europeans were greening their power grid.
He soon hopped from his media job to a communications position with the Alberta government to promote green energy. The career change made sense. If one drops objectivity in favour of advocacy, it’s best to jump to that career or to a government receptive to one’s enthusiasms.
That chat often reminds me of the mistake some casual observers make about a hoped-for technology, one heavily subsidized by citizens through their taxes or power bills: That the existence of a massively taxpayer-subsidized sector is somehow proof the underlying technology is viable and perhaps one day profitable. (In the short term at least, it’s proof of the opposite: If an industry or business was viable, it wouldn’t need subsidies.)
In the case of Europe and its electricity sector, heavily tilted to renewables as policy, consumer and taxpayer subsidies come at a heavy price. Consider Germany: The New York Times reported last autumn that Germany spent €189 billion on green subsidies since 2000 (that’s about C$300 billion). But greenhouse gas emissions are stubbornly stuck at 2009 levels.