Obama Plays Keystone Cop

Ever since I saw a documentary on the Alberta tar sands I'd wondered why no one appeared to be standing up to the oil moguls. While Calgary has become a boom town the devastation to the landscape has been unbelievable. But all in the name of oil it was allowed to continue. At least now President Obama has fired a mild warning shot to try to get things under control. I do fear though that whilst environmentalists celebrate this is just one more small battle in the war. I love Canada having been there often to visit friends over the years but from an environmentally conscious nation it seems to have old its soul over oil. All Prime Minister Stephen Harper could do was tell the US they'd be selling more to Asia if the pipeline remains blocked. So much for an environmental conscience. If you haven't caught up with the tar sands project which has sent thousands of Canadians flocking to what was when I first visited the sleepy town of Calgary have a look at http://www.greenpeace.org/international/en/campaigns/climate-change/stop-the-tar-sands/ it gives you a good introduction to what's going on. So at least for now its hats off to Obama but as another another great american once said "it ain't over till its over." 

Feed in Tariff Too Hungry!

The government announced today they are going to appeal against the ruling that found the proposal to cut the feed in tariff legally flawed. The argument relates to section 41 of the Energy Act 2008 which they say gives the Secretary of State the power to decide what measures are taken to encourage the generation of small scale low carbon electricity. Without being a lawyer who of course are the only ones that win out of such an argument I have no idea whether they have a case or not. That though is surely not the argument. There are two aspects to this in my mind. The first is the government had no idea how popular the scheme would become despite it being a pretty good deal. Secondly they didn't see the commercial advantages to companies who were waiting to jump on the bandwagon and start renting roofs for a big profit. I know personally of a number of public bodies who have let their roofs to private companies without a thought for the long term financial outcome. The schemes get them plenty of initial brownie points and because not enough people understand how things work the fact that they are sacrificing millions of pounds in lost revenue goes unnoticed.

Now the cat is out of the bag the government are back pedalling fast to try to stop the whole affair being dragged into disrepute. If they'd seen this coming it could have been so much different. Why didn't they give the money directly to public bodies to invest in the infrastructure which would have provided tenants with free electricity and saved a whole load of CO2 along the way? Once again though a good idea has been mismanaged and the money that could have given us a real boost in fighting Fuel Poverty has been snatched up by the private sector leaving us back at square one!