Efficiency standards take the poll position
Well, well, well… I have to say I’m surprised with the latest poll results. Not that they don’t make sense — they do. It’s just that I figured more of you would be like me, in that I tend to be more fascinated with the neat technologies than the boring stuff, like… well, better insulation.
We got 40 votes this week, and 23 of you (58 per cent!) indicated the government, if it’s going to set ”green” mandates, should focus first on establishing aggressive efficiency standards for new homes and buildings.
Second place went to solar heating with 8 votes (20 per cent) and geothermal systems with 7 votes (18 per cent). Only 2 of you felt mandates were the wrong approach, while a big fat ZERO went to solar PV systems. Who knew everyone would be so pragmatic?
Tyler Hamilton is editor-in-chief of Corporate Knights magazine and a business columnist for the Toronto Star, Canada's largest daily newspaper. In addition to this Clean Break blog, Tyler writes a weekly column of the same name that discusses trends, happenings and innovators in the clean technology and green energy market. This blog is a personal project started in April 2005. It is not an official blog of the newspaper.
February 23rd, 2006 at 9:48 pm
Taylor, you may have gotten the wrong impression. I had voted like the majority because I know our governments tend to get things wrong when finding solutions for stable energy. It took way too long just to get legible energy meters for parts of Ontario, I don’t expect anyone had the capacity to implement anything significant.
All the options in the poll are good, only one is practical for the forseeable future, when realistically the only ‘alternative’ seems to be more nuclear.
my 2 cents.