I have a story in today’s Toronto Star about the CEO of a local electricity distribution company called Veridian Corp. and how he got his Toyota Prius modified as a plug-in hybrid so the utility can study the economics and possible impact on the grid. Michael Angemeer is also installing a solar panel on the car to explore the idea of daytime trickle charging, and a solar array is being installed at Veridian’s headquarters to support a renewable charging bay for the car. Next they plan to retrofit two other hybrids in Veridian’s fleet — a GM hybrid pickup and a Ford Escape. Veridian is working with St. Lawrence College in Kingston and Steve Lapp, a local engineer who modified his own Prius with solar panels.

Now, to my U.S. readers and CalCars followers, this whole “plug-in” concept is old news, but this is an interesting development in Canada — in Ontario — where serious or even casual discussion of plug-in hybrid potential simply isn’t taking place. Veridian, as the only Canadian utility that has joined the Plug-in Partners consortium in Texas, wants to take the lead in Canada by opening up debate, encouraging more R&D and lighting a fire under automakers — particularly in Ontario, a hub of automotive manufacturing in North America.

As an FYI, I’ll be doing an analysis piece within the next two weeks exploring the impact of widespread plug-in hybrid adoption on the electricity infrastructure in Ontario.

All of this is quite timely, given recent news out of Ottawa that the Conservative government intends to impose mandatory, California-style auto emission targets on the car manufacturers come 2010. I’ll believe it when I see it, but if the Tories follow through this would be good news. I’m *extremely* disappointed that Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty is talking about this like it’s a bad thing, by clinging to that ancient argument that environmental policy is devastating to an economy. Rather than see this as an economic opportunity, a chance for Ontario to lead the world in manufacturing next-generation low-emission vehicles, he misleads the public by talking about job loss and other “consequences” that fall within auto industry rhetoric. This is hypocritical talk from a premier that has pledged to cut down on urban emissions because he cares about the health of Ontarians.

UPDATE: Buzz Hargove, head of the Canadian Auto Workers union, dismissed reports that federal Environment Minister Rona Ambrose is looking to mirror the stringent and mandatory emission standards in effect in California. What I suspect is that the Conservative government wants to appear tough by imposing a “mandatory” standard, but one that’s so easy to meet that the auto sector won’t complain in the end.

An interesting question, raised by one of my readers, is how the government would be able to survive fiscally if a substantial portion of cars go plug-in hybrid or are designed to use dramatically less gasoline, since right now Ottawa is rolling in dough from its federal gas tax.

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