Marshall Homes was the first in Ontario to offer, back in 2006, solar thermal and geothermal as an option on homes in a new subdivision. President Craig Marshall now wants to build an 88-home community in which all homes are heated and cooled by a district geothermal energy system. It’s a great idea, but Marshall isn’t an energy service provider — he needs a strong partner to take on that side of the business, and his ideal partner is regional natural gas distributor Enbridge Gas Distribution. Problem is, Enbridge isn’t permitted by law to do anything but store and distribute natural gas. It can set up a separate, non-regulated entity, but in doing so it can’t leverage the power of its brand and the capital it can command.

Solution simple: Let the company broaden its energy offerings so it can pursue geothermal, solar thermal and other green energy offerings beyond just pilot projects. Yes, Enbridge’s current restrictions were created to ensure fair competition, but if others could do what Marshall Homes envisions, why aren’t they stepping up? (I should say, however, that local electric distribution company Veridian Connections is interested in working with Marshall, but the problem with working with LDCs is that you’re limited to a smaller service territory. Go outside that territory and you have to start all over again with a new LDC). Unleashing Enbridge could make a difference. Few companies have the scope, reach, engineering know-how and clout to take the district heating concept, so popular in Europe, and make it an attractive offering to builders of new subdivisions throughout the province.

See my column here discussing the Marshall Homes project and the role that Enbridge could play, if permitted.

Why oh why is General Motors CEO Fritz Henderson pulling dinosaur Bob Lutz out of retirement and reinstating him as vice-chairman? Let’s ignore the fact that Lutz doesn’t believe man is responsible for global warming and calls talk of climate action as “a crock of shit.” But has it occurred to Fritz that Lutz, like former CEO Rick Wagoner, was one of the most powerful executives at GM during its demise into bankruptcy? Hell, why not bring back Wagoner then?

Lutz will be “responsible for all creative elements of products and customer relationships,” according to a GM release. “GM’s brands, marketing, advertising, and communications will report to Lutz for consistent messaging and results.”

No disrespect to Lutz, who certainly has a skills set that could be of some use to GM. He was the driving force behind GM’s Volt, though only pursued it with vigour after Tesla Motors came on the scene. But he’s also a guy who has dissed hybrids as making no sense, and most of his past projects have been about building more powerful, gas-guzzling vehicles, not smaller more fuel-efficient models. Lutz, 77, is arguably out of touch with the new generation of car-buyers that the new GM must tap if it hopes to regain its footing in the automotive marketplace.

By bringing Bob Lutz back, GM risks falling into the same trap that put it in hot water and eventually plunged it into bankruptcy. Since the U.S. government owns a majority of GM, I wonder what its position is on the rehiring of Lutz. What GM needs is some youth in the driver’s seat and executives that have the vision necessary to reinvent the company, not a climate-change denying auto-industry dinosaur that may end up doing more harm than good.

Personally, I’m looking forward to Magna International’s entry into the electric-car market, including its partnership with Ford and future partnerships that could bring electric-vehicle manufacturing to Canada.

PriceWaterhouseCoopers has come out with a handy chart for Canadian companies that are looking to “go green” but are also unaware of the incentives that are offered by the federal government and the provinces.  It has created charts for federal incentives, and also charts for incentives offered by different provinces. Click here to access the charts.

Just an update: U.S. joins IRENA to “speed up adoption of renewable energy.”