Wide agreement that energy must be expensive

Today, Ontario’s Environmental Commissioner Gord Miller slammed the Liberals for cutting hydro bills by ten percent, identifying the measure as a perverse subsidy.  He stated:

The problem with the 10 per cent (cut) is it means the people who use the most energy get the most money back and that is a disincentive, a perverse incentive.  It rewards and encourages increased consumption.

He then went on to criticize both the NDP and Conservatives for pledging to remove the HST from hydro bills.

This is what I have been frustrated with in a couple of recent posts here and here.

We need to understand that high energy prices are here to stay and they will get higher, and Canada remains one of the most wasteful societies on the planet.  The best way to help people is not to subsidize waste but to enable people to get beyond it.

I was also pointed today to the Agenda’s coverage of the Perimeter Institute’s Equinox Summit in Waterloo last week.  I’ve watched the whole thing.  Over and over panelists agreed that we need to expect much higher energy prices to face looming crises that are many times more serious than expensive fuels, which are unavoidable anyway.  Panelists repeatedly agreed that particularly fossil fuels need to triple or quadruple in price.  Steve Paikin kept repeating that this platform was a ballot box killer.  That’s probably true, but we need to have an intelligent discussion with voters about this rather than pandering to ignorance with futile measures that will only increase misery in very short order.  You can access the Agenda’s past episodes here.