N.L. government can’t be seduced into believing hydrogen industry can solve problems
Open letter to the N.L. Minister for Environment and Climate Change, Bernard Davis: We appreciate that you’ve been put in an impossible position. Soon you’ll be announcing your decision on the amendment to the Environmental Statement by World Energy GH2.
At Enviro Watch NL — our money is on the government of N.L. greenlighting the project “with conditions”. For how could you say no to something that has been in the works on provincial, national and international levels long before it was ever made public to the local people who will be most impacted?
Some have called for a public review board to hold hearings on the WEGH2 proposal. We reject that notion completely because we do not accept the rationale for the WEGH2 project or any of the other mega industrial turbine/ hydrogen/ammonia plans that are currently in the works.
These mega projects have nothing to do with addressing climate change — they are about subsidy harvesting, a strategy where environmentally disinclined corporations hunt staggering amounts of public funds via ‘investment tax credits’.
The proponents of some of these developments have very unsavoury professional histories and it would be naive to believe any of them are in this because they want to help mitigate the effects of climate change.
We are gravely concerned that our provincial government is being seduced by industry proponents into believing that a hydrogen industry is bound to be the panacea for the world’s energy problems. Many industry experts have expressed serious doubt about the whole idea of hydrogen as having wide application for replacing fossil fuels.
Even the Canadian Commissioner of Environment and Sustainable Development recently reported that optimism bias has caused Natural Resources Canada to overestimate hydrogen’s potential to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. We remind readers that 80 per cent of all energy inputs will be lost when exporting ‘green’ hydrogen to distant markets.
We are most concerned about the devastating impacts these developments will have on the natural environment, on nearby communities, and the tourism industry. The WEGH2 proposal for the Port au Port Peninsula is one of utter insanity that will bring misery to the people who live there. The plan for the Anguille Mountains in the Codroy Valley will reap destruction on the ecosystem of southwest Newfoundland.
And for what? For a massive industrial experiment that will leech common resources, harvest subsidies from taxpayers, enrich proponents, and through a tragically inefficient and energy intensive process provide expensive ammonia to Germany. Let us not mention the fact that there are as of yet no buyers for this product.
It is our unfortunate history in this province that local elites have granted foreign corporations carte blanche to exploit our common resources in exchange for a few jobs. Such political bias has caused us to lose control of so many of our resources.
A genuine approach to mitigating climate change would see small-scale community based renewable energy projects that actually benefit our people and that integrate with the environment in least harmful ways. Having public discussions — about the need to reduce our consumption of energy and materials, and to focus on building up our local resilience to climate change would make far more sense from an Environment and Climate Change perspective and would really be something to appreciate.
Tara Manuel Co-chair Envirowatch NL Corner Brook