Gobble Gobble

Just got back from Alberta after spending the last few days with family, giving thanks and eating some delicious turkey. My niece Sarah is one and a half years and now walking & talking. Absolutely adorable. Last time I saw her - she could only sleep & cry. She's even eating adult food. Not just cheese & crackers but turkey, stuffing and potatoes. You name it - the kid will eat it. I also got to stay 2 nights in Banff. What a place it is. We took a gondola to the top of Sulfer Mountain. I gotta say, the Rocky mountains sure put things into perspective. A perspective that's tough to describe in a blog post but unfolds when you breath the mountain air and gaze at the wonder. My world does not seem so complicated in comparison. > Check it out some of my photos.

Anyhoo, it's good to be back in the big smoke feeling warmer and seeing the fall colours. Here are some random thoughts on the headlines as I plug back to the interwebs.

Ontario FIT Domestic Content Requirements (Source: Renewable Energy World)

While the first draft of the FIT rules specifically mentioned that projects that applied for a FIT contract would need to meet a minimum of Ontario-made equipment, no details about the domestic content rules were known until September 24th, providing both the manufacturers and developers with little time to plan for them.

FIT stands for Feed-In-Tariff and a key element of Ontario's Green Energy Act. In order to receive the FIT incentive, anywhere from 25-60% of the equipment must be Ontario made. Not bad news for the industrial sector of a recovering economy, in theory. To mandate renewable energy developers to source a percentage of their materials within Ontario. There's some great detail in the report from Jon Worren of Renewable Energy World and he offers this opinion on the rule:

While the political and economic motivation for attaching domestic content requirements to the FIT rules are obvious and understandable, there are concerns about the long-term implications that they may have on Ontario’s marketplace.

Fundamentally, I also believe that the domestic content rules might hinder necessary innovation in Ontario’s marketplace in the medium to long-term. In particular, there is a lot of innovation taking place in the solar industry, with new products that straddle the various domestic content categories entering the marketplace. A failure by the OPA to recognize the probable impact that rapid innovation will have on green energy products could resign Ontario to being a marketplace for less innovative products.

I agree with Jon and liken the policy to the CRTC regulation on Canadian content. There's an inherent risk of being mediocre (without competition) in manufacturing various renewable components. It's one thing to listen to the same weak song on the radio knowing why they keep playing it. It's another to have a windmill explode because of shoddy parts.

I've shared my thoughts on the Green Energy Act before and will continue to scoff at the developments as long as the McGuilty government is running the show. After all, it's our tax dollar. Speaking of scoffing at the Ontario government, have you heard the one about the Priest, the Premier and his deputy? Apparently it goes something like this...


Scathing audit paints picture of rogue Ontario provincial agency (Source: Ottawa Citizen)

 For Premier Dalton McGuinty, the eHealth spending controversy represents the biggest and most damaging scandal his government has faced since sweeping to power in 2003..

Shocking is hardly the word to use to describe the behavior of the Ontario government as it's borderline criminal if you consider what the eHealth scandal is uncovering.  Just another day at Queen's Park I guess. According to the report, his right-hand man George Smitherman got the ball rolling with the evil-doers @ eHealth and is rumored to have one foot out the door looking to become the next mayor of Toronto. No thanks George. Toronto already hada nobody in Mel.

(Unrelated but noteworthy)


Top US Green Companies (Source: Newsweek)

1.     Hewlett-Packard →  "Strong programs to reduce GHG emissions....
2.     Dell → "Ranks 4th among the top U.S....
3.     Johnson & Johnson → "Its commitment to climate change is...
4.     Intel → "Largest corporate purchaser of renewable energy...
5.     IBM → "Has had formal environmental policies since...
6.     State Street → "In an industry slow to acknowledge...
7.     Nike → "Leads its industry in environmental management...
8.     Bristol-Myers Squibb → "Announced goal to reduce direct and...
9.     Applied Materials → "Semiconductor manufacturer designs its products to...
10.   Starbucks → "Announced commitment in 2008 to source...

Data is collected by Trucost, a leading international environmental data firm, specializes in quantitative performance measurement and management. The Environmental Impact Score in the rankings is based on its global database. www.trucost.com

Interesting that 5 of the top 10 are technology companies being proactive as they make products (and a carbon footprint) for the information age. It's a good read for a blogger dependent on a computer, the internet and the environment.

That's it for today. Hope you had a happy Thanksgiving !

Curb Your Carbon Enthusiasm

As I try to become more green, I often ask myself what the hell does that really mean ? Thus the mantra, title and web address of the blog. I continue the emotional and spiritual journey to find the meaning in the greening of me. I search the interwebs for information, opinion and knowledge to help me reach this Xanadu. A challenging pinnacle to climb it is.

I came across this article and will use it for today's post because it had me look up the meaning of the word fodder.

Fodder:
1. coarse food for livestock, composed of entire plants, including leaves, stalks, and grain, of such forages as corn and sorghum.

2. people considered as readily available and of little value

The Globe and Mail

"Not to brag about it, but my husband and I have adopted a radical new green lifestyle. We've shrunk our living space, cut our energy bills in half and dramatically reduced our carbon footprint. These days, we walk everywhere. We shop at the (organic) grocery store and bring our food back in a bundle buggy. To get to work, I have a transit pass. I rarely drive our car at all any more." (Margaret Wente, Living in a green 'hood, Globe & Mail, Oct 5)

It's long been a pet-peeve of mine to read a piece of crap. Yes I made that choice but this article has as much charm as a Chia-Pet. It's so craptastic the Globe & Mail is publishing 'green knowledge' from a dying medium that still prints its product on paper. From a journalist who's research and expertise appears to be a result of a pay-cut forcing a different lifestyle (e.g less is more) now claiming she' s more green.

What's troubling is people have read this and will interpret it as something of value or influence. That would be like taking a lesson in comedy from Pauly Shore or friendship advice from Perez Hilton.

I don't propose I start eating organic spelt tortillas & salsa because some douchbag shops at an organic grocery store and happens to write a column for the Globe. I'll stick with my Old El Paso, thank you, and read the news on the internet. People - I take public transit. Some days I walk. When I need a car, I drive. I live in an apartment, recycle & compost, drink Brita filtered water and take reusable bags when shopping. It's what people do in 2009. Good for me but I wouldn't pass that on to you as something noteworthy. Or credible. Unfortunately for Maggie, she's too busy writing about her riveting day-to-day to know any better or to revel in the fact organic food is a sham.

I don't mean to be mean or look to discredit Maggie's mojo. She may have written something worthwhile back in the day, perhaps, but clearly those days have passed and reality has yet to set in. It's probably too late.

I'll save you the agony of reading Maggie's rag. Here's the synopsis:

"Those things make me love being green. And besides, I've lost weight."

That's deep and how she rolls ladies & gentlemen.

Do your research, keep an open mind and form an opinion for yourself. Right or wrong, it won't be fodder.

Tweet yah later.

Chinatown vs. Ontario

With Roman Polanski back behind bars, the expression life imitating art or art imitating life seems apropos of a filmmaker that claims the spotlight for better or worse. His personal life makes for some amazing fluff. Beyond the tabloid headlines, it's hard not to rubber-neck Polanski's pictures. The classic film noir/crime story Chinatown is no exception.

Overshadowed in 1974 by The Godfather Part 2 at the Academy Awards, I think Chinatown is a film more relevant in the big picture. I'll draw a comparison if you live in Ontario and happen to follow the provincial government's progress with the Green Energy Act.

Chinatown

• The film's base plot explores corporate greed, murder and incest set as a period piece in LA circa 1930s.

Ontario

• The Ontario government's Green Energy Act explores corporate greed, NIMBY bashing and cuckolding set in a surreal 2009. (I had to look that up - cuckold - thinking it was some bizarre new fetish.)

Chinatown

• The scoop. The folks at LA's Water Works Inc. are up to no good. Deliberately diverting fresh water back into the ocean claiming there's a drought in the city. In real time supplying water rights to the rich & famous living large in estate homes & vineyards. Add the murder of the City's chief engineer and things are not what they seem with the evidence on display.

Ontario

• The scoop. Boy George & Dalton McGuilty team up and enforce wind-farm development by creating the feed-in-tariff incentive before they figure how the grid can support it leaving local municipalities wondering why there's a new giant wind-farm in their village.

Chinatown

• It's a picture that takes it's time telling the story and it needs to given the lack of narrative. Normally a crutch of Hollywood fair like this. It's refreshing not to have the protagonist blabbing away during useless segues to help the ignorant. Instead the viewer works along side Jack Nicholson (JJ Gittes), the PI hired to unravel the clues as characters come clean.

Ontario

• It's a government doing as little as possible by telling it's citizens that greenwashing is the solution to jump-start a slumping economy. Employing expensive lobby groups who gorge on expenses while spewing endless rhetoric from renewable pundits. The bill at the end of the day is footed by the tax-payer.

In the film there's a famous line delivered from the PI when asked what he was doing in Chinatown. His reply: 'As little as possible'. It's a marvel of visual style, both the film and Ontario's Green Energy Act.

For the latest on the Ontario government's progress with the Green Energy Act, check out the Q&A from the National Post.

For more on Polanski as pedophile, read Jeff's view on the famous auteur.

I offer a different opinion on Roman than Jeff does. It took some balls at the studio to hire him to helm Chinatown. Surely he had made a name for himself with Rosemary's Baby but after the brutal murder of his wife (with expecting child) he probably went insane. No doubt Romans early Hollywood experience taught him there are no rules when you have the money and the power. (E.g Then you get the women - as per Scarface). His crime, wrong as it was, pales in comparison to his childhood memory as a Polish Jew during the Nazi regime or a victim of the Mason murders.

Messed up for sure but he's a survivor on the epic scale of life.