Via, DanBC:
Vancouver votes to ban natural gas by 2050.
Oh, of course:
Mayor Gregor Robertson led the charge on the Renewable City Strategy which passed this summer. He is a vocal critic of oil and gas development and was a director Tides Canada from 2002 until 2004.
A wing-nut. More at the CTF.
Robertson wants a 70 per cent cut in natural gas use in new buildings by 2020, and 90 per cent gone within ten years. All natural gas use in Vancouver will be banned by 2050 at the latest.
#NotACult Noooonono.
So will there be a woodpile in every yard in Vancouver? Will they live better electricity?
Good thing for Mayor Moonbeam that the 950 MW gas-fired Burrard generating station is conveniently located in Port Moody, not Vancouver.
The 80’s: Let those Eastern bastards freeze in the dark.
The 2010’s: Lets freeze in the dark.
Wishful thinking by Mayor Moonbeam
As with coal, any bets George Soros starts buying up natural gas producers?
That province is headed for stupidville. How can they justify a LNG facility to export natural gas when they are trying to eliminate natural gas use?
http://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/trudeau-pacific-northwest-pipeline-1.3772725?cmp=rss
Canada is a resource-rich exporting nation that is trying to eliminate the consumption of natural resources and adopt solar / wind energy.
The good people of Vancouver elected him. Elections have consequences. Let them meditate on that ineluctable political fact while their teeth chatter in the winter darkness.
This doesn’t altogether surprise me. When I was a grad student at UBC, Vancouver was filled with similar moonbeams. Being a conservative, I stuck out like a sore thumb.
By 2050? Who knows what kind of technology we’ll have in 2050?
By that point, solar collectors may have advanced to the point that every building has its own, and will be self-sufficient.
Maybe not. But this sort of hand waving pie in the sky stuff ignores – in a very fundamental way – the uncertainties of trying to make current policies in the face of rapidily advancing technology, and why ill-informed people shouldn’t be making these decisions.
Ah, but it never gets cold in Vancouver…. well, not like it does during, say, a prairie winter.
So how are they going to stay warm? Electricity, of course…. you know the stuff that’s produced by hydro dams….. the kind of things that they want to ban along the Peace River in NE BC.
No, I can’t figure out that logic, either.
He is just thinking far ahead. If they don’t do something, the Chinese will buy the whole city. I just suppose that he is thinking the Chinese don’t like the Canadian winters and without any method of heating, maybe they will leave some of Vancouver unbought.
Do you get the thinking that there should be a ban on idiots running things that actually require real world experience?
Relax, if he follows through with the same effectiveness he did on his promise to “END homelessness” in Vancouver, natural gas usage will double by 2050.
Gregor is the best of the worst when it comes to delusional leftist social engineers.
High energy prices (the natural consequence of limiting fossil fuel use) are a REGRESSIVE TAX on the middle class and poor. The Eco-leftist elites don’t give a crap about the “average” citizen. In fact they disdain you, deride you, and consider you a … Deplorable
Ummm…
Does the mayor have the power to arbitrarily impose such a ban or is there a vote in council like all other municipalities?
If there was a vote I’m guessing there is more than 1 idiot in that town. Naming Robertson as the cause of this lets the rest off the hook.
“Robertson wants a 70 per cent cut in natural gas use in new buildings by 2020, and 90 per cent gone within ten years.”
Reminds me of those old cartoons where the character is sawing off the tree branch they’re perched on and there isn’t yet another branch to perch on.
That said, he expects to still be in office in 10 years to make this 90% reduction happen?
Where are the people who own those buildings(homes too?) supposed to get the money for the conversion?
Perhaps the natural gas should be shut off now. Might as well help Vancouver along!
Agreed. The Fruit Fly guy has done his filthy brainwashing work well.
Smitherenzes, your guess is right. The council I was on had seven votes, so in this case there must have been a majority of the council that supported this nonsense.
The sad part is that this sort of idiocy among our leadership is becoming more prevalent and the people do not yet realize the costs they will have to bear. The people of Ontario have already realized huge increased hydro costs and yet the thieving Liberals would be re-elected if Wynne steps down. Not that the really progressive progressive conservative Brown is much better.
Ah, but it’s Vancouver. Typically cloudy and rainy all winter. When the Sun comes out, there’s a flurry of UFO reports.
When I was kid there, we burned sawdust as fuel in the furnace. Constant haze of wood smoke in the air. But renewable, yannow? Then we went to oil-burning furnaces. Big improvement in air quality, and in general convenience. When natural gas arrived, it was viewed as a Godsend.
Vancouver could easily replace natural gas with – – – insulation and a small amount of electricity. They would probably save a similar amount of electricity used in summer cooling. Nothing new about this.
$3-5 worth of gas heat equates to $25-50 worth of electrical heat.
Simple math:
$3 / million BTU
10cents per kW-hr
80% efficient gas furnace
Every $3 worth of gas needs $23 from BCHydro (234kw-hr)
Even if gas was double and electricity was half, gas still wins by a 2:1.
Robertson can reduce CO2 emissions by decreeing that all Vancouver government buildings have the thermostats turned down to 10C.
Because leadership!
Then next summer he can ban air conditioning in all government buildings.
If it saves one duck..
Ken, would like to just note that they are not really leaders or our leaders.
They mostly resemble bobble heads that do the bobble when some super rich socialist blow.
Pretty hard (and expensive) to convert your natural gas appliances, furnaces, and industrial uses to use electricity. But hey….that’s how the Khmer Vert operates….never considers the REAL cost of their hallucinations.
When I started as a grad student at UBC, I rented a basement suite from someone who was a leftover hippie. I told her shortly before I moved in that it would be nice living in Vancouver after coming from Alberta as I wouldn’t have to plug in car during the winter.
She had no idea what I was talking about. To be fair, she was from California and I’m sure there aren’t many cars there that need block heaters. Still, I had to bite my tongue as I was quite tempted to tell her that we drove electric vehicles out on the prairies but that our ranges were restricted by the length of the extension cords we needed.
Unfortunately, I think she would have believed me.
Great point observer, but the key here is that Gregor will get all the credit it the world and his supporters will feel great about themselves saving the planet – same as when he commited to ending homelessness in Vancouver by 2015.
So not only does he not acheive his stated goal re homeless- which was a big deal when he announced which generated lots of good press – but homelessness is up.
Results dont matter – making progressives feel good matters.
But we do have bike lanes….
Sadly this does help lay further groundwork for the demonization of CO2
BC Conservatives (of which I am a member) is the only party in BC that has not drank the CO2 koolaid and is in favor of carbon based energy.
Why wait until 2050? Those of us who work in the industry could happily oblige them tomorrow. “Who run Bartertown?”
LNG exports? The chances of that happening are next to none now. The world has moved on as LNG facilities have been built while BC and Canada interveners sat around tables collecting their $300+ per diems. The industry of do nothing with a profit has done well for over 15 years. The media and the politicians don’t have the balls to call it for what it is.
There are actually people out there who think the Liebel Party will authorize Trans Mountain and even Energy East. The idiot that runs Vancouver has been re-elected just as Wynn has in Ontario! Many on here roast the east, me included, but we have leading edge nut bars in the West particularly on the West Coast.
There is a total lack of understanding on how discretionary expenses in society are affordable. Progressive politicians use the country’s credit card to pay off supporters at the polls and thusly nut bars are not held to account. Sadly that will not happen until it is to late to prevent a major economic implosion.
Robertson is the best Green Priest that US slush fund foundation money can buy. The ovine population of Vancouver are his mindless subjects and he seemingly can get away with dictating how future generations will live according to green scripture. But he is not alone. Municipal politicians everywhere are higher office politicians in training and reflect the dominant culture of green theocracy and progressive nihilism.
“So how are they going to stay warm? Electricity, of course…. you know the stuff that’s produced by hydro dams….. the kind of things that they want to ban along the Peace River in NE BC”
Thats no problem as EVERYONE knows that electricity comes from a plug on the wall.Just get more plugs. Problem solved. Just like steak comes from the supermarket.
I had forgotten about the space aliens. Point taken.
The Tides Foundation mayor is of course long off his rocker.
By 2050 the Mayor Moronbeam will be ready to take up occupancy in the senility wing, if not a funeral pyre with west coast wood.
We can only pray a political storm takes this sack of electoral offal out to the woodshed.
So during the last major windstorm which knocked power out for a full three days; I managed to cook meals on a GAS STOVE and heat my home with a GAS HEATER INSERT in my chimney. BC Hydro was nowhere in sight…not to mention a few freezers full of food!
Mayor Moronbeam is off his nut if he thinks I’m converting to electricity on those appliances anytime soon. I suggest Mayor Moronbeam take up residency with the Occupy Tenters on the wet coast as rivulets of water passes by his sleeping gear.
Further, given we live in a geological fault zone; you would precisely want a ‘mixed energy grid’ when the next ‘big one’ hits.
Science and survival is not Mayor Moronbeam’s strong suit.
To quote another politician: “YER FIRED!”
Cheers
Hans Rupprecht, Commander in Chief
1st Saint Nicolaas Army
Army Group ‘True North’
These people are dangerous.
Could it be that BC would rather pay high electricity rates because the utility is owned by the government than for natural gas which is owned by non-government public companies?
Imagine 100% of your energy coming from electricity and the government controls the price. You can’t even charge up your electric car without the government.
I don’t really care much but I did skim ‘the Plan’. It looked to me like the central feature of ‘the Plan’ is to cut usage of power …. of all types of power, as measured in Gigajoules ….. by about 36%.
EXAMPLE
Page 29:
Residential buildings: 22.6 to 13.9 million Gigajoules
Commercial buildings: 22.5 to 14.4 million Gigajoules
Doesn’t matter the source (hydro, electric, petroleum, solar, wind,etc), it’s a reduction of about 36%.
This is the real heart of the 2050 ‘Plan’.
I suspect inside of buildings will be dark and cold in winter, dark and hot in summer, stuffy and smelly all year round.
Oh, lucky Albertans to have Tzeporah Berman active in your province. She makes a living from eco wingnut causes.
What you said.
(SEE: bed, lie in it)
Yup. Thanks to her, families will be better off. After all, with the oil sands projects, there are kiddies all across the country waiting for Mommy and Daddy to come home because they’re working in Fort Mac.
Forget the fact that many people in the Third World work far from home and leave their families behind. Ignore history, which shows that this sort of thing has been commonplace for ages.
Nope. It happens here in Canada, it’s because of the oil sands, so they all have to be closed down.
Then again, she’s a professional agitator, so if someone paid her enough tomorrow, she would start a campaign against eating broccoli.
This from a mayor of the city that sends raw sewage into the ocean … without being treated.
Is Vancouver the wack-a-doodle capital of Canada? Looking at some of the people they elect would sure put them high on the list…..Hedy Fry, Libby Davies and Mayor Moonbeam.
You can add Kim! Campbell to that list. She was a Socred MLA for a Vancouver area riding before becoming a federal MP.
Vancouver treats its sewage. You must be thinking of Victoria which does not. They also are blessed with a winner of a Mayor.
What’s His Cut?
Will one still be permitted to pass gas?
“Sustainable” energy never will be. It is a fantasy like perpetual motion.
Don’t forget Jenny Kwan, she’s got twice the cred, being a double dipper, as a former longterm NDP MLA from Vanconger. She’s deep, deep in the trough, and a total social justice warrior of the worst kind
Don’t remind me of Whacktoria’s mayor. Have to put up with her nonsense FAR too much, but for some reason the local media takes her word for everything, despite her bad hair, mustache, bad glasses, and her SJW profile.
At least I don’t pay taxes to her CUPE fifedom, but its bad enough. SHe’s another tent city advocate, greentard and rainbow warrior!
“I suspect inside of buildings will be dark and cold in winter, dark and hot in summer, stuffy and smelly all year round.”
Ah yes, just like the apartment buildings in the former Soviet Union. The temperatures of the heating systems in the Stalinist built apartment buildings were, and still are, controlled by from a central location. This is what the Maurice Strong supporters want to impose on Canadians. A Saskatoon city councilor running for the mayoralty this fall wants to stop any suburb development and rather have the city build more apartment complexes. Stalin said everyone should be able to walk to work.
WTF are they going to heat with?? Ethical turds??
Let them freeze in their idiocy!!
While we are in the banning mode, all businesses that don’t hire a proper gender mix of junkies and meth heads should be banned as well.