energy series/opinion by Greg Vezina
Carbon tax and new green deal solutions oth Justin Trudeau’s Liberal and B Andrew Scheer’s Conservative climate change policies are flawed. They exempt the largest CO2 emitters in the highest polluting sectors between 70 and 80-90 per cent assuring failure to meet Paris Agreement level of green house gas (GHG) reductions of 30 per cent below 2005 levels, by 2030.
Even worse, most forms of renewable energy like wind, solar and battery power GHG or life cycle emissions are not covered, and both Ontario and Ottawa propose to increase the minimum mandate use of food-cropbased ethanol regardless of land use and other harms. No policy can possibly get us anywhere near the 80 per cent reduction of 2005 levels of GHG or life cycle pollution from all forms of energy by 2040 but an ammonia solution would. Two of Ontario’s recent auditor generals’ found the Liberal’s green plans were badly flawed for not doing research before needlessly spending many billions of dollars. The parliamentary budget officer recently concluded that for Canada to reach its target, the federal carbon tax would need to increase to $102 per tonne by 2030. Justin Trudeau has awarded billions of dollars for green projects without having his belatedly (April 2019) announced climate institute, the PanCanadian Expert Collaboration, to help Canadians see if their federal government is making decisions in their best interests when it comes to tackling global warming. Using as a benchmark a joint Concordia University and Montreal Economic Institute June, 2017 study, “Subsidizing electric vehicles inefficient way to reduce CO2 emissions,” the $5,000 federal battery vehicle subsidy CO2 reduction costs $200 per ton — 30 OTTAWALIFE WINTER 2020
10 times the current federal carbon tax and the Quebec-California cap-andtrade price. An April 2019 University of Chicago analysis of 30 U.S. state-level programs “Renewable energy mandates reduce carbon dioxide emissions—but at a cost” found they upped electricity prices as much as 17 per cent, concluding the global experiences from carbon markets and taxes make clear that much less expensive ways to reduce CO2 are available right now. All the while our major parties and their leaders including the NDP and Greens ignore dozens of proven ammonia solutions to our energy, environmental, critical infrastructure and economic challenges. No policy can possibly get us anywhere near the 80 per cent reduction of 2005 levels of GHG or life cycle pollution from all forms of energy by 2040 but an ammonia solution would.
A November 2015, Carnegie Mellon University report the “Use of NH3 fuel to achieve deep greenhouse gas reductions from U.S. transportation,” concluded, aggressive implementation of NH3-fueled vehicles to replace gasoline vehicles, would eliminate 96 per cent of the annual light duty vehicle CO2 emissions projected for 2040, a 718-million metric ton CO2 reduction. A July 2016, NH3 Fuel Association conference presentation by the US Department of Energy’s Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy demonstrated that ammonia was already the lowest-cost, proven technology for long-term, large-scale energy storage, where “long-term” refers to any time period greater than one day.
A March 2017, joint study by Oshawa’s Ontario Technical University (formerly UOIT) and Mississauga’s Hydrofuel Inc., found that using ammonia improves both fossil fuels and renewable energy for all industrial, agricultural, heating, cooling, and transportation applications except for transoceanic aircraft. In November 2018, the portal Ammonia Energy wrote that national oil companies are looking to satisfy demand for clean hydrogen by exporting carbon-free ammonia. One of the biggest global LNG exporters is investigating NH3 for the same market, as it considers Australia’s future as a renewable energy exporter. And the biggest coal producer in China is funding the development of “the world’s first practical ammoniapowered vehicle.” An April 2019, Institute of Energy Economics, Japan study found Japan could use ammonia fuel to reduce total CO2 emissions by 80 per cent in 2050 for electrical power generating. In May 2019, Environmental Defense Fund reported international shipping can at least halve its emissions by 2050, and can unleash trillions of dollars of investment opportunities in sustainable industrial infrastructure by using clean fuel such as “green” ammonia. In June 2019, Norway announced a subsidy free offshore 75 windmill wind-to-ammonia production and combined ocean freighter fuelling hub to supply 65 marine vessels per day. We have viable ammonia energy solutions to implement life cycle taxbased policies and regulations to put the real price on all energy based pollution and eliminate subsidies to level the playing field for industry and taxpayers n Greg Vezina is Chairman of Hydrofuel Inc. and leader of Ontario’s None of the Above Direct Democracy Party.
