I am sitting here on a beautiful Friday morning wondering if our governments actually get the message…

For the last few months we have been inundated with the BP Oil Spill in the Gulf of Mexico – the millions of litres of fuel spilled, the billions of damage done to essential industries like fisheries, the millions of lives that have been and will be inexorably changed, and yet on the first day the new cap on the well is in place (and hopefully holding!) I am reading how our own government is slashing the rates at which it buys back solar energy.

Wait… wasn't it also just a few months ago that OUR government was shouting from the soapbox how we are going to take the lead in alternative and Green energy? So after small businesses and especially farmers bought into the idea, some at up to $100,000 in installation costs, the government says that the higher rates are 'unsustainable'.

So what part of sustainable is our children living in a polluted world, eating test tube food because our natural food sources are gone, paying 200 bucks a litre for gas (if they can afford a car…)?  And how long will it take OUR governments to realize that the issue of global warming is REAL and not just something you can exploit for a few extra votes here and there in the next election?

Maybe we need to break this all down into simple terms for our government.

Let's say it costs $100,000 to put together and install enough solar panels to power a farm or business with excess power entering the power grid. Well today the Feds are announcing that they will spend $16 BILLION on an untendered contract to replace the F-18A fighters with next generation F-35 fighters. Add to that number the $2.6 BILLION we've spent upgrading the F-18A and you know where I am going…

$18.6 Billion works out to enough solar panels to satisfy the needs of 186,000 farms, businesses or a combination of the two! Even discounting the money we have already spent on the F-18A's leaves enough money in the pot for 160,000 farms!

How about putting this in terms the government REALLY understands?

186,000 farmers would probably yield somewhere in the order of 360,000 'thank you!' votes in the next election (husband and wife or farmer and at least one person hired to install the panels). 360,000 votes is about 50% of the vote in 12 ridings (depending on the riding).  And 12 ridings is what the Conservatives (or Liberals) need to form a real government in the next go-round.

Makes it all sound sort of grubby doesn't it? Especially when we think of what we are leaving our kids as a legacy. I wonder how many MP's and MPP's are willing to explain this to their children over the dinner table?

With a straight face…

Share This!