Comment: Happily paying more
Ottawa Citizen / Editorial / 17 March 2010
At first glance, asking people to pay more for energy doesn't sound like a way to win friends. At the gas station, tell the driver at the next pump you wish gasoline were more expensive and see what he or she says.
Yet this is what makes the new campaign by Bullfrog Power so intriguing, and praiseworthy. The company is about to begin the first real public discussion of energy policy this country has had. And it's kicking off the forum with vigour, not with the deliberately opaque and convoluted style that political discussions of energy always entail.
"Pay more for energy." You can't get less ambiguous than that.
Bullfrog produces and sells electricity from renewable sources in six provinces of Canada, including Ontario. In some areas it concentrates on wind power; in Ontario it has a few wind turbines but generates more from small hydroelectric projects.
The company is opening a website and inviting people to join a discussion that is scheduled to begin on March 27, a month before Earth Day, when we are all urged to turn off the lights and gadgets for an hour and have a reminder that life does continue without constant electric consumption.
The site will be www.paymoreforenergy.ca. (Try it today and you'll be bounced over to the main Bullfrog site.) You'll see ads for it soon. It will invite people to pay more, voluntarily.
"It's meant to be deliberately provocative," says Tom Heintzman, the company's president. He's likely to succeed in his provocations.
"Pay more" means two things. First, the company wants people to choose renewable power even though it is often priced above conventional types. Second, "pay more" refers to the day -- and yes, it is coming -- when we will have carbon taxes on fossil fuels.
