The government is encouraging Canadians to switch to EVs and heat pumps to fight climate change. But many CBC News readers have asked: won’t electrifying everything break the grid and drive up energy costs? Here’s what electricity operators and those researching the transition say.
Yes, the plan now sucks. But, two things:
moving to even oil-generated power to feed electric heat pumps keeps the oil in one place and not befouling residential land further with spills and normal mess with delivery and transport, and enables the second phase where we can switch to non-oil power by making it a single head-end swap.
nothing’s gonna drive the adoption of alternate power generation like a demand for power that doesn’t need to be oil specifically. Options allow for competing methods, which avoids monopolies, which gives better pricing, which allows upgrades.
Canada should add a tiny tiny tax onto fuel and use the proceeds to push for cleaner power generation and subsides for the heat pump adoption. … which I think we are, right? Genius.