A Better Economy Without Fossil Fuels

What does it mean for our local economy and local jobs when virtually all of the money for electricity and fuels leaves the community?  It is not good.  Is it truly possible to create clean electricity locally, create good jobs here, AND stop paying fossil fuel companies those high prices? Yes!


British Columbia already has cleaner electricity than does Alberta (where it is mostly coal-fired). Clean (much cheaper) electricity could power our transportation sector. Electric trains, electric or hydrogen buses, electric or compressed air cars, and far more cycling and walking paths would all contribute enormously to reducing the costs and pollution.

Creating local jobs producing that clean electricity, such as is being generated at the local landfill and the drinking water pipeline coming out of the local mountains, is more than possible. Here we could be erecting wind turbines (perhaps Mount Benson, or the valley behind it), solar panels on most roofs, tidal power (this alone could double what we currently have on the grid, yet much closer to the end users), and assembling wave power units for the west coast of the island.  The economic benefits of this plan.would make a significant, positive, impact to Nanaimo!

While making the transition to a fossil-fuel free world would be a greater challenge elsewhere, one engineer is showing how it can be done. If it can be done in the United States, it most certainly can be done here. All it takes is the political will. That's why I am running.

How to Power the World without Fossil Fuels

Mark Jacobson says he can run the planet solely on wind, water and solar energy. First stop: New York State
By Mark Fischetti


Three times now, Mark Jacobson has gone out on the same limb. In 2009 he and co-author Mark Delucchi published a cover story in Scientific American that showed how the entire world could get all of its energy—fuel as well as electricity—from wind, water and solar sources by 2030. No coal or oil, no nuclear or natural gas... Scientific American


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