Fraser Valley

Bill McKibben of 350.org has invited everyone around the world to this weekend's 'Global Work Party,' which pairs grassroots environmental activism with political engagement:

It’s been a tough year...So we’re having a party.

Circle 10/10/10 on your calendar. That’s the date. The place is wherever you live. And the point is to do something that will help deal with global warming in your city or community.

We’re calling it a Global Work Party, with emphasis on both 'work' and 'party'...

Since we've already worked hard to call, email, petition, and protest to get politicians to move, and they haven't moved fast enough, now it's time to show that we really do have the tools we need to get serious about the climate crisis.

The BCSEA welcomes the provincial government’s proposed Feed-In Tariff (FIT) for renewable electricity, and accepts the need for it to be a limited version of FITs adopted elsewhere in the world, since BC is close to producing 100% of its electricity from renewable sources.
If a fully-fledged FIT created the same level of uptake for renewables in BC that it is creating elsewhere, it may generate more power than BC needs, causing the surplus to be sold for export at a lower price than was paid for it. In an earlier published article, we called this “The BC Paradox”.
We also believe that BC should reduce its consumption of fossil fuels, and this would tend to increase electricity demand. We therefore recommend an approach to the FIT that is expanded beyond the current proposed regulation, so as to stimulate BC’s renewable energy industry at what we believe to be a critical time in its development.
The BCSEA Policy Committee has prepared our submission of 10 recommendations in response to the BC government's FIT Consultation Paper. Please review this paper, and the recommendations and resources in our paper, and provide your input to the government by September 30, 2010.

On a hot and sunny August 14th, BCSEA's Vancouver chapter took a field trip out to an industrial park near the South Surrey/Langley border to visit Endurance Wind Power's Canadian assembly plant.

There’s a solar revolution happening in BC as local governments around the province are passing resolutions to sign on to the new Solar Hot Water Regulation bylaw. The regulation requires all new single family homes (where applicable) to be built to accommodate future installation of a solar hot water system for water heating.

A solar ready home is one that has been designed and constructed to maximize the solar potential and to accommodate easy installation of the solar system. Benefits of solar ready homes include: easier installation of solar hot water system, less cost to install systems down the road, added resale potential of homes and increased energy efficiency and reduction of GHGs.

What can a talking sheep, a board game, and a giant thermometer teach kids about climate change and energy use? When they’re a part of BCSEA’s Climate Change Showdown, the answer is quite a bit.

The Showdown is an in-class workshop designed for elementary schools, which challenges children to participate in a take-home contest to reduce their family’s energy use. Since 2005, the program has reached 40,000 BC students, and participation in this year’s take home contest was phenomenal.