Clean, Renewable Energy

Our biggest source of climate-changing pollution is the electricity system built on coal, oil and gas. We need to reduce energy waste and transform this system to run on renewable energy sources. New Brunswickers want warm, insulated houses, heat pumps, solar panels on roofs of houses, and community-owned solar and wind. This is should be the goal of energy policy.

A Green government would:

  • Ban the extraction of all new sources of climate-changing fossil fuels, including shale gas.
  • Fund energy efficiency retrofits and renewable energy systems for homes and businesses.
  • Transition our electricity system to 100 percent renewable sources by 2035. With storage technologies, installation of renewable systems on buildings, and long-term purchases of hydropower from Quebec and Labrador, we can get off coal, oil and gas.
  • Support First Nations, community and cooperatively owned renewable energy development, with revenues flowing back into those communities.

We need to shake up NB Power. For years, the Crown Corporation has blocked progress on energy efficiency and renewables. Wasting money on flights of fancy like JOI Scientific, and the unproven latest version of nuclear power, is grossly irresponsible. While NB Power, and both the Liberals and Conservatives, are fiddling on the margins, other countries are surging forward in world of renewables. We need to remove the blocks NB Power has put up to prevent the development of a renewable energy economic sector, and community-based energy.

A Green government would:

  • Require NB Power to allow municipalities to establish their own electrical utilities like Saint John, Edmundston and Perth-Andover, or enter into renewable energy projects with partners, to provide electricity services directly to their citizens.
  • Require NB Power to meet the 2035 renewable energy requirement.
  • Require NB Power to invest in upgrades to the grid to accommodate new renewables.
  • Require NB Power to purchase renewable energy from producers at competitive prices.
  • Prohibit NB Power from investing in speculative, unproven technologies, including modular nuclear reactors.