Lazy Sunday # 337: The Fart Car

Although we’re clearly a society in transition from fossil fuels, governments seem intent on steering us back to them –- and for no other reason than to cover their own butts.

Drive across Canada these days and you won’t find a province that doesn’t have giant windmills dotting the horizon. And walk down virtually any urban street and you’ll spot rooftops glittering under a covering of solar panels.

I have friends who now meet their energy needs, if not “off the grid”, then close to it. And while a future completely free of coal fired power plants is still a distance away, it’s clearly coming with the cost of solar panels dropping between 40-50% per year.

The same is true of the automobile, still among our leading polluters. The electric car has arrived, with models like the Tesla now boasting 400 km ranges before recharging and said recharging accomplished by most owners with a home unit powered by a couple of solar panels.

Our governments have long insisted that we need to drive cleaner and, for a time, encouraged us to switch to electric vehicles, especially those with a daily commute.

But now, several provinces are finding themselves flush with Natural gas and they’ve changed their tune, hoping we’ll swap to that as our road fuel of choice.

Of course it means installing a home NG pump (average cost $5000) and encouraging gas stations to install the same –- both of which Consumer Reports says will require of drivers a special instructional course to learn how to use correctly.

And all to burn a fuel which, while less polluting, still holds the consumer at the mercy of corporations with a profit motive.

I’ve always looked at governments as being mostly populated by bureaucrats with either skillsets that just wouldn’t allow them to succeed in the real world or an inability to embrace independent thought.

I’ve also never felt they actually have our best interests at heart. If you don’t truly believe that, talk to anybody undergoing Cancer treatment or dealing with a chronic illness in our already overburdened and government managed medical system.

Given all they try to do and the bills that process generates, our governments are stretched and therefore cling to the desperate need to sell off the vast oceans of Natural gas they’re sitting on as fast as they can.

If you want hospitals, educated children and jobs, they insist it’s your only option. And that’s an argument that smells a little like the product they’re peddling.

Enjoy Your Sunday…