ANYONE who's ever paid a utility bill knows that letting out a lot of hot air is a bad thing.
Which makes us wonder who's paying the bills for the premier these days.
For all their windy talk of energy conservation and greenhouse gas reduction, the B.C. Liberals have sat on their hands - for years - when it comes to an obvious policy option: raise the energy efficiency standards in the B.C. Building Code.
Forget smart meters, gas pipelines and hydroelectric dams, this is a stroke-of-the-pen decision that could immediately help reduce consumption and emissions while saving money. It just makes sense.
To their credit, the folks at the City of North Vancouver have known this for a while. The city has offered up a little more floorspace to developers willing to accept the challenge of a higher standard, which is quickly becoming the baseline standard elsewhere. Since the offer was made, every single new building in the city has exceeded the provincial code. Which is probably why the city's GHG emissions are actually falling. This is just smart policy.
The construction industry is up to the challenge. Where is the province? It's simply inexcusable for Victoria to suck dollars out of communities and school districts to pay for "carbon offsets" - essentially a subsidy for polluters - without lifting a finger to improve the performance of new buildings.
The 2012 draft building code isn't finalized, so there's still time for Christy Clark to actually do something more than blow a lot of hot air.
