Louise Comeau, the Conservation Council of New Brunswick’s Climate and Energy Solutions Director, spoke with Harry Forestell in an interview with CBC on Dec 8th, where she set the record straight on the long-term cost and savings associated with the government’s pledge to go carbon-neutral by 2030.
“When we generate carbon pollution, it’s really because we’re wasting energy and that means we’re spending money we don’t need to spend,” said Dr. Comeau.
Currently, the NB government spends $85 million on energy costs per year, reports CBC.
The New Brunswick government’s Climate Action Plan released on Dec 7th, will phase out coal, put a price on carbon and use those funds to support programs for low-income families, homeowners and industry, and pay for the government’s push to make all its operations carbon neutral by 2030.
“It’s an investment. We make investments every day in our economy. We make investments every day as house owners. If you’re going to retrofit your house, put new insulation in, fix the windows, and do things to save you energy, you don’t look it as a cost – you say, I’m going to put this money in and I’m going to get this money back in the first month because I saved on my energy costs,” Comeau told CBC.
“The real question is why would we waste more time not investing in energy efficiency so that tax-payer money is going to energy when it could be going to healthcare?”
Listen to the full interview here (Comeau’s interview begin at approx. 19 mins).