and slash your carbon footprint

Happy motoring! Turpin Labs CEO Bill Turpin at wheel of our 2012 Nissan Leaf.

Nova Scotians have long assumed that driving an electric car here is the equivalent of running the vehicle on coal, because that’s what Nova Scotia Power uses t0 run its generators.

But NSPI’s much-improved fuel mix, combined with the high efficiency of electric motors, has changed the math. Halifax-centric Turpin Labs bought a 2012 Nissan Leaf and easily cut our road emissions by more than half and, incidentally, reduced fuel costs by more than 70%.

These are real-world results, based on an 18-month commissioning process that began when I spotted a used Leaf at a bargain price. The results are supported, in principle, by  real research done at Dal  five years ago.

Over 8,000 km, the Leaf generated 912 kg of CO2, via NSPI’s generators. Our previous car, a 2010 Toyota Matrix, would have generated 1,840 kg over the same distance. By the way, this 8,000 km cost $230 in electricity, taxes in. The Matrix would have burned through 800 litres of gasoline costing $834. Maintenance  of the Leaf is low because electric motors are relatively simple.

Oh, and if you own a family car, don’t even think of challenging me at a stop light. Leafs have heavy-duty torque, buddy, so you’ll find yourself eating my electrons.

On the other hand, this is a city car. I drive it around Halifax all day and plug it into the house at night a couple of times a week. If I have to drive, say, out to someone’s cottage, I rent a gas-burner. Fuel economy drops off in cold weather, as it does for gasoline cars, but that can present a range problem in winter. You have to plan a little more, which is a challenge because of a lack of charging stations.

But for city dwellers, it makes sense. If you have two cars, making one of them electric is  a no brainer.

All good, right? So, why isn’t NSPI flogging EVs and installing charging stations hither and thither? Why isn’t the NS government offering cash incentives to buy them like B.C., Ontario and Quebec, thus taking a big bite out our carbon emissions.

I asked the NS energy department:

—–Original Message—–
From: Bill Turpin [mailto:bturpinhfx@mac.com]
Sent: Thursday, January 12, 2017 11:48 AM
To: MacInnis, Marla J <Marla.MacInnis@novascotia.ca>
Subject: EV incentives

Hello Ms. MacInnis,
I notice that B.C., Ontario and Quebec offer valuable incentives for buying electric vehicles. I assume Nova Scotia has a policy on this. Would you mind briefly explaining it to me.
Thank you.
Regards,
Bill Turpin

—

On Jan 12, 2017, at 1:15 PM, MacInnis, Marla J <Marla.MacInnis@novascotia.ca> wrote:

Hi Bill,

Nova Scotia does not currently provide any incentives for the purchase of electric vehicles.

Thanks,

Marla

—

Hi Marla,

I apologize — I should have been clearer. I was hoping you might know why there are no incentives in Nova Scotia. By my calculation, EVs would have a significant impact on the province’s greenhouse gas emissions.

Regards,

Bill

—

No reply. 

So there you have it.

Further reading:

Dr. Larry Hughes, Electric vehicles in Nova Scotia: An examination of availability, affordability, and acceptability issues, A report for Nova Scotia Power, 11 January 2016

Larry Hughes and Shan Sundaram, Do Electric Vehicles Make Carbon-Sense in Nova Scotia?, 2011

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Turpin Laboratories has learned employees of Nova Scotia Environment, led by the fiery minister Margaret Miller, have received a list of words they cannot use when dealing with their benighted public.

The Orwellian news was delivered orally, of course, to provide the leadership with that “plausible  deniability” so beloved by decaying governments.

The words and phrases consigned to the Memory Hole are:

• Stewardship
• Extended producer responsibility
• Circular economy
• Green economy

Even the word “economy” is apparently on probation.

I am not making this up.

Stewardship is the idea of having a responsibility to care for something, usually something that is not yours. The trustees of an estate are stewards. Lumber companies are stewards because they are entrusted with managing forests in a way that preserves or enhances their value for future generations. The opposite of stewardship might be squandering.

Extended Producer Responsibility already exists in Nova Scotia for electronic equipment. Customers pay a recycling fee at the point of purchase. This entitles them to drop off the product at a recycling centre, at no cost, when the it stops working. The product is then broken down into its constituent materials, most of which are used again. Even though there is no cost to business, the Canadian Federation of Independent Business in NS is opposed to extended producer responsibility. It’s true that many independent business people work hard, but that doesn’t exempt them from the things the rest of us have to do to protect the environment.

Circular economy is the simple goal of re-using or repurposing goods when they’ve reached the end of their useful lives instead if throwing them away. It’s something like “waste not, want not” on  a grand scale. There’s lots of info about it on the web, but a key idea is manufacturing with re-use in mind.

The Green Economy has been politicized somewhat, but it boils down to the idea of sustainability: leaving behind a planet capable of sustaining our descendants as well as it sustained us. It becomes political, in my mind at least, because there are so many people already not being sustained as well as “us.”

These terms are likely in disfavour because they aren’t testing well in focus groups and surveys, and there’s an election coming up in Nova Scotia. God help any person, word or thing that doesn’t test well in an election year. Take, for example, Nova Scotia Power in 2013.

Government’s attitude to the environment has regressed horribly. In 2007, the Environmental Goals and Sustainable Prosperity Act (EGSPA) recognized that a healthy economy and a healthy environment are linked and set clear goals for improvement.

The link was obvious: we need clean air and water to survive. But, for example, think how much more productive the Chinese might be if they weren’t choking on their crappy air or hunkering down during massive dust storms. You could even say the environment IS the economy.

Nova Scotia recognized that and, for a brief, glorious period, even had Environment and Economic Development departments working together regularly. Nova Scotians were the envy of other jurisdictions and admired for our vision. Then, not long after the 2009 election produced a new government, a policy person stuck her head in my office at NSE and said: “The word is out. Any mention of EGSPA in a proposal is the kiss of death.”

Such is stewardship in Nova Scotia. No wonder it doesn’t test well.