April 5, 2019
EDMONTON – The transition to a clean, green economy can be made now, says Chris Alders, Green Party of Alberta Candidate for Edmonton-City Centre.
More people in Canada have employment in alternative energy than work in the oilsands. Alders says we must speed up the transition because “the heyday of fossil-fuel dependent economies is over and that in order to ensure a prosperous future Alberta must move as quickly as possible to a much greener and more equitable economy.”
The Green Party candidate is optimistic that the transition to a sustainable economy can occur in Alberta. “I believe Albertans’ creativity, training and intelligence can be marshalled to usher in a new era of smart sustainability. There is no good reason why we must remain stuck in a 1970’s economy forever when we could be moving into geothermal, solar, and wind power.”
Alders indicates that Alberta is lagging behind in renewable energy “at a time when we should be knee deep in employment. The other parties are intent on perpetuating the continuance of what is a sunset industry. While we will have a need for petrochemcials in the future, the idea the we should centre our entire economy on fossil fuels is irresponsible.”
The Green Party would bring about retraining and investment in the following areas:
- Geothermal: laid-off oil workers have the skill sets to convert orphan oil wells. This can be happening now but we need elected Green Party MLAs to push this forward. Incidentally, there are 77,658 orphaned wells in the province;
- Solar: a recent report indicated that 4.2 million jobs can be created in Canada if we invest in retro-fitting. Alders says, “As your prospective MLA, I will work to put in place a combination of grants and tax incentives needed for people to convert their homes to solar. This will open the doors for many to be employed in this great project.”;
- Wind: with the Canadian Wind Energy Association predicting that our province could generate 8.3 billion dollars in investment, along with employment, if we commit to add 5,000 megawatts of renewable energy by 2030, the time is now to further the shift to wind power.
Alders says “it’s high time we turned our energies away from oilsands expansion. For far too long we’ve put all of our eggs in what is a very leaky basket. By electing me on April 16, 2019, the residents of Edmonton-City Centre will have a champion of the transition to a clean, green economy.”
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For more information, please contact:
Chris Alders
Green Party of Alberta Candidate for Edmonton – City Centre
Email: chris@chrisalders.ca
Phone: 780-242-1621