May 1st

The Canadian federal government electric vehicle (EV) purchase incentive takes effect. You can get up to $5000 back from Transport Canada if you purchase and electric vehicle now, while funds last. Businesses and other other organizations can collect multiple rebates per year.

May 2nd

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May 6th

After rising too early, I was delivered by electric car to the train station, and took the train to Quebec City to attend the annual national electric vehicle conference. Such a civilized way to travel. As you are likely aware, passenger trains in North America are largely electric drive transportation, using either overhead wires or on-board diesel generators to supply the electricity which actually powers the locomotives.

No airport security hassles, no road rage, seats with actual legroom, free WiFi and meal and beverage service, it makes travel much more tolerable.

May 7th

According recent studies in Canada, about a quarter of our GHG emissions from from light duty vehicles in the road transportation sector. Another quarter comes from producing the fossil fuels we use to power most of our on-road vehicle fleet. Electric vehicles charged from a 'green' grid can address HALF our national GHG emissions. So, if we were to take on a single change to make the biggest difference, that is an exciting place to start.

May 8th

At the conference, there were awards presented to the City of Montreal and the City of Kingston for their vision and leadership in reducing GHG emissions and enabling the use of plug-in vehicles as part of that. As a resident of Ottawa, it left me disappointed in my city's lack of progress on these issues. I guess the positive in that is that while my city is not embracing climate change action, there are now 2 cities within the one-charge range of our Nissan Leaf EV which are, and offer friendly recharging facilities to entice me to go there.

May 9th

Spent the morning cementing connections and saying goodbyes, then back to the train station for the trip home. Relaxing, convenient and I caught up on a lot of e-mail while contemplating how I can help accelerate the adoption of more electric vehicles in places like BC, MB, ON, QC, NB and PEI which have very little electrical generation from fossil carbon fuels already. To make the perfect ending to the day, I was picked up and delivered home by electric car.

Here's a piece I wrote a few years ago jfor the organization hosting the conference about the state of Canada's grid and how it can support bringing more EVs onto our roads.

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