Energy-saving strategy

City should lead in conservation as oil prices soar: expert

Urban issues consultant Richard Gilbert says Hamilton should plan its land use, design its buildings and base its economic development on the assumption gasoline will cost $4 a litre and natural gas $2 a cubic metre in the next 12 years.

His long-awaited peak oil report, which council will debate Friday, says there is a “more than even chance” prices for those fuels will increase fourfold by 2031, perhaps as soon as 2018.

But instead of taking a doom-and-gloom approach, Gilbert suggests Hamilton become a leader in energy conservation, electric transit and generating electricity from solar rays, wind and burning garbage.

He urges Hamilton to retrofit old buildings, require new ones to be energy-efficient and build light-rail, streetcar or trolley-bus lines connecting Eastgate Square to McMaster University, downtown to Lime Ridge Mall.

Hamilton Spectator