Joan Baxter reports on EverWind Fuels plans to build Canada's biggest wind farm in eastern Nova Scotia—404 turbines covering more than 64,000 hectares of Nova Scotia’s Crown land— with plans for a hydrogen and ammonia plant in Cape Breton. EverWind's proposed Guysborough wind project and Bear Head Energy's next door wind project have raised local concerns about their environmental impacts and loopholes and weaknesses in Nova Scotia's environmental assessment process.

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John Woodside for the National Observer reports that the Canadian Gas Association, a fossil fuel lobby group, is under investigation for alleged greenwashing. The fossil fuel industry has secured favourable tax credits and a role for natural gas-derived hydrogen in Canada's energy transition. The federal government has introduced several initiatives to grow the hydrogen sector. These initiatives include an investment tax credit for "clean" hydrogen, a carbon capture and storage tax credit, and a Clean Fuels Fund. Supporters argue that hydrogen can be used in various industries to reduce emissions. Critics believe it is a delay tactic used by the fossil fuel industry. Environmentalists argue that the federal hydrogen strategy undermines Canada’s hydrogen ambitions by not addressing its dependence on fossil fuels.

More than 200 people attended a Pictou County town hall to ask Premier Tim Houston about the 100-turbine Websters Corner wind project Bear Head Energy is proposing for the Blue Mountain area of Pictou County. The Halifax Examiner’s Joan Baxter summarizes the event, the community's concerns, and Premier Houston’s response.

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The Halifax Examiner—as have others—investigates the origins of all the hydrogen hype. The Examiner reports that much of the rhetoric in the European Union goes back to “Dutch hydrogen professor” Ad van Wijk, a “failed businessman and part-time professor who made it his mission to promote the use of hydrogen.” 

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The Halifax Examiner’s Joan Baxter reviews The Ecology Action Centre’s statement on “wind energy, land use and green hydrogen production in Nova Scotia,” and their serious concerns about the use of energy from land-based wind facilities to produce that “green hydrogen.”

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On November 29, 2023, Global Affairs Canada's press release about a $125 million loan to EverWind Fuels in Nova Scotia did not mention that it was in US dollars, resulting in $41 million more public dollars than initially believed. Joan Baxter and the Halifax Examiner uncovered the misleading statement about Export Development Canada’s loans to Nova Scotia-registered EverWind Fuels, a private company founded by a New York-based Australian private equity company.

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The Halifax Examiner’s Joan Baxter closely examines and questions Premier Tim Houston's 44-page Green Hydrogen Action Plan to position Nova Scotia “as a world leader in clean economic growth and environmental stewardship” and how the government plans to facilitate green energy production to assist in hydrogen/ammonia production and export. But at what cost?

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Joan Baxter of the Halifax Examiner contacted Michael Liebreich for a question-and-answer session on Hydrogen. Liebreich is a member of the UK Board of Trade, a former advisor to the UN on Sustainable Energy for All, and an expert on the hydrogen economy.

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The Halifax Examiner criticized Tim Houston's Progressive Conservative government's plans for a new "hydrogen innovation program" as “greenwashing” when the government's Law Amendments Committee passed Bill 207, the Electricity Act amendments. The Examiner’s Joan Baxter speaks with experts, including energy coordinator Brenna Walsh at the Ecology Action Centre, who explains, “Though it is encouraging to see the intentions of this government to consider green hydrogen production, we are concerned that this amendment, as written, would open a pathway for other “flavours” [colours] of hydrogen production.”

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