Harnessing safe, affordable energy to power our communities.

Rising energy prices are affecting individuals, families and businesses across Ontario. Mismanagement and a lack of planning have left us scrambling with an energy system that doesn’t meet our needs.

 

It’s time for a new approach. 

Ontario has important choices to make – right now – that will affect our sources of energy for generations. We can repeat past mistakes by locking ourselves into big, inflexible, expensive new nuclear plants—even while we are still paying the decades-old debt from the last round on every electricity bill. Or we can embrace a new energy era that invests in the future.

The only way to generate long-term, sustainable savings on our energy bills is to eliminate waste and prioritize efficiency and conservation. Transitioning to flexible, decentralized and community-based energy production makes sense.  We need to focus on local ownership, local decision-making and local benefits to stimulate job creation in communities across the province.

We also need a strategy to tackle rising transportation costs caused by traffic congestion and high fuel prices. Smart planning and strategic investments in efficient transportation systems can reduce gridlock, save us time and money, and reduce fuel consumption and pollution.

The Green Party’s energy plan is focused on sensible solutions that will reduce our province’s carbon footprint, make our economy more efficient and save us money today, tomorrow and years from now.

Your Green MPPs will:     

1. Prioritize energy efficiency and conservation to reduce Ontario’s energy consumption

a. Save you money and create jobs by reinstating and expanding the home energy savings program as part of a comprehensive Green Building Program

b. Capture waste heat from chimneys in large buildings and turn it into electrical energy by increasing generation targets for combined heat and power

c. Remove barriers so entrepreneurs can save us money with innovative technologies in conservation, efficiency and a new smart grid

2. Pursue a secure and financially responsible energy supply

a. Require local participation in energy projects; support micro-generation and community-based renewables that generate local benefits

b. Negotiate agreements to purchase inexpensive hydroelectricity from neighbouring provinces and increase hydro generation in Ontario

c. Protect our pocketbooks by opposing construction of new nuclear plants and prohibiting cost overruns for nuclear projects from being passed to rate-payers and tax-payers

3. Implement a sustainable transportation plan to reduce gridlock and lessen the impact of rising fuel prices

a. Promote efficient, liveable communities where streets and roads are safe for all users

b. Reduce commuting costs by supporting transit and affordable commuter benefits including  incentives for ride-sharing, more high-occupancy vehicle lanes, and tax credits for public transit users

c. Increase incentives for low-emission, fuel-efficient and electric vehicles 

For more information on the Green Party's energy plan for Ontario, find more information here, http://gpo.ca/issues

Greenpeace shuts down Darlington nuclear hearing

Courtice, Ontario — Greenpeace activists today shut down environmental assessment hearings on a proposal to build new reactors at Darlington in response to the Joint Review Panel’s refusal to suspend the hearings until lessons are learned from the Fukushima nuclear disaster in Japan.

Four Greenpeace activists, with a banner reading “No nukes are safe Stop Darlington,”are locked down at the front of the hearing preventing the Panel from continuing. Other activists are in the audience with a similar banner and wearing tape on their lips, symbolically bearing witness to a flawed hearing process.

“These hearings should not be allowed to promote building new reactors while downplaying the nuclear disaster at Fukushima,” said Shawn-Patrick Stensil, Greenpeace nuclear analyst. “The proposal to build new reactors is Dalton McGuinty’s proposal: he needs to take responsibility for the costs, the accident risks and for not suspending the hearings.”

Yesterday, about 40 individuals and groups participating in the three-week hearing called on the Joint Review Panel to suspend them until further analysis of the nuclear disaster at Fukushima is available for consideration. The Panel refused.
The environmental assessment proposal for building new reactors at Darlington has serious flaws, including:

• No reactor technology has been chosen for the environmental assessment,
• The environmental assessment has excluded discussion of a Fukushima-scale disaster, and
• No opportunity is provided to discuss alternatives to nuclear, such as clean
  energy sources,

“The rush forward to build unnecessary and expensive new reactors will expose hundreds of thousands of people and generations of Ontarians to the risks of a
Fukushima-scale nuclear accident,” said Stensil. “The proposal will create more radioactive waste that will be dangerous for millions of years. New reactors at Darlington can’t be permitted to proceed when the impacts and alternatives haven’t been considered.”

Nuclear heavy energy plan will double residential electricity bills

Source: Ontario's Clean Air Alliance

The McGuinty Government released their new 20-year electricity plan today.  This plan is a big slice of “Back to the future” with a major emphasis on costly, risky and completely unnecessary nuclear projects.

Here are its key features: 

Coal phase-out

The good news: The Government of Ontario is speeding up the coal phase-out.

-          2 of Nanticoke’s 6 remaining coal boilers will be shut down in 2011.

-          The Atikokan coal plant will be converted to biomass by 2013.

-          The Thunder Bay coal plant will be converted to run on natural gas and potentially also biomass.

-          The Government will make a decision in 2012 on the conversion of some or all of the remaining coal units at Nanticoke and Lambton to natural gas. 

These are important steps in the right direction given that Ontario has more than enough generation available to end coal use now. 

Nuclear

-          The Government plans to move forward with re-building the aging Darlington and Bruce Nuclear Stations and building two new nuclear reactors at Darlington.

-          According to the Government, its nuclear plan will cost $33 billion.  However, every nuclear project in Ontario’s history has gone massively over budget – on average by 2.5 times.  Therefore the real cost of McGuinty’s nuclear plan will almost certainly be $83 billion or more.  That means the total cost of McGuinty’s 20 year electricity plan will be $137 billion or more.

-          According to McGuinty’s plan, in 2030 Ontario will obtain 55% of its electricity from costly nuclear power.

Conservation

Ontario’s demand for electricity has fallen by 7% since 2006, yet our electricity consumption per person is still 35% higher than New York State’s.  But instead of ramping up conservation efforts to cut waste and improve efficiency, the McGuinty plan calls for a massive supply increase – Ontario’s total electricity generation capacity in 2030 (40,900 MW) will be 63% greater than our peak demand in 2010.  Apparently, the Premier has little faith in his government’s ability to truly create “a culture of conservation.”

Green Energy

According to the McGuinty Plan, wind, solar and bio-energy will provide Ontario with 15% of its electricity supply in 2030, up from up from 3% today.

New Peaker Plant for Kitchener-Waterloo

The McGuinty Plan calls for the construction of a large new, inefficient gas-fired peaker plant in Kitchener-Waterloo despite the fact that the region’s electricity needs can be met at a much lower cost with an integrated combination of energy efficiency, demand response and combined heat and power.  Will it be Oakville all over again?

Combined Heat and Power

The McGuinty Plan directs the Ontario Power Authority to establish a combined heat and power (CHP) standard offer program for projects of 20 MW or less.   However, new CHP procurement is capped at approximately 500 MW despite the fact that its cost per kWh is less than one-third that of new nuclear and Ontario’s total CHP potential is greater than 11,000 MW.  Why are we artificially capping cleaner, safer power sources?

Our Conclusion

The McGuinty Government’s plan will double residential hydro bills over the next 20 years to pay for high-cost new nuclear power.  This doesn’t make sense.  Ontario’s electricity needs can be met at a much lower cost with an integrated combination of energy conservation and efficiency, water power imports from Quebec, and small-scale, high-efficiency combined heat and power plants.

Click here to send an email to Premier McGuinty.  Congratulate him on speeding up the coal phase-out, but please also tell him that you don’t want Ontario to spend $83 billion or more on risky nuclear.  Tell him that we can keep our lights on at a lower cost with a combination of energy conservation and efficiency, water power from Quebec and small-scale, high-efficiency combined heat and power plants.

Thank you for helping shift Ontario’s energy policy.