Climate Change and Ontario’s Energy Policies of the Last Century

When a fire broke out in Lytton, BC this year, it spread so quickly that hundreds of people had to flee for their lives, leaving behind pets, sentimental memories and personal belongings. Most of the city was “erased”. It had recorded the highest temperature ever recorded in Canada, 49.6 C.

The heat wave killed hundreds in the Pacific Northwest. It was caused by climate change, according to an international team of scientists. One said he was scared by the way records were broken. Usually a new record is about one degree higher. At Lytton, it was 4.6 C higher for three days in a row.

This year’s wildfires are worse than ever in Ontario, the West Coast, Siberia and Europe. The warmer atmosphere is causing more flooding this year in China, Turkey, Germany, Belgium, India and the United Kingdom. Tropical storms will continue to get nastier. The disruption of the ocean current, the loss of biodiversity and the melting of glaciers are exploding, and scientists are tired of raising the alarm. Like sheep, we are simply following politicians who have been bought out by oil companies in a firestorm.

Energy costs a lot more in Ontario

Average citizens in Ontario think that the weather is being managed by someone, somewhere, and that their electricity costs about the same as in other provinces. But analysis from the Ivey Business School shows that energy now costs about half in Quebec than in Ontario, and about 60% in Manitoba and British Columbia. The gap will widen as Ontario repeats the energy mistakes of the 20th century.

What people are reading

Some governments are committing billions in money to “build back better” after the pandemic to proven failures such as carbon capture and sequestration, nuclear energy, bioenergy, and blue hydrogen. “These things are opportunity costs and distractions from real solutions,” according to the world’s leading climate tech expert, Prof. Mark Jacobson from Stanford University. He leads a team of scientists and engineering doctors who advise the White House and has plans developed for wind, solar and other clean renewables for 143 countries, including Canada.

Jacobson says gas power plants now cost twice as much as solar power. “Nuclear power costs 500 percent more than wind, and it takes about 15 years to design and build, during which time it has 15 more years of emissions.” His plan for Canada would save 3,800 lives from air pollution each year and reduce energy costs for taxpayers from $ 292 billion to $ 93 billion each year.

Starting windmills and spitting pollutants

Immediately after being elected, Ontario Prime Minister Doug Ford spent $ 231 million to stop 751 clean energy projects. He ordered the dismantling of new wind turbines in Prince Edward County. He tried to uproot others but lost in court. His government plans to build a highway in the middle of the best farmland in southern Ontario, Holland Marsh. A program to install electric vehicle charging stations on Ontario’s roads has evaporated.

The province is spending $ 26 billion to repair aging nuclear facilities and increase gas use from seven percent to 30 percent of the mix. Meanwhile, a phase-out of gas power is underway. order by Toronto, Mississauga, Brampton, Oakville, Kingston and 25 other Ontario municipalities.

Nuclear power is outdated and extremely expensive

The use of nuclear energy is declining around the world. Even champions like France and Illinois have created schedules to close most of their plants. Nuclear reactors must be shut down when it is too hot, as will be common in 2030. Governments I can’t pay anymore the huge runaway costs of nuclear construction delays and a decade. After 65 years of talking about a waste disposal solution, the industry still doesn’t have one. Spent fuel, radioactive enough to kill hundreds of thousands of people, is kept in vulnerable storage facilities near reactors in North America.

“If you flew a plane or missile into Darlington and hit the spent fuel bay, you would have a big problem,” says Gordon Edwards, president of the Canadian Coalition for Nuclear Responsibility. “The water could come out of the pool (and the intense heat) would melt the liner. Plutonium 239 has a half-life of 24,400 years, and if you can access it, you can use it for weapons. “

The latest industry tactic is to promote small nuclear reactors (SMRs), which only exist on paper, and yet Ontario is investing in them. The first proof of concept could be 2035, and the SMRs will solve none of the aforementioned problems. Nuclear experts around the world have dismissed them as useless.

Modern economic opportunities

Governments around the world are discovering that renewable energy and large battery systems are healthy, safe, viable, create more jobs than fossil fuelsThey can be added quickly and are less expensive than nuclear power, gas and coal. Electric vehicles are safer, cleaner, and less expensive to operate than gasoline and diesel vehicles that spew black air into children’s lungs.

Tesla will sell about a million electric vehicles this year. Australia saved enough pay off your big batteries in two years. Scotland is generating all the clean energy you need, Half a dozen other countries are operating 100% or close to renewables, and large economies such as California and Germany they have been running on top of 80 percent and 46 percent renewables, respectively. Globally, renewable energy additions 90 percent of the total expansion in global network capacity. Green stocks attract now 25 times more investment related to fossil fuels.

It’s time for the Ontario government to realize that the year is 2021, not 1950.

Bruce F. Nagy is the author of The era of clean energy (Rowman & Littlefield, 2018) and more than 250 articles on climate solutions. Please watch BFNagy.com or Twitter: @bfnagy.