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From the Toronto Sun, January 21, 2011 – Read article here.
Rising energy prices are hitting Ontarians in the pocketbook. Mismanagement and lack of planning by the old parties at Queen’s Park now has the Liberals scrambling to throw Band-aids on the problem. Ontario needs a long-term, sustainable energy plan that will make electricity bills affordable today, and keep them affordable in the years to come.
Instead, the insiders at Queen’s Park have re-committed to the most expensive form of energy generation — large-scale, new nuclear. This just shows they’re all talk on how to reduce hydro prices and embrace a sustainable future for our children.
No nuclear project has ever come in on budget or on time, and we’re still paying for the massive 270% cost overrun on the Darlington plant decades later.
In our own lives, we would never take on a loan where we paid back 110% of the loan and still owed 90% of the principal. Yet that’s exactly what has happened in Ontario. In 1999, about $30 billion of stranded debt was transferred to Ontarians on our hydro bills — much of it from the cost overruns of nuclear power plants. Eleven years later, we’ve paid $36.3 billion and — somehow — $27.6 billion remains. This is clearly a flagrant, irresponsible and outrageous waste of our money.
We can’t gamble taxpayers’ money on high-risk nuclear investments or hand it over to private companies in backroom deals. Instead, we must take the most financially responsible approach to our energy future and invest in energy efficiency and conservation.
No successful business would make a massive capital investment in new capacity without reducing waste and maximizing efficiency first. There are lots of ways for us to become more energy efficient, as the amount of energy we consume per person in Ontario is much higher than comparable jurisdictions such as New York.
Our energy plan should begin with rewards to consumers and businesses for achieving ambitious conservation targets that will mean lasting savings.
We have major choices ahead of us to determine our energy future, to ensure a reliable source of power that is financially and environmentally responsible. The insiders at Queen’s Park are trapped in old ideologies that stand in the way of innovation. Imagine a democratized energy sector where every Ontarian has an opportunity to be a green energy entrepreneur and where municipalities and community co-ops — instead of foreign companies — have preferential access to the grid.
It’s time for an honest conversation about energy in Ontario, one that starts with a focus on eliminating waste through efficiency and conservation, and that puts individuals and communities in control of their own energy future.
— Schreiner is Leader of the Green Party of Ontario