Ontario still far from meeting energy needs

As residents across our riding swelter in the wake of new record high temperatures and new record power consumption levels with each passing day, a myriad of questions remain unanswered as to how the provincial government will ensure the lights remain on and the A/C continues to blow in Ontario.

On August 1st, one of the hottest days on record, demand for power hit 27,005 megawatts by 5pm – that’s over 1000 megawatts higher than the record set a year ago. During this year we have seen Mr. McGuinty and his merry-go-round of energy ministers juggle the power portfolio like a hot potato – with the future of our electricity hanging in the balance.

Much of the Premier's difficulty in developing a coherent and sustainable energy plan surrounds his original wrong-headed election promise to close all the province’s coal-fired generating plants by 2007. As I’ve written in these papers many times, any so-called “plan” to shut down 25 per cent of the province’s generating capacity in four years was destined to leave us short on power and long on hot air from the get-go.

In recent months we have seen the situation go from bad to worse, as government delivered its lacklustre response to two reports forecasting a bleak future for Ontario’s power supply. A report from the Independent Electricity System Operator’s (IESO) stated the need for “significant delays in the provincial government’s coal replacement schedule given the need for additional resources and because of additional delays in bringing replacement generation in service.”

The IESO report followed predictions from the Ontario Power Authority that the province will be 10,000 megawatts short of electricity by 2025.

In response, Energy Minister Dwight Duncan announced the plan to build two new nuclear reactors – roughly 1,000 megawatts – and refurbish six others as part of a $46 billion expenditure. After 2 and a half years of dithering, Duncan admitted, “there are no easy solutions. Electricity prices everywhere will go up.” And what’s more, after years of demonizing coal and promising coal closure as the main plank of their energy plan, the Liberal Minister now has no timeline to shut the doors at the remaining fossil fuel plants.

Perhaps, if the McGuinty braintrust had taken the blinders off and invested in clean air technology at Ontario’s coal plants in the first place, we could have advanced our energy plan to prepare for future needs rather than spinning our wheels in reverse – bringing us ever closer to the brink of a blackout.

While the Liberal energy confusion continues to spin out of control, some interesting alternatives are being raised in our neck of the woods with regards to the possibility utilizing corn as a potential fuel source to power up homes across the Ontario.

Specifically, the Ontario Federation of Agriculture has suggested that about 15 per cent of Ontario’s corn and other grains could possibly replace enough coal at Nanticoke and Lambton to produce up to 1,000 megawatts of power – a level that would equal the demand of 250,000 homes. The project is intriguing in its potential to marry agriculture and energy needs right here in our backyard.

Whatever the answers and future solutions it’s clear that almost three years into the McGuinty mandate we remain no closer to meeting our energy needs than the day he came to power.