“NO NUKES”-no nuclear power, that is-read campaign signs encircling the room where energy experts, environmentalists, politicians, and citizens gathered to discuss the future of Ontario’s energy this weekend.
The conference, entitled “Green Energy Vision for Ontario,” was held at the Native Canadian Centre on Spadina, just north of U of T.
“Nuclear power is expensive, period,” said Howard Hampton, leader of the Ontario provincial NDP at an open plenary on Saturday.
“It’s a sinkhole of debt,” echoed Paul Charbonneau, a member of the Green Party of Ontario.
The event was organized by Energy Vision (EV), a network of environmental and women’s groups. EV has come together to ensure the McGuinty government sticks to its promises of phasing out coal power, and to see that what replaces that coal is not nuclear.
All 20 nuclear reactors in Ontario are prematurely approaching the end of their life span and will have to be shut down at the rate of about one a year starting in 2008. The McGuinty government has promised to phase out coal power plants by 2007. But some are worried that they will rebuild the ailing nuclear reactors to compensate for the decrease in energy output from coal.
Greenpeace estimates the cost of rebuilding Ontario`s 20 reactors at between $14 and $19 billion. This is aside from the multi-million-dollar cost of annual maintenance, the problem of toxic waste disposal, and the ever-present risk of meltdown. Coal, on the other hand, is the largest producer of greenhouse gases of any known energy source. If coal remains, Canada will have a much greater difficulty meeting Kyoto Protocol emissions targets. EV hopes this could be the turning point for energy in Ontario.
“The reason we don’t have an energy crisis right now is very important,” said keynote speaker Ralph Torrie, who was commissioned by the David Suzuki Foundation to conduct a study on energy in Ontario.
Output of nuclear energy has steadily declined since 1994, due to aging reactors, some of which have been shut down for safety reasons. At the same time, coal power has increased exactly as much as the nuclear supply decreased. This has led some to argue that coal saved Ontario from an energy crisis. But Torrie offered a different picture, suggesting that what actually saved Ontario was a dramatic and unexpected increase in energy efficiency.
“Electricity efficiency has started to grow dramatically in the last ten years. Now, in 2005, its higher than its been in 50 years.”
This increase in energy productivity, he said, was driven by the demand side of the economy without government incentive.
Torrie proposed a plan for Ontario from now until 2020 which includes a mix of renewable sources such as wind and solar, natural gas, cogeneration, imported electricity, nuclear, and by far the largest “supply” coming from increased energy efficiency. He called on the McGuinty government to first legislate better efficiency standards and incentives across Ontario to boost already growing energy productivity.
“It’s the key to whether a green energy future, or any energy future, is plausible.”
