Smitherman, whose temperament earned him the nickname “Furious George,” betrays hints that his patience is perhaps waning for both the backlash and industry whining. “I totally understand that there aren’t many people out there looking for more electricity infrastructure in their backyards,” he says. And if somebody has to go back to the drawing board and redesign some projects, “I apologize that it will be inconvenient in some circumstances. But bigger setbacks are part of the Green Act.” All part of a difficult balancing act that the province must execute if it is to do away with coal by 2014, cut 30 megatonnes of CO2 emissions annually, and generally improve the health of all Ontarians. (Every year, the province’s coal plants kill 668 people, while causing 1,100 emergency room visits and more than 300,000 minor illnesses, says the Ontario Medical Association.)
But the noisy debate—and the pending infrastructure announcements—might just be the kind of sideshow the Ontario government needs to distract attention from even bigger problems with its energy system. Seventy-five per cent of its existing generation system must be replaced over the next two decades, and the cost of refurbishing and expanding its aging nuclear plants—the source of 53 per cent of the province’s power—is spiralling. Plans for two new reactors at Darlington were put on hold last month after the lowest bid came in at $26 billion, more than the power expansion budget for the next 20 years.
Bryne Purchase, a former deputy minister of finance and energy in Ontario, now executive director of the Queen’s University Institute for Energy and Environmental Policy, says Dalton McGuinty’s government seems to be flying by the seat of its pants when it comes to energy. “This has all been driven by relatively simple political thinking: coal bad, wind good,” he says. A carbon tax, whatever the form, would have had the advantage of pricing the pollutants out of the market, rather than making wind the default winning technology—a problem, given that it is neither particularly cost-effective at the moment, nor efficient. (The amount of available wind power can change from minute to minute, depending on the breezes, which explains Ontario’s decision to install “backup” natural gas-fired plants, which can be quickly be pressed into service.) And as the cost of new transmission lines, grid hookups and the government-mandated preferential tariffs get buried on electricity bills, consumers will never know if wind was the way to go or not, says Purchase. “Soon it will be impossible to know what the truly cost-efficient alternatives actually were.” Green, but at a steep price.
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