Ontario Liberals give lip service to green energy

Jun 26, 2014

From the point of view of green energy, the election of the provincial Liberals is a good thing as a Conservative victory would have meant the end of the green energy program. However, election of the Liberals does not automatically mean that we will be getting our electricity from renewable sources. Almost 60% of our electricity comes from nuclear reactors and if we want the majority of it to come from renewable sources we have to make sure that our nuclear reactors are phased out and not refurbished or new ones built. Unfortunately, there are powerful political and economic interests which want to keep the nuclear program going. If we want to get our energy from clean renewable sources which will be cheaper than new nuclear, we have to put pressure on the new Liberal government to phase out our old nuclear reactors. Unless we can do that, the Liberals will follow their long term energy plan and have most of our electricity will come from nuclear reactors and renewable sources will be relegated to a minor role.

We have to improve the Green Energy Act so that local municipalities and communities benefit financially from producing renewable energy. Having local communities receive financial benefits should make them more receptive to renewable energy projects in their communities.

Wolfe Erlichman