In a stroke of evil genius, Premier Doug Ford has hatched a plan to get revenge for American trade action: pay Americans to pollute their own air.
For six months this winter, Ontario will pay the heavily polluting Oswego Generating Station in New York State to supply us with electricity during peak periods. The station burns filthy fuel oil, releasing toxic pollutants like nitrogen oxides, sulphur dioxide and mercury, and greenhouse gases.
Absolutely brilliant (says Dr. Evil). The station is just on the other side of Lake Ontario and, as long as the wind doesn’t shift, we get the power while they get the pollution. Except for the climate pollution, of course. But who has time to think about climate disruption in the middle of a trade war?
Surely this is all about revenge. Why else would Ontario pay Americans for some of the dirtiest power on the market when we have so many lower cost options to meet peak power, such as:
- We could pay Ontario’s large commercial and industrial consumers to shift some more of their demand from peak to off-peak periods.
- We could follow in the footsteps of jurisdictions like New York State, California and Texas and create virtual power plants linking together smart power controls in thousands of homes and businesses along with batteries to curb or meet demand in peak periods.
- We could even pay EV owners to use their batteries to supply power back to the grid during peak periods.
But we’ve been warned that everyone will have to feel some pain in this trade war. So apparently, we’re supposed to grit our teeth and pay for expensive, dirty American electricity, all to spare ourselves of the horror of putting more solar panels on roofs, placing wind turbines in our Great Lakes, or deploying more batteries here in Ontario!
Are we winning yet?
Send your message to Doug Ford, Energy Minister Lecce, your MPP and opposition leaders telling them you don’t want more dirty American electricity in our power system.