It’s official: The Ford government simply does not care about meeting Ontario’s climate targets.
The government that produced a “glossy brochure” instead of a serious climate plan now wants to build a number of large new gas-fired power plants. Today it announced it is going to contract for up to 1,500 megawatts (MW) of power from new gas plants.
Relying on the usual disingenuous claims from our supposedly independent electricity planners about brownouts and blackouts, the government says it has no choice but to turn to polluting gas to meet rising electricity demand.
This claim flies in the face of the report on distributed energy resources the Independent Electricity System Operator (IESO) released just one week ago (this government seems to have a short memory) that showed that Ontario could meet all its incremental electricity needs by investing in distributed energy resources like energy efficiency, renewables and storage.
This highly credible – and truly independent – report seems to have made no impact on the government or the IESO, which are clinging to their plans to boldly take Ontario backwards to 1972, with an antiquated system that combines polluting gas plants with high-cost, high-risk nuclear reactors.
The plan for meeting Ontario’s incremental power needs released by the IESO today is high on cost and carbon. By adding up to 1,500 MW of new gas while ramping up the use of existing plants, Ontario will see a more than 600% increase in greenhouse gas (GHG) pollution from the power sector by 2040.
Instead of a huge increase in climate damage, the government could get serious about its pledge to lower bills by following the advice in the Dunsky report by investing in demand management, renewables and storage According to Dunsky, this could reduce Ontario’s electricity costs by up to $290 billion and reduce our electricity sector GHG pollution by 10.3 megatonnes in 2032.
When a government releases an announcement on the Friday before a long weekend, you know they are looking to bury bad news. Don’t let them do it. Spread the word about this insane climate wrecking plan by sharing this message.
Given the commitment of our provincial leaders to wrecking our climate, we need the federal government to ensure that its Clean Electricity Standard makes this plan illegal.
What you can do
Please send a message to federal Environment Minister Steven Guilbeault urging him to ensure that Ontario’s gassy plan never moves forward to help wreck our climate.