Energy is one of the most talked about issues in the upcoming Ontario election. Fifteen years of poor decisions started in an atmosphere of near panic in the aftermath of the 2003 blackout. Since then there has been minimal capital investment on Ontario’s electricity system. Add to that the cancellation of gas-fired power plants, sale of Hydro One, and the Fair Hydro Plan, we can see that Ontario is making decisions with enormous long-term economic and environmental consequences based on short-term political considerations.
Mark Winfield, writing for Policy Options, suggests the province needs to engage in a meaningful, independent, public review of its long-term electricity needs and options in terms of cost-effectiveness, resilience and sustainability. All options — nuclear plant refurbishments, hydro imports from Quebec, additional renewables and conservation, and distributed generation and storage — need to be on the table. Such a review offers the only option for building some sort of lasting consensus around the system’s future direction and putting an end to the practice of managing the system to meet short-term political goals.
http://policyoptions.irpp.org/magazines/may-2018/ontarios-hydro-unwelcome-truths/
