The Ontario NDP’s decision to promote nuclear power as clean, green and affordable is an historic mistake. It is on the same level as the shift made by former Liberal premier Kathleen Wynne to sell Hydro One. The decision by the NDP to promote nuclear power will not gain any votes and will in fact cost the Ontario NDP the next election and a great many votes for years to come.
A very high price to pay to appease nuclear power lobbyists and other interested parties who will never vote NDP anyway.
The delegates at the Ontario NDP’s convention on the weekend of September 20, would be very wise to vote to drop this policy.
This open letter is an attempt to stop the Ontario NDP from making a terrible mistake.
In June of 2002 an NDP insider came to our Ontario Electricity Coalition meeting and warned us of the imminent NDP plan to make all new hydro generation private. When it was explained to leader Howard Hampton why this was a really bad mistake, Howard went to the floor of the convention and made a motion to drop that plan. After the vote the plan was dropped.
This is an explanation why the NDP’s plan to back nuclear power as clean, green and affordable is a terrible mistake.
Hydro is a complicated issue requiring technical, political and historical knowledge. The Ontario NDP does not have anyone with this combination of knowledge.
Having worked for hydro for 33 years, I know the hydro system very well. I also led the province wide campaign in 2002, 2003 and 2007 and debated energy ministers face to face. I can tell you the nuclear power issue is mostly about privatization and maximizing profits. Premier Doug Ford has repeatedly called nuclear power “clean and affordable.” That’s like calling lasagna and cheesecake weight loss foods.
One of the biggest concerns in Ford’s nuclear power plan is the private-public-partnership (P3) financing of new nuclear plants, particularly experimental and unproven Small Modular Reactors SMR’s. P3 financing is the most insidious form of privatization.
P3 investors expect a good return. There is no free money. We must remember the $34 billion debt at the old Ontario Hydro, almost entirely nuclear debt which clearly shows just how expensive nuclear power is to build and maintain. Adding in profits is just going to make nuclear power ridiculously expensive.
The mining and production of nuclear fuel is a very dirty business and very carbon intensive. Private investors never talk about the waste problem. Nuclear power is inefficient, a large part of nuclear power is lost to heat and line loss. A big question: Where is the conservation? You will never see private investors call for conservation. Using less power from real conservation measures, means less demand and less profit.
Politicians of every stripe do not have the slightest idea of the magnitude of the cost required to make the transition to a green energy system with renewables. If every driver in Ontario plugged in their electric vehicle after work at the same time when demand is already at a peak time, the system would fail quite dramatically.
The needed infrastructure build will require massive investment in generation, transmission, and particularly distribution, including charging stations and home charging units.
A number of countries have recognized the fact that the transition over to conservation and renewables will never happen under a for-profit system and have brought in public green power companies. Australia is bringing in publicly owned green energy companies. In Europe nine of the top 10 countries leading the energy transition to renewables all have one thing in common:
A publicly owned renewable energy company driving the process. This is what the Ontario NDP needs to be taking a hard look at and is in fact the way of the future.
The Liberal’s clean energy act was just a license for private green energy producers to print money. Last August, Ford announced the biggest expansion of private power in Ontario’s history. Ford made the exact same lower rate promise as former Conservative Premier Mike Harris when he brought in Hydro deregulation in the 1990s. In Ford’s announcement he used the word affordable nine times and claimed lower costs, saving consumers money and competitive pricing. Here’s how Harris’s promise of lower rates turned out: By 2007 rates doubled! By 2010 rates had tripled and by 2018 rates had quadrupled.
According to the provincial Financial Accountability Office, Ford is spending up to $7 billion a year hiding and protecting Mike Harris’ deregulated electricity market scheme. Currently Ford guarantees the profits and the taxpayers get the bill. Ford’s record expansion of private for-profit nuclear power will drive rates up and be very expensive for both the public and business. Is Ford going to use the public treasury to subsidize these rate increases too? Jumping on the nuclear bandwagon as clean, green and affordable is a terrible mistake. Instead seize the moment as an opportunity to expose Ford’s plan. The Ontario NDP’s policy was once public power. Time again for public power, this time clean, green and again, “at cost for the people.”
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