The damage the previous Liberal government did to Ontario’s electricity system was mind-boggling.
Plunging into so-called “green energy’ without understanding what they were doing, while the likes of Al Gore cheered them on, former premiers Dalton McGuinty and Kathleen Wynne have saddled Ontarians with an energy disaster.
According to Auditor General Bonnie Lysyk, by 2015 they had overpaid $9.2 billion for wind and solar power because they ignored the advice of their own energy experts on how to price green energy.
Instead, they locked electricity ratepayers into paying absurdly expensive, 20-year contracts to the wind and solar developers, at twice the average cost paid for wind in the U.S., and 3.5 times the average cost for solar power.
They mandated that expensive and unreliable wind and solar energy, which cannot provide base load power to the grid on demand, had to be bought first, before all other forms of energy, making the entire electricity system less efficient.
Given all this, last week’s announcement by Premier Doug Ford’s Progressive Conservative government that it’s canceling 758 small renewable energy projects, at a savings of $790 million, is a step in the right direction.
As Energy Minister Greg Rickford said: “For 15 years, Ontario families and businesses have been forced to pay inflated hydro prices so the government could spend on unnecessary and expensive energy schemes. Those days are over.”
Let’s hope so.
The Liberals’ justification for their green energy blunder was that they used it to eliminate coal-fired electricity generation in Ontario. That’s absurd.
Coal provided 25% of Ontario’s electricity in 2003 when the Liberals came to power, while wind and solar — which have to be backed up by natural gas plants — today supply about 8% of Ontario’s energy needs.
Obviously, you can’t replace 25% of the system in 2003 with 8% of it in 2018.
What the Liberals actually replaced coal with was nuclear power — which doesn’t emit greenhouse gases or pollution — and natural gas, the cleanest burning of the fossil fuels.
What the Liberals really did was to waste billions of dollars on wind and solar power, contributing to skyrocketing electricity bills, that wasn’t needed to replace coal.
The PCs are, at least, beginning to correct the damage.
Read more at Toronto Sun
Included in that energy debacle with the fraudulent cancelation of a large cogeneration plant binding contract and a massive cover up to hide the Liberal deceit .
The Liberals should be criminally charged for theft and destruction of documents hiding their crime .
Good riddance . Funny how shit storms follow Al Gore around all over the planet as we wait for that “ice free Arctic ” prophesise to hatch and how is that Chicago Climate Exchange doing ? No wonder Enron went broke . The biggest crooks in the room .
I know two farmers who took the cash. They’re no longer my friends.
To be paying 2 to 3.5 times as much for the same energy in the US, there is more going on here than the climate change fraud. When this sort of thing happens, there are usually illegal pay offs involved.
I remember that they were desperate to be the first to shut down coal-fired generation. Then they bragged about their success.
They signed a really stupid contract with Samsung. For them to have prioritized the cost would have diminished the urgency, the imminent climate catastrophe.
The price the Ontario Liberals have paid is humiliation. Loss of party status and an expense account covered by taxpayers. In other words ,a slap on their wrists.
Kathleen Wynne will follow Dalton McGuinty’s career arc. Harvard will embrace her.
Voters are to blame for their own negligence. Toronto and California have too much in common.