This is a posting we first made late last year. The announcement last week of a plan to jam a high-power line through one of Toronto's quiet neighbourhoods to connect with the waterfront power station illustrates the linear thinking of our power regulators. Electrical power, we must remember, is for people to have better lives. We do not live to justify having more electrical power....

Corporate Knights Magazine editor Toby Heaps dives into the truth behind Ontario's energy policy in an article titled, "A Green Power Corridor."

How we can quench our thirst for energy and break our addiction to fossil fuels.

When Amory Lovins, the Colorado-based energy efficiency guru and chief executive of the Rocky Mountain Institute, learned that Ontario plans to plough $40 billion into nuclear power, he blew a gasket.

There is hope - in spite of the government's decision to build a gas-fired power plant in downtown Toronto. Take a look at http://www.corporateknightsforum.com

1. There is a case to be made that conservation using projects like Deep Lake Cooling and remote control by Hydro of home aircon can help keep Toronto’s power demand steady even with an annual increase of 0.9% per the last census (about 25,000 more private consumers), even since Toronto Hydro’s rate hike has damaged the perception that saving hydro saves consumers money.

   However, the proposal for Transit City involves a massive expansion of the electrically powered streetcar, LRT, RT and subway transit systems. How will Toronto’s grid supply this? Maybe because the Mayor and his executive don’t believe TC is anything but lines on a map? If the City truly believes in Transit City then a third transmission line is probably inevitable.

   We already generate a fraction of the power we consume and other communities bear the burden of generators like Nanticoke but we can’t abide a single “clean natural gas” plant which is contracted not for base but only for peak load. I guess we’re in for more car and bus pollutants then, since the city can’t even pony up enough money to make every new bus a hybrid.

   Let them build their line, but let’s demand offset money to make a start on Transit City (since there isn’t a single dollar yet committed except to the Sorbara Subway to Nowhere)

   Posted by Mark Dowling  on  04/11  at  02:40 PM

2. Mark you ignorant SOB! Toronto had 50 severe pollution days two summers ago. Experts agree that means downtown Toronto is bordering on being so unhealthy that airborne particulates will cause scores of needless deaths once the “clean” gas generator comes on line. What lobby group do you represent anyway? Exxon?

   Posted by Benson  on  04/11  at  08:38 PM

3. Benson – in case you haven’t noticed I live here too. I lived through that summer in an apartment with a single bedroom aircon unit while the rest of the apt was unlivable. Trust me when I say I didn’t like it.

   the problem is that particulate count in Toronto is more likely caused by pollution blown in from Nanticoke and northern US coal fired power stations.

   As for your hysterical inferences about me, I am not part of a lobby group, I’m a systems administrator with a BSc in Chemistry and otherwise a private citizen. Perhaps you could provide your credentials and biases.

   While combustion of natural gas does lead to CO2 and NOx emissions, particulates are a much smaller problem than for solid fuel like waste incineration, oil or coal – why else did TTC run CNG buses for a while (except they bought ones that had crappy frames and weren’t worth rebuilding at end of lifespan – the last just departed the fleet). Why else does the province allow gas fired boilers in people’s houses.

   Ontario doesn’t need enough power, it needs more power than it needs, so we can export cleaner energy to the US rather than importing their coal fired power as we do now, while inhaling the combustion products. The expansion of Niagara will help, so will the Quebec and Manitoba power projects, but these involve the same high tension transmission lines as are being opposed by the Mayor.

   It makes sense to generate power closest to where its used. Let’s put up the solar panels, the wind turbines on condos (if city council would only approve them), let’s get biodigesters for our surplus organics and expand the deep lake cooling system. But let’s also face the reality that that may not be enough, and if it’s not we’re in deep crap.

   Posted by Mark Dowling  on  04/12  at  02:34 AM

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