Liberals wasting billions on ‘green’ energy we don’t need
When it comes to addressing climate change, former Ontario premier Dalton McGuinty and current Premier Kathleen Wynne deserve credit for one significant thing.
By eliminating Ontario’s use of coal to produce electricity in 2014, they can rightfully claim to have successfully completed one of North America’s largest efforts, ever, to reduce industrial greenhouse gas emissions linked to climate change.
True, McGuinty originally promised to do it by 2007 in the 2003 election that brought him to power and the Liberals were seven years late in fulfilling his promise.
But they did get it done and it is significant.
Globally, electricity produced from coal is the single greatest cause of industrial greenhouse gas emissions, dwarfing minor contributors like Canada’s oilsands and, in fact, global oil production in general.
China gets 80% of its electricity from coal, India 70%, Germany 45%, the U.S. almost 40%.
Canada gets less than 11% of its electricity from coal and Ontario 0%.
The problem is the McGuinty and Wynne governments claimed they eliminated coal use by investing billions of public dollars in wind and solar power.
That claim is nonsense.
In 2003, coal provided 25% of Ontario’s electricity. Today, wind and solar power, mostly wind, provide 4% of Ontario’s electricity.
Obviously, it is mathematically impossible to replace 25% of electricity power generation with 4% of electricity power generation.
What the Liberals actually did was to replace coal-fired electricity with nuclear power and natural gas-fired electricity.
Nuclear power doesn’t emit greenhouse gases and natural gas emits them at half the rate of coal.
Nuclear power is the workhouse of Ontario’s electricity system, providing a steady stream of electricity to the grid.
Natural gas plants are needed to respond quickly to surges and dips in electricity use that occur every day.
That’s why the Liberals went on a building spree, constructing 17 natural gas-fired plants, two of which they later cancelled in Oakville and Mississauga at a public cost of up to $1.1 billion, to save a handful of nearby Liberal seats in the 2011 election.
A secondary purpose of these natural gas plants was to back up wind and solar power, because neither can supply base load power to the electricity grid on demand, since the sun doesn’t always shine, the wind doesn’t always blow and even when the wind blows, it doesn’t always blow at the right speed for wind turbines to work.
The point is the Liberals could have fulfilled their promise to eliminate coal-fired electricity without spending one dollar on wind turbines and solar panels that were never needed and on which they’ve wasted billions of public dollars, according to the Ontario auditor general.
The lesson, simply put, is that are smart ways to reduce greenhouse gases and stupid ways to do it.
McGuinty and Wynne were smart to use nuclear power and natural gas to replace coal in Ontario, but spectacularly dumb to spend a single taxpayer dime on wind turbines and solar panels.
source: Liberals wasting billions on ‘green’ energy we don’t need | GOLDSTEIN | Ontario
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Okay, here in Ontario they have farms with mini solar power towers under the MicroFIT Program. The Ontario Govern't gives farmers money to build these units.. however, more than half are not working, because Ontario has to much power. Yet the Liberals still keep buying votes from the farmers and building more useless Solar Towers
Oh the silence from the LibTards
When it comes to addressing climate change, former Ontario premier Dalton McGuinty and current Premier Kathleen Wynne deserve credit for one significant thing.
By eliminating Ontario’s use of coal to produce electricity in 2014, they can rightfully claim to have successfully completed one of North America’s largest efforts, ever, to reduce industrial greenhouse gas emissions linked to climate change.
True, McGuinty originally promised to do it by 2007 in the 2003 election that brought him to power and the Liberals were seven years late in fulfilling his promise.
But they did get it done and it is significant.
Globally, electricity produced from coal is the single greatest cause of industrial greenhouse gas emissions, dwarfing minor contributors like Canada’s oilsands and, in fact, global oil production in general.
China gets 80% of its electricity from coal, India 70%, Germany 45%, the U.S. almost 40%.
Canada gets less than 11% of its electricity from coal and Ontario 0%.
The problem is the McGuinty and Wynne governments claimed they eliminated coal use by investing billions of public dollars in wind and solar power.
That claim is nonsense.
In 2003, coal provided 25% of Ontario’s electricity. Today, wind and solar power, mostly wind, provide 4% of Ontario’s electricity.
Obviously, it is mathematically impossible to replace 25% of electricity power generation with 4% of electricity power generation.
What the Liberals actually did was to replace coal-fired electricity with nuclear power and natural gas-fired electricity.
Nuclear power doesn’t emit greenhouse gases and natural gas emits them at half the rate of coal.
Nuclear power is the workhouse of Ontario’s electricity system, providing a steady stream of electricity to the grid.
Natural gas plants are needed to respond quickly to surges and dips in electricity use that occur every day.
That’s why the Liberals went on a building spree, constructing 17 natural gas-fired plants, two of which they later cancelled in Oakville and Mississauga at a public cost of up to $1.1 billion, to save a handful of nearby Liberal seats in the 2011 election.
A secondary purpose of these natural gas plants was to back up wind and solar power, because neither can supply base load power to the electricity grid on demand, since the sun doesn’t always shine, the wind doesn’t always blow and even when the wind blows, it doesn’t always blow at the right speed for wind turbines to work.
The point is the Liberals could have fulfilled their promise to eliminate coal-fired electricity without spending one dollar on wind turbines and solar panels that were never needed and on which they’ve wasted billions of public dollars, according to the Ontario auditor general.
The lesson, simply put, is that are smart ways to reduce greenhouse gases and stupid ways to do it.
McGuinty and Wynne were smart to use nuclear power and natural gas to replace coal in Ontario, but spectacularly dumb to spend a single taxpayer dime on wind turbines and solar panels.
source: Liberals wasting billions on ‘green’ energy we don’t need | GOLDSTEIN | Ontario
....................................
Okay, here in Ontario they have farms with mini solar power towers under the MicroFIT Program. The Ontario Govern't gives farmers money to build these units.. however, more than half are not working, because Ontario has to much power. Yet the Liberals still keep buying votes from the farmers and building more useless Solar Towers
Oh the silence from the LibTards
