A SUSTAINABLE ECONOMY
ENERGY; CLEAN AND CONSERVE
The Green Party does not support the privatization of the DISTRIBUTION of electricity for two reasons. First, it is an established infrastructure service and as such should remain public. Even if electrical distribution ownership were to be divided between a number of big players (effectively the only ones who could afford to buy big chunks of the grid), they would still have a virtual monopoly within their own markets. Second, under "Free Trade" agreements signed by our Federal government, once a private commodity is sold to the United States on a continual basis, we are obliged to continue selling it at the same ratio to Canadian sales, even in the event of a shortage. Winters are too cold and dark in Ontario for this kind of risk.
With regards to electrical PRODUCTION and the debate between continued privatization or return to public ownership, the NDP, Liberals and Conservatives have managed to still get it wrong. Neither a return to the debt-addicted, empire-building publically owned utility or an establishment of a virtual corporate monopoly is in the best interests of Ontario consumers. When the Conservatives propose “real” competition they in fact mean 4 or 5 big corporate players controlling most of the production instead of Ontario Power Generation (OPG) controlling 70% of the production.
The Green Party proposes a hybrid energy production model. We would retain majority public ownership of our current largely centralized electrical production in order to facilitate the development of ever wider, de-centralized and locally owned system (including municipalities, SMALL private producers and co-ops.) All Ontarians (even theoretically down to the household level through roof-top photo-voltaic systems, wind-power, etc.) would have the option if they wished to become producers of electricity. We would facilitate these investments by requiring the public utility to provide back-up electricity to these small producers without penalty and to purchase their excess electricity fed back into the grid at full avoided cost (what it would cost the public utility to develop new capacity). We would simultaneously restrict the public utility from building new capacity but would allow it to convert existing dirty energy production into (relatively) clean production i.e. wind, solar, small hydro, natural gas, as long as it did not increase net public utility production. Over time a resilient and de-centralized alternative production network would develop alongside the public utility. This would lead to a considerable saving on high electrical transmission losses from more centralized facilities as well as rapid response and appropriate generating capacity for the needs of Ontarians.
Immediate short-term imbalance in supply/demand as well as long-term management of demand would be addressed by a real energy conservation program for a change! Energy conservation measures should not be seen as a token policy add-on (as it was under the NDP government) but a hugely neglected aspect of energy policy in Ontario. Direct investment subsidies in renewable energy research and development are appropriate, but for sustainable clean production, implementing true-cost accounting is the real catalyst for transformation. The economics of clean production should never have to rely on the political whims and budgets of a new government in power.
In the final analysis, advanced energy-conservation methods, more energy-efficient appliances and technologies, and creative financing for energy-conservation investments create a true win-win-win solution for home-owners, businesses, and the environment. Consumers and businesses save by consuming less electricity even if it is more expensive. The environment benefits from less pollution and resource depletion. New jobs and businesses are created to meet this demand, and, money saved through a higher provincial energy-efficiency is now available for other uses. The bottom line is that when the true environmental cost of energy production is not accurately reflected in the retail price, not only does the environment suffer, conservation also languishes.
To these ends, the Green Party supports:
- Establish a powerful new Ontario Energy Conservation Utility whose mandate would be to work with municipal, residential, and industrial partners to help businesses and consumers reduce energy consumption and create Negative Watts ("Nega-Watts" are hard numbers on the electricity not needing to be produced because of the application of advanced conservation practices, technology, education, and creative financing). This is a practice well advanced in the United States. This shift to demand instead of supply reduces the need for expensive new generating-capacity investment that would ultimately be paid by all consumers and the environment (in fact it has been estimated that the capital cost per kilowatt of new energy production facilities is two to three times higher than the capital cost per kilowatt of energy conservation investment).
- Setting of renewable energy quotas for the percentage of new production that must come from renewable energy sources (and not including big hydro)
- Shutting-down or converting Ontario's coal-fired stations to natural gas as soon as possible and responsible;
- Removal of subsidies for fossil and nuclear fuels, and creation of tax incentives for conservation and renewable energy;
- Removing sales tax on renewable energy systems, such as solar, wind and biomass energy, and establishing quotas for renewable electricity production by retail energy providers;
- Shifting costs of energy pollution to carbon taxes for fossil fuels and emission taxes for industry;
- Providing tax relief for manufacturers who switch to zero-discharge production systems;
- Responsibly but progressively de-commissioning Ontario's nuclear power plants as alternative sources of cleaner energy become available;
- Strongly supporting the development of world-class
solar and wind-power R & D centres through special tax reduction incentives
such as those currently given for oil and gas exploration.