GOLDSTEIN: Ford government flirts with disaster on electricity file

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The good news is the Ford government in Ontario finally appears to have figured out that shutting down the Pickering nuclear plant while simultaneously eliminating natural gas-fired electricity from the grid would be a disaster, leading to blackouts and soaring electricity bills.

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The bad news is how it could have considered such a bizarre idea in the first place, and how it may still be looking at putting a moratorium on using natural gas.

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This even though it’s needed to back up unreliable and intermittent wind and solar power, neither of which can provide base load power to the electricity grid on demand.

It’s as if the Ford government is running through the hallway with scissors on the energy file.

Even Germany, as it was irresponsibly closing nuclear plants, realized it would need natural gas to back up its increasing reliance on wind and solar energy.

The problem was it bought it from Russia.

How did that turn out, again?

The idea Ontario would willfully abandon natural gas, which burns at half the carbon dioxide intensity of coal in an electricity grid that is already 94% free of greenhouse gas emissions, because nuclear and hydro power don’t produce them — is alarming.

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As late as July, the Ford government was insisting it would shut down the Pickering nuclear station in 2025 as scheduled, while forging ahead with the idea of eliminating natural gas from the electricity grid.

Ontario’s Independent Electricity System Operator has previously warned eliminating natural gas from the grid, as 31 Ontario municipalities have foolishly called for, would result in blackouts, increase hydro rates by a $100 a month and cost $27 billion.

Last week, the Ford government did an about face on shutting down the Pickering nuclear station in 2025, which provides 14% of Ontario’s electricity.

Ostensibly it wants to postpone the shutdown for a year — but in reality, it’s buying time to consider refurbishing it in order to keep it operating for another 30 years.

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What appears to have spooked Premier Doug Ford and the Progressive Conservatives about closing Pickering was finding out that doing so would mean increasing the use of natural gas to power Ontario’s electricity system.

The reason for that is the wind doesn’t always blow, the sun doesn’t always shine and we don’t yet have batteries capable of storing energy in sufficient amounts to power modern, industrialized economies, like the one we have in Ontario.

Finally, since the Ford government is investing billions of dollars to make Ontario a North American leader in manufacturing electric cars and EV batteries, where does it think the extra electricity needed to build EVs and charge them after they’re built, will come from if it simultaneously curtails nuclear power and natural gas? The energy fairy?

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The reality is that one of the few things the previous Liberal government Ford defeated did right on the energy file, was to eliminate the use of coal to provide 25% of the province’s electricity from 2003-14 through the use of nuclear power and natural gas.

That was one of the most successful programs ever undertaken in North America to lower greenhouse gas emissions quickly, because nuclear power doesn’t emit greenhouse gases and natural gas is the cleanest fossil fuel.

The problem was the Liberals simultaneously wasted billions of dollars on an unneeded wind and solar power boondoggle, for which Ontarians will be paying for decades to come, both as taxpayers and hydro ratepayers.