Wednesday, March 16, 2011

Removing safe and reliable electricity generation in Ontario

In Ontario the Provincial government has demonized coal-fired-thermal-power-generation. Lets put aside for the moment the obvious question that asks why is government is involved in supplying electric power to homeowners. I think competitive free enterprise would do a better job, but I will deal with that issue later. In the meantime an Ontario election is looming and citizens will have an opportunity to pass judgment on the policies and practices of Dalton McGuinty's Liberals soon.
One of those policies is McGuinty's plan to remove the option of coal and reduce natural gas usage for power generation, replacing them with solar panels and wind mills. This ideologically driven policy may lead to some serious unintended consequences for Ontario's future. It's "ideologically driven policy," because McGuinty is convinced that the waste gas carbon dioxide is a significant cause of the evil global warming. Why global warming is a problem for Ontario, I'm still not certain?
In a widely distributed pamphlet McGuinty's Liberals claim the reason for removing coal power is because it pollutes the air, even though there are ways of mitigating that problem that are less expensive and less risky for the future. If air pollution is a primary effect of coal-fired-thermal-power-generation, then the closure of these plants should reduce air pollution. Does it? Have a look at my answer in this video: 


4 comments:

  1. Even if we could use CO2 scrubbers in the coal plants, what about the pollution from mining and the large amount of waste product? Oh, right, it's not in your backyard.

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  2. I don't think the people who's livelihood depends on mining are actually complaining about pollution and waste, not that these are huge problems in most Western countries. The worst pollution and waste is found in the most heavily regulated countries, Russia, China.

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  3. Dear HumanistDad: do you drive a car? do you want central heating? do you want your cavities fixed when you go to the dentist? If you said yes to any of these you need mining.

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