Mark Matteson and Krystyn Tully,
Lake Ontario Waterkeeper
Two years ago, the Ontario Liberal party ousted the
ruling Conservatives by promising a better, healthier future for the province.
One of the chief planks in their campaign platform was a pledge to close
Ontario’s
coal-fired power plants by the year 2007.
By all accounts, closing Ontario’s coal plants is a political success.
Taking on King Coal and a powerful workers union makes the Liberals look
tough, committed to protecting human health and the environment despite
pressures from the business sector.
Attacking coal’s dirty, polluting character fosters the image of
a government dedicated to protecting our communities. The harshest criticism
opposition parties can muster is that the government is failing to close
the plants fast enough, in light of studies showing that coal plant pollution
kills as many as 668 Ontarians and dumps some 500 kilograms (1,100 pounds)
of mercury into our environment every year.
But it is all optics. By any grassroots account, the Ontario government’s
approach to closing our coal plants has been an environmental failure.
Ontario’s communities still suffer from coal
pollution, because the phase-out is limited to five provincially-run
power plants. A whopping 80% of mercury emissions (the number one reason
for contaminated fish in Ontario) spew from facilities other than power
plants: namely, garbage and sewage incinerators, steel factories and
cement kilns. The province has shown little courage in taking on these
other industrial polluters.
Phasing out coal-fired power plants in Ontario does not mean an end
to coal-fired power, either. The government has no comprehensive
energy plan, no program that will find alternative sources of
clean power or promote meaningful conservation. As a result,
the province is simply buying energy from coal-fired power plants
in Michigan, Ohio and New York.
These American plants are already responsible for more than half of
the air pollution in Ontario. As demand for the dirty power from down
south increases, so will bad air up north.
The government’s reactionary approach to energy planning also fostered
feelings of fear and desperation. In this climate, coal’s nasty
reputation and the lack of existing energy sources are used to shore
up weak arguments for other forms of dirty power.
Instead of asking, “How best can we power this province?” news
editors and industry analysts limit themselves to, “Which do we
like better, coal or nukes?” Because the Ontario government did
such a good job describing the horrors of coal, the response is predictable.
“Ontario needs more nuclear power plants,” wrote the Globe
and Mail. The Toronto Star was even more blunt: “Ontario is running
short on time. We shouldn’t waste time debating the inevitable,
controversial though nuclear power is. Rather, we should be discussing
where new plants should be located.”
In a classic case of not seeing the forest for the trees, the government
now proposes rebuilding nuclear reactors on the Great Lakes to replace
the void left by coal. In doing so, our political leaders ignore overwhelming
evidence that nuclear plants also taint fish, destroy fish and wildlife
habitat, contaminate our food supplies, and threaten the drinking water
supply of nearly 10-million people.
Protecting the environment and human health has fallen by the wayside.
Special interests thrive in this kind of chaos. Since 2003, nearly 300
new energy-related registrations have appeared on the Ontario lobbyist
registry. The vast majority of these registrations describe lobbyists
paid to push a particular energy source (like nuclear power) behind
closed doors. Not one is hired to promote the need for public involvement,
increased transparency or thorough environmental assessments.
These lobbyists lapped up the government’s narrow attack on coal
and used it to support their own agendas. Nuclear power is called “the
clean air energy” now – as if mercury, nitrous oxide and
sulphur dioxide from coal plants were the only threats to our environment.
Likewise, the obvious impacts of coal plants (like smog) are exploited
to gloss over less visible impacts of nuclear pollution (like cancer).
Meanwhile, communities are left scrambling to protect themselves. Residents
of Toronto breathe a little easier because the Lakeview coal plant closed
down, but people on Lake Huron continue to suffer because the nuclear
power plant there is being fixed up to last another generation. In the
province’s eastern region, citizens brace for an influx of tire
incinerators, presumably grateful because it is “anything but coal.”
What started out as a noble effort – protecting citizens from air
pollution – has turned into a free-for-all for energy lobbyists
and industry heavyweights. Instead of rallying together, Ontarians are
divided in the fight for limited access to environmental protection.
We desperately need to redefine the debate over energy production in
Ontario, and across North America. We need energy programs that stop
describing what we are against (coal, nuclear, hydro) and start prescribing
what we are for (clean air, pure water, healthy communities).
Only then will we have what we’ve all been working for: real success.
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