“I am never happy until we hit 100%” – Premier Doug Ford

During last night’s provincial leaders’ debate, Doug Ford said that he will not be happy until Ontario achieves a 100% zero-carbon electricity grid. We couldn’t agree more! By following our plan, the PC leader can make himself and the people of Ontario very happy by lowering our climate impact and cleaning our air.

Right now, though, Ontario is going in the opposite direction. In 2017 fossil gas was responsible for 4% of our electricity supply. Last year, its share had doubled, and according to the Independent Electricity System Operator (IESO), gas will be responsible for a quarter of our electricity supply by 2040 if we stick with our current approach. This would mean we will lose 50% of the greenhouse gas pollution reduction benefits that we achieved by phasing-out dirty coal.

Fortunately, as the suppressed IESO reports have confirmed, Ontario can achieve a net-zero-carbon electricity grid by 2030 and lower electricity bills by implementing the following five-step plan.

1.     Ban gas-fired electricity exports to the U.S.   

2.     Purchase all energy conservation, wind and solar energy that can keep our lights on at less than today’s price of nuclear electricity (10.5 cents per kWh).

3.     Double our imports of Quebec waterpower using our existing transmission links with Quebec, and then triple them again with cost-effective transmission upgrades.

4.     Tap into the synergies of working with power-rich Quebec to store our excess renewable power using Quebec’s huge reservoir system, and tap Quebec’s growing wind power supply as well.

5.     Make sure we can use EV (electric vehicle) batteries to help store power and supply it back to the electricity grid during peak demand periods by prioritizing the development of bi-directional smart chargers instead of one-way dumb chargers. By 2030 the total capacity of EV batteries in Ontario will be more than double the capacity of our gas plants.

Instead of seeing our climate impact rapidly increase over the next decade, our plan will help put Ontario back on track to meet critical climate targets. And as we now know from the suppressed IESO reports, these options also make financial sense. In fact, by investing in energy efficiency, wind and solar power and energy storage, we can reduce our total electricity costs by 8% by 2030 while reducing our need for polluting gas power.

Andrea Horwath (NDP), Steven Del Duca (Liberal Party) and Mike Schreiner (Green Party) have all promised to achieve a virtually complete gas power phase-out by 2030.

What you can do

Please contact Doug Ford here. Ask him to direct the IESO to develop and implement a plan to phase-out gas power by 2030. Tell him you care about the climate and that gas has gotta go.