It is a question that only Mr. Hudak can truly answer. What it is clear to me, based on his fanatical, almost maniacal desire to end one of the greatest initiatives Ontario has undertaken in recent memory, is that he does hate renewable energy. I actually don’t believe that it has anything to do with costs, however. Any numbers I have seen him present do not make sense. They are simply a manipulation of data that is not correct. Additionally, he seems to have a real attraction to nuclear power. In 2014, at a time when the rest of the world is looking ahead, and investing significantly in alternative, sustainable means of power generation, Mr. Hudak wants to return Ontario to the 1950s. The reality is that our current suite of nuclear plants are at the end of their operational life, which means building new reactors, or refurbishing the old ones. If we can stop and imagine for a moment the cost of new nuclear reactors, and then ask the question – who is going to pay for them, and how? – it becomes very apparent, very quickly, that any minor savings the province will see from cancelling any further development of renewable energy, will be dwarfed in comparison to the monumental costs of new nuclear.
Why, why, why, why…? I keep asking myself this question over, and over again. Why does Tim Hudak hate renewable energy so? Why would he rather spend what was estimated in 2012 to be $38 Billion on a new nuclear reactor, then to invest in clean, reliable, sustainable energy? Why? The cost is much higher in terms of dollars, as well as environment, to develop new old school power generation facilities. The cost is also much higher to generate massive amounts of power in a centralized facility and then send it thousands of kilometres through an extremely costly network across the province, then it is to generate power through smaller scale renewable sources at its point of use. And the cost is unacceptable to our province and our planet, not to invest today to preserve the future for our next generations.
The short sightedness of not pursuing a renewable energy program of some sort is profound, and the idea of savings is a lie. As a province we are going to invest in new energy generation and distribution facilities on a scale the average person could not comprehend. To do so focussed on old technologies and the old way of doing things is the definition of insanity. If we continue to do the same things over and over again, we must not ever expect the results to change. Yet, here we are. Mr. Hudak proposes that we no longer invest in renewable energy, but instead, that we invest in more coal, gas, and nuclear energy. Wow, from my perspective that is quite a statement as to how much he values our future.
