The Editor,
The Barrie Examiner
Re: Progressive Conservative Energy Policy
March 15, 2011
Dear sir,
I am both sad and angry that elected leaders like Tim Hudak do not trouble to inform themselves about nuclear power.
Energy policy in Ontario has been wrongheaded for decades. When Mike Harris split Ontario Hydro into component parts, the Province acquired responsibility for its $38billion debt. Ontarians had been paying too little for electricity. For decades, we paid the running costs, but not enough to discharge the debt incurred to build our (largely nuclear) generators.
Now Mr Hudak is trying to blame high electricity prices on the cost of renewable energy, on “smart meters”, on the HST, on Mr McGuinty – anything!
The real culprit is nuclear power. When the plants were originally built, there were (a) huge cost overruns – doubling or tripling the original estimates, and (b) the estimates of how long construction would take were optimistic. The latter increased costs because the money borrowed to build them had to be borrowed for years longer than expected before any income was realised.
Once built, the “nukes” proved unreliable. Ontario’s nuclear “fleet” has experienced far more downtime than the 15-25 days of annual maintenance originally expected. Moreover, instead of lasting 40-50 years, our CANDU reactors have needed major repairs at the 25 year mark. In addition to the actual cost of repairs (also over budget and over time), while being repaired they were not generating income (electricity).
Now both McGunity and Hudak are musing about building more nuclear power plants. Before we allow them to do so, the people of Ontario must demand a guarantee that (a) no subsidy will be paid, (b) before construction begins, we are told what their power will cost and (c) if construction runs over budget and over time, the builder is liable.
By the way, in October 2007, Moody’s Investor Services put the cost of nuclear power plants at $5000-$6000/kilowatt. It’s probably higher now. At that price, their power should cost around $0.25/kWh. Check your bill and see what you pay now. Even the peak rate is less than half that!
If you think you are being shafted now, just wait for the new nukes come on stream. Me, I don’t care. With construction and approval delays, I should be dead before the first electricity flows from these newly built white elephants!
Sincerely,
Peter Bursztyn