The Greenpeace action is to expose a little known clause in the
proposed Green Energy Act that allows Smitherman to
indiscriminately build nuclear reactors without any public review
of their cost by the Ontario Energy board. Greenpeace wants this
disturbing clause removed. Greenpeace believes an independent
review of nuclear costs and green options is important because the
cost of a new nuclear plant has skyrocketed to $15 billion from
$5.8 billion since 2005.
Smitherman is scheduled to address the hearings on the Green
Energy Act today. The Greenpeace billboard will remain at Queen's
Park for several hours to emphasize this problem with the act.
Greenpeace energy campaigner Shawn-Patrick Stensil is also
scheduled to speak at the hearings today.
"Smitherman has turned the draft Green Energy Act into a Trojan
horse by embedding in it a nuclear clause that will badly undermine
the future of green power in Ontario," said Stensil. "Smitherman's
plan to build new reactors blocks the development of green energy.
A law that gives him the right to build reactors without any public
input makes a scary situation even worse."
The McGuinty government has a history of avoiding public review
of its nuclear plans. It exempted its electricity plan, including
the nuclear plans, from an environmental assessment and won't
participate in federal environmental assessments so it can avoid
consideration of alternatives to nuclear.
Greenpeace supports the Green Energy Act as a valuable tool for
creating a green energy system in Ontario. But Smitherman's
decision to reserve 50 per cent of the province's electricity grid
for nuclear energy blocks any significant expansion of green power.
The Greenpeace billboard has a caricature of Smitherman pouring
nuclear waste on to a windmill.
"Smitherman really will be Ontario's Nuclear Energy Minister if
he doesn't amend the act and say no to new reactors," said Stensil.
"The Green Energy Act will be nothing but a diversion if the Trojan
horse remains to support the government's nuclear agenda."
Smitherman has said he will announce the government's decision
on whether to rebuild the Pickering nuclear station or replace it
with new reactors in June. Greenpeace's campaign is to convince
Smitherman to replace the Pickering reactors with green energy when
they reach the end of their operational lives beginning in
2013.
A report endorsed by Canada's major environmental organizations
in November shows that the only way the government can expand green
energy is by replacing ageing nuclear stations, starting with the
Pickering reactors, with new green energy sources over the
decade.
"Ontarians want more green power and less nuclear power," said
Stensil. "If he made a decision this summer to replace the
Pickering reactors with green energy, Smitherman could prove his
commitment to green power and prove that the McGuinty government
really wants to be North America's green energy leader.
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For more information, please
contact:
Brian Blomme, Communications Coordinator, (416) 930-9055
Shawn-Patrick Stensil, Energy Campaigner, (416) 884-7053