05.13.2011 09:55 AM

Timmy Hudaks PCs: totally full of crap on energy (and everything)

“A veteran MPP in his caucus stands to cash in on a green energy plan that his boss, Progressive Conservative Leader Tim Hudak, wants to scrap or pare back.

In the latest pre-election volley, the Liberal government issued a press release Friday stating that MPP Frank Klees sits on the board of directors of an energy company that has filed an application for a FIT (feed in tariff) contract with respect to the Mar Wind Project, a huge wind turbine project on the Bruce Peninsula.

Hudak announced earlier this week that he would scrap the controversial $7-billion Samsung wind and solar energy deal signed by the Liberals and would only honour those contracts already signed with smaller producers to supply green energy to the Ontario electricity grid.

Klees sits on the board of Tribute Resources and holds stock options in the company based on information supplied in the MPP’s 2010 public disclosure statements.”

25 Comments

  1. allegra fortissima says:

    Both Germany and Japan say they will phase out “nukes”, China is currently the world leader in renewable energy, spends more than any other country on renewable energy technology and the US is getting heavily involved in the renewable energy race:

    http://www.renewableenergyworld.com/rea/news/article/2011/05/pennwell-event-highlights-exciting-growth-for-large-scale-solar-industry

    Nuclear Power: If Japan and Germany don’t need it, why does anyone?

    http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/damian-carrington-blog/2011/may/11/nuclear-renewables-japan-germany?CMP=twt_fd

    Is this still being investigated and discussed, or already “forgotten”:

    http://youtu.be/P1s2TpM7EEU

    Seems that “Clean Coal” technology might be a better choice than nukes…

  2. AmandaM says:

    There’s no such thing as “clean coal”. Seriously, aren’t we past that yet?

    • AmandaM says:

      I used to work at the appropriate ministry. There is, simply, no such thing as clean coal.

    • myntje says:

      My sentiments exactly. It takes courage for a leader to close down a project that was a benefit to members of his own party.

      It’s like PM Harper closing down the income trusts. Many investors in Alberta, supporters of the CPC, lost a lot of money but Mr. Harper knew it was in the best interest of Canada as a whole.

  3. allegra fortissima says:

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clean_coal

    There is no such thing as “clean nuclear energy” – and seriously, we aren’t past that, right? We can always ask the people of Japan or Ukraine whether they consider nuclear energy as being “clean”. I always wonder why people, whom one would consider as half-way intelligent, would use this term and worse, write a column about it!

  4. Rick T. says:

    I dread to imagine the chaos that would happen, if there was a melt down at the Pickering plant.

    Where in the hell would people flee to?

    • Patrick says:

      Remain calm, Rick. It happened to over 200,000 residents of Mississauga in 1979 after a train derailment.

      On a nuclear level, there was a meltdown in Three Mile Island (also in 1979) and the evacuation was voluntary.

      To my recollection, these evacuations occurred without the kind of chaos and alarmism favoured by your typical media outlet or Hollywood.

      I would be more afraid if the lights went out as they did in NYC in 1977. Now THAT was chaos!

  5. Michael S says:

    The fact that coal is worse than nuclear doesn’t mean that nuclear is good. It’s merely the least bad baseline option that doesn’t generate CO2. Solar is not a baseline power option. Wind can be, in massive quantity, but we’re not there yet.

    However, fracking of coal-bed methane has made it all moot. Natural gas is cheap and getting cheaper as supply bloats, especially in eastern North America as production ramps up along the coal belt of Appalachia. The problem? All the pipelines point the wrong way, delivering gas, not exporting it. Hence we’re going to be facing a glut of cheap gas on this side of the continent.

    Natural gas is a CO2 emitter, but natural gas electricity plants are dirt cheap to build as compared to coal (smokestacks and ovens) and especially nuke. While I think the feed-in tariff is a good idea a wiser part of the mix would be to build a pipeline from Pennsylvania to Ontario to have an alternate source of natural gas.

    By replacing coal with gas, you remove toxic emissions (coal plants produce more radioactive waste than nuke plants do, just not concentrated) and you emit half the CO2, and you do so cheaply. Japan is likely going with a 1/3rd / 1/3rd 1/3rd mix of nuke, gas and renewables. There’s some smart economics behind such a spread, best summarized as “don’t put all your eggs in one basket”, and for a region that moves from a 50% coal mix it means a CO2 reduction of 66%. Not bad.

    • cgh says:

      “Wind can be, in massive quantity, but we’re not there yet.”

      No it can’t. Read the EOn performance reports in 2005-6.

  6. Phil in London says:

    Sucessful Made in Canada technology – Nuclear. Those are REAL jobs that will last, produce affordable energy and in a facilities thar are well monitored.

    The Japanese example is a tad overblown, three real nuclear accidents in fifty years, all with human error roots are not enough to bury this great source of energy.

    Hudac is striking a nerve given Warren’s obsession with him. Maybe you’ll be able to get a two for one deal on the liberal party rebuild.

    Full of crap is a proper description of the toilet paper McGuinty’s energy policy has been written on.

    Tax and spend and ignore reality while slamming the other guy that’s the liberal way.

    • cgh says:

      Drivel. None of Energy Probe’s claims hold water.
      They escalated into constant dollars the as-spent moneys for nuclear R&D and did not do so for the revenues generated.
      CANDU has yielded a large net return for the federal government over the past 40 years.

    • cgh says:

      Precisely so, Phil, which is why the OPA refused to comply with Smitherman’s order to revise their original electricity supply plan. The experts knew three years ago that the government had no idea what it was doing. Which was nothing more than recreating the insane power purchase agreements of the 1980s, only this time for renewables instead of gas.

  7. Phil in London says:

    Frank Klees’ eyes pop out when he sees the ability to make huge bucks because of McGoo’s ridiculous contract with Samsung and others and the PCs are called into question? He’d be a fool if he didn’t try to make a buck. Shame you guys in Toronto never drive a couple hours north of the center of the universe to see how your wind sham is pissing real people off.

  8. allegra fortissima says:

    “… not enough to bury this great source of energy.”

    http://youtu.be/TMXvpWoHzeE

    http://www.helencaldicott.com

    http://wikipedia.org/wiki/Helen_Caldicott

    • cgh says:

      Anyone quoting Helen Caldicott can automatically be written off as a crank.

      • allegra fortissima says:

        cgh – does this stand for “clinical gastroenterology & hepatology”?

        • cgh says:

          Try going to Port Hope, quoting the insane Caldicott, and see what you get.
          It’s probably accurate to say that you greens are more hated there than a skunk in a perfume factory.
          It’s a rare and wonderful thing when the local citizens wake up to the primitivist fantasies that you peddle.

          • JenS says:

            Caldicott soaked up more rads on the flight from Portland to TO than she would have sitting on the LLRW site in Port Hope naked for a year. She’s completely drivel-based.

  9. What a windbag. Your assertion that carbon does not need a cost is so 1980s.

    Nuclear power – so clean eh? How’s the disposal problem coming along? Did googling a few articles convince you everything is hunky dory? Yeah, better leave that elephantine problem alone.

    Locate a windfarm in front of your house. Bet it would operate full throttle, 24×7.

    Problem solved.

    • cgh says:

      More pure drivel. The waste solution was solved technically years ago. It’s antinukes like you that are obstructing any solution. Must drive you nuts that the brain trust in the green movement has all deserted the antinuke fanaticism.

  10. Patrick Hamilton says:

    Thank-god there are stll some “progressives” left in the PC Party of Ontario, rather than simply a bunch of Harris redux neocons…..kaff, Hudak, kaff.

    Keep on with business as usual, Mr. Hudak….I hope the electorate of Ontario is savvy enough to reject your Luddite agenda on renewable energy, and that Walkerton hasnt yet faded from their collective memories…..

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