Clean Nanticoke first, says Tory

Richard Brennan, Staff Reporter, Sep 13, 2007, Toronto Star

NANTICOKE – Progressive Conservative Leader John Tory says he will close the pollution belching coal-fired Nanticoke power plant someday, but would spend more than $1 billion first to put scrubbers on it to reduce harmful pollutants.

“I want Ontario to have cleaner air and a secure energy supply. And I will not sacrifice one for the other,” Tory said today, standing in the shadow of the mammoth plant on the shore of Lake Erie about 60 kilometres south of Hamilton.

While Tory is promising the $1.3 billion scrubbers will remove 90 per cent of pollutants that cause health problems and lead to premature deaths, evidence shows scrubbers do little to remove greenhouse gases that contribute to global warming.

“Putting scrubbers on a coal plant is like putting a filter on a cigarette. It’s still dirty and it’s still deadly,” Liberal Energy Minister Dwight Duncan said in a statement.

The Liberals have been harshly criticized for breaking its 2003 election promise to close the Nanticoke plant by 2007. The government twice put back the date until settling on 2014. Next to saying he would not raise taxes, it is considered one of Liberal Leader Dalton McGuinty’s major broken promises.

“He (McGuinty) promises to protect those lives lost because of dirty air. He said he would do it ‘come hell or high water.’ So here we stand, in 2007. The coal is still burning,” Tory said. The PC leader said Ontario can’t afford to close the Nanticoke plant or any of the other four coal-fired plants in Ontario until there are other sources of power available. He said the Nanticoke plant, owned and operated by Ontario Power Generation, generates enough electricity to power nearly 2.5 million homes each year.

“We can’t turn the coal plants off until we replace the power they generate. But for the sake of people’s health and the air we breathe, we cannot afford to do nothing,” he said.

It has been estimated that some 1,900 Ontarians die prematurely each year as a result of dirty air.