Editor:
A group of councillors from a dozen Ontario municipalities is very disturbed at the rapidly increasing cost of electricity. They are questioning the government's energy policy that was rushed through without adequate analysis or examination, justified by an ideology rather than a comprehensive business case. They point out that our electricity has now become the most expensive in North America, seriously threatening our prosperity. And yet we are subsidizing New York and Michigan because we have to sell much of the wind energy which is available when it cannot be used, at below market prices and less than what it costs us to produce.
In a letter to the Minister of Energy, the IESO and the Auditor General, Mark Davis, Chair of the Multi-municipal Wind Turbine Working Group has called on the Ontario government and the IESO (Independent Electricity System Operator) to drop a proposal to add even more wind energy to the grid. "The skyrocketing cost of electricity is having adverse impacts on our manufacturing industry, commercial enterprise, agricultural viability, and many families are forced to choose between paying utility bills and buying groceries", Davis said.
"We are calling on the Government of Ontario and the IESO to make a sober re-evaluation of the damage current energy policy is doing to our economy. We believe spiralling electricity costs urgently need to be halted. We are requesting full objective theird-party cost-benefit analysis before there is any further procurement of wind or solar capacity", the letter states.
Mark Davis, Chair, Multi-municipal Wind Turbine Working Group
