A new report released today is yet more proof that the McGuinty government continues to ignore investment in renewable energy while plowing ahead with expensive nuclear projects, says NDP Energy Critic Peter Tabuns.

The report, released by the Pembina Institute in partnership with five other environmental organizations, criticizes the McGuinty government for prioritizing nuclear energy while failing to allow cost-effective renewable energy options for Ontario.

“This report clearly shows that the expensive refurbishment of the Pickering B and Bruce B reactors – which the McGuinty government continues to explore –would be counterproductive on both economic and environmental grounds,” said Tabuns.

“Instead, the McGuinty government should more aggressively pursue energy conservation and renewable energy options, such as solar, wind, and combined heat and power generation.”

The report, entitled Plugging Ontario into a Green Future, shows that the McGuinty government has systematically hindered energy conservation and renewable energy development by:

· interpreting proposed minimum targets for conservation and renewable energy as ceilings;
· seeking to achieve only two-thirds of potential conservation and demand management in the province;
· setting extremely modest targets for wind and solar energy generation (the government’s 20-year target for solar power is far less than what Germany installed in 2006 alone);
· ignoring the potential energy for recycling of waste heat from industrial sources’
· building inefficient natural gas plants while phasing out cleaner and more efficient combined heat and power plants.

“Despite the McGuinty government’s green rhetoric, the report shows once again that the government has consistently put expensive and unreliable nuclear energy first,” said Tabuns.

“Commitment to renewable energy requires action not words. A good start would be to replace the planned refurbishment of the Pickering B and Bruce B reactors with quick to deploy conservation and renewable energy – thereby reducing our dependence on nuclear power.”