September 6, 2007

Energy Probe Research Foundation, one of Canada’s leading environmental organizations, is pleased to announce the appointment of Lawrence Solomon as executive director of its Energy Probe division. Mr. Solomon, a founder of the foundation in 1980, remains its managing director and the executive director of its Urban Renaissance Institute. His Energy Probe book, Breaking Up Ontario Hydro’s Monopoly, led to the demise of Ontario Hydro, one of the western world’s most polluting power utilities.


"With Canadian governments about to embark on a new wave of ill-advised energy megaprojects, the need for sound policies based on competition, conservation and renewable energy are greater than ever," states Mr. Solomon. In the 1980s and 1990s, Mr. Solomon’s model for electricity reform was adopted in the UK and earned the backing of leaders from all three political parties in Ontario.

"The failures in the power system that Ontario faces today stem from the mid 1990s, when the provincial government failed to follow through with the reforms that it was elected on," Mr. Solomon states. If Ontario is to avoid power blackouts and polluting technologies, and if Canada is to pursue sound energy policies, today’s governments must stop subsidizing energy-intensive industries and they must start to act as impartial regulators rather than as energy promoters."

Norm Rubin, also a founder of Energy Probe, remains Energy Probe’s Director of Nuclear Research and its Senior Policy Analyst.

Energy Probe thanks out-going executive director Tom Adams for his 19 years with the foundation. Mr. Adams recently decided to leave the foundation for new challenges.

For more information, contact:
Lawrence Solomon at LawrenceSolomon@nextcity.com
Norman Rubin at NormanRubin@energyprobe.org