Thomas Adams
Energy Probe
 

Canada’s electricity industry is restructuring. Help Energy Probe fight for greener, cheaper power.

Changes to our giant power monopolies are sweeping most of the country, offering potential environmental improvements and lower rates for consumers. Damaging megaprojects could be scrapped in favour of smaller-scale power that meets local needs. Canadians may look forward, for the first time, to the choice of supporting renewable energy sources over coal and nuclear plants. Electricity customers in Calgary already have the option of buying wind power due to the advent of competition in Alberta.

But good results are not assured. Done badly, we could see increased pollution, blackouts, new threats to aboriginal communities, and new liabilities for taxpayers. Ontario Hydro is already increasing production from its highly polluting coal-fired stations. Consumers in Alberta and Ontario have experienced brownouts or blackouts. Hydro Québec’s new electricity transmission tariff, officially billed as a step toward an open, competition-oriented power system, is in fact a major subsidy to the latest hydro-electric megaproject planned for aboriginal land in Labrador by the Quebec and Newfoundland governments. In New Brunswick, NB Power has already stuck taxpayers with $450 million in liabilities for its nuclear mistakes while continuing to spend more on its faltering nuclear program.

Energy Probe is blowing the whistle on these backward steps — in the press and on the Internet, in academic circles, and before legislatures in several jurisdictions.

But we’re doing more than just criticizing. We are also working hard on constructive projects to ensure that electricity reforms result in energy that’s more sustainable. In Ontario, we are campaigning to put customers in charge, with rules that require full disclosure by power distributors about the source of power they sell and the pollution that results. We are campaigning for tougher air pollution controls on fossil-fueled power stations, tighter regulation of the operation of power dams so that river ecosystems are less disrupted, the orderly phaseout of nuclear power in Ontario, New Brunswick, and Quebec, and secure funding of nuclear waste liabilities by waste producers. We are making the case across the country for thorough, independent, and public regulation of monopolies in the electricity sector. We are also keeping a watchful eye on utilities to ensure that they don’t overlook the Year 2000 computer glitch in the midst of all the other changes now underway.

To continue our work, we need your help. Last year we received less than 1/10 of 1% of our financial support from corporations and no financial support from governments. That tells you something about who we’re fighting for. If you believe that Canada needs a strong advocate for a more sustainable electricity future, please send us a charitable donation today, and we’ll put it to the all-important task of ensuring a safe and sustainable energy future for all Canadians.

Yours Truly,

Thomas Adams
Executive Director