Coal plant extensions harm public health: Energy Probe

Anenergy watchdog iscriticizing Ontario for pushing back the closing datesfor theprovince's coal-fired power-generation plants, saying political manoeuvring is harming the public's health.

The criticism comes in response to news that the province is unlikely to close coal-fired plants until 2014, seven years past the original closing date promised by the Ontario Liberals.

When Premier Dalton McGuinty took power, he scrapped the Progressive Conservative's plan to install scrubbers and other emission controls on the two biggest plants, saying the province would instead close them by 2007.

"The Liberals made a promise that they should've realized was just not going to happen," said Tom Adams, executive director of Energy Probe.

Adams said that the province is hurting public healthbecausethe insistencethatcoal plants could be closed earlier meant no investments were made inanti-pollution technology.

Province looks at ways to clean up coal

Progressive Conservative Leader John Tory also slammedthe government fordelayingthe closure of coal plants for thesecond time. The Liberals first promisedto close them by 2007, then changed the date to 2009 and now have delayed it furtherto 2014.

"They've harmed the health of people in Ontario by not acting sooner and maintaining this political fraud," he said.

But McGuinty said that the province is looking into ways of making the plants cleaner in a way that is a justifiable use of taxpayers' money.

He refused tocomment onwhether he will revive the Tory plan for outfitting all the coal plants with scrubbers and other anti-pollution equipment.

"We've got to figure out what's the best way to invest dollars given the sequence of projected closings of various coal-fired generators," McGuinty said.

Four of the 12 units at Lambton and Nanticoke, the two biggest plants, have emission controls, he noted.

To retrofit all of the units could cost more than a billion dollars.

Heavy reliance on coal

Adams says he wishes it wasn't the case, but coal is an essential part of the province's electricity supply, and promising to close coal-fired plants by 2007 was never realistic.

Consideringthe amount of electricity coal plants produce, Adam says, closing them by 2007 would have put out the lights in Ontario much of the time.

He said natural gas is an extremely expensive alternative, while wind power can't providea reliablesubstitute.

A 2005 report for the Ontario Ministry of Energy found that 660 peopledie every yearfrom pollutionemitted bythe Nanticoke and Lambton plants.