"Nothing like an election on the horizon, with the two frontrunning parties tied in the polls, to make a government see the light.
Or, in this case, the wind.
The McGuinty government has finally acknowledged what critics have long been saying.
Offshore wind farms really blow.
Quietly last week, the Liberals dropped plans to push ahead with off-shore wind farms, mostly planned for Lake Ontario and Lake Huron.
I've always thought the idea was more window-dressing -- build massive, unsightly wind farms in the middle of the lake in the hope voters will actually believe their government is going green.
Except, as any sailor will tell you, there simply isn't enough wind -- especially in Lake Ontario -- to make the plan worthwhile.
Energy Minister Brad Duguid said in an interview Monday there isn't enough science to push ahead with the projects.
"There is a need to develop the science before the ministry of the environment approves fresh water wind turbines," he said.
While there are saltwater windfarms, there aren't enough turbines in freshwater to study the environmental impact.
For example, freshwater is more likely to freeze. How will that affect the turbine?
Duguid said the government will still be able to reach its goal of bringing 10,700 MW of renewable power on-line by 2018.
Only one contract out of 1,300 contracts was offshore.
"We are very confident we will meet all our objectives in building the renewable energy we need to build to replace coal and maintain our position as a green energy leader with onshore projects.
"The decision on offshore will not have any noticeable effect on our objectives," he said.
The government has pledged to shut the province's coal-fired generating plants by 2014.
Duguid expects to make more announcements soon on new, "feed-in-tariff," (FIT) renewable energy projects.
Wind and other renewable energy programs are largely responsible for soaring energy costs.
The "global adjustment," or "provincial benefit" consumers who are signed up to energy retailers pay has pushed many homeowners' bills into the stratosphere.
That money is going to pay for renewable projects.
It's now worth about $4.2 billion a year, and growing.
When electricity prices were high, the global adjustment was a negative amount.
Now electricity is cheaper -- and the global adjustment is soaring.
It was largely the FIT program that led to the situation on New Year's Day, where we had to pay other jurisdictions to take our excess electricity off our hands.
January 1 was warm and windy. The wind turbines were turning - but industry was mostly shut down.
Ontario Power Generation had to spill water at Niagara - wasting the cheapest, greenest energy on the planet -- because FIT contracts require the province to buy wind energy first.
All of which could zap the Liberals in the upcoming election.
Premier Dalton McGuinty is touring the province with his travelling road show, trying to explain away the soaring hydro bills.
The Liberals are also trying to soften the blow of rapidly increasing prices by introducing a 10% credit on your hydro bills.
Still, they're adding $1 billion to the debt to do that, so you'll pay one way or another.
They can add it to your hydro bill. Or you can pay it on your income taxes. Or you can pass the bill along to generations yet unborn.
Which is what we've done in the past.
With windmills, what goes around comes around.
It's enough to make your head spin."
We can fondly thank that walking Liberal disaster George Smitherman for all the piles of stinking Liberal policy turds festering throughout Ontario.
Whether on health-care or energy, Smitherman was a damn disaster, yet - this is important to remember - Smitherman was personally chosen and fully supported by Dalton McGuinty! Just goes to show how impaired Dalton's judgement was.
McGuinty should be charged for 'ruling while politically impaired'.
It's
(Waz ole Jimmy gots ta do wid any o' dis??! Nuttin'... ya hear...now git...)
Amazing how green bolshevism enables sustainable power such as that from Niagara's hydro to be dumped in favour of expensive legislated greenie power. But, hey: Liberals such as Jim Bradley and George Smitherman had nothing to do with any of this - right!!! ha ha ha Why bother Jimmy with these niggling details about Niagara's water capacity being dumped for windy green bolshevism?!
And what's with this about the Great Lakes freezing?
Jim Bradley's green bolsheviks have been fear-mongering FOR YEARS that the PLANET IS MELTING!!! The ice is melting!! Run!! The seas are going to flood!!
We were fear-mongered by Jim Bradley and Al Gore and Suzuki and the CBC and the St.Catharines Standard that unless we succumb to Liberal Greenshevism, the Great Lakes were actually going to flood!! The water is rising!! Run!!
And now, Brad Duguid, the Liberal slimeball, wants to talk about, um... SCIENCE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! WTF?
These are the same Liberal liars who have been peddling the GreenFear boilerplate propaganda that global warming is ALL SETTLED!!! The "science" was "settled" they claimed!
So if the "science" on global warming is "settled" why do McGuinty's Liberal hacks now need to study the lake ice??! Why, Jim Bradley and his climate-change doomsayer Liberals (and Stephane Dion's and Ignatieff's loons as well) have been telling us that the water in the Great Lakes isn't going to freeze anymore - isn't that right?! Unreal! Talk about a "feed in": these Liberal GreenFear-mongers have been feeding us their green socialist garbage for years.
And doncha jus' luv da story in the St.Catharines Standard on Feb.15, 2011, outlining how water rates in Niagara are going to go up substantially because people have reduced consumption, to the point that providing the water has now become more expensive on a per unit basis!!
We were told by the greensheviks that saving the water would save the earth!! All this did was make water more expensive. The same will apply to electricity, as well as health-care.
see also here.
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