Christian Conservative Christian "Independent"

I'm an evangelical Christian, member of the CPC, but presently & unjustly exiled to wander the political wilderness.
All opinions expressed here are solely my own.

Monday, June 12, 2006

Dalton Goes Nuclear

No, I'm not refering to his recent reaction (pun, ha ha) regarding Caledonia... but I guess the title works for both these two news items!

The McGuinty government has just announced that to deal with Ontario's future energy needs, the province will pursue the referb of several existing nuclear reactors, and prepeare for the construction of a new plant.

I, for one, agree. Solar and wind power are not going to be enough to meet our needs anytime soon, but I do agree with enviornmentalists that we can still conserve more power than we are at present.

Good move by Dalton & Co.

But it still won't change my vote... ;-)

posted by Christian Conservative @ 1:54 p.m.  

8 Comments:

  • At Mon Jun 12, 03:15:00 p.m. EDT, Anonymous Anonymous said…

    Last week I watched the QP at Queen's Park and Howard Hampton attacked the Liberals on their proposed Bill to allow a "Crisis" to over-ride the fixed date for our October 2007 Provincial Election.
    I've never believed that McGuinty would stick to his promise of the 2007 Election because it appeared as a ruse based on Damage-Control from the last series of LIE's.
    The MSM didn't seem to follow this scam by McGuinty , and his Nuclear Power plan may be another ruse by leaking it out early to prepare us for another series of hollow promises prior to the next Election.

     

  • At Mon Jun 12, 03:51:00 p.m. EDT, Blogger Blake Kennedy said…

    Aren't some of the reactors in Bruce-Grey still offline? Maybe we need to update existing infrastructure as opposed to building new facilities, if this is the case.

    Even that, though, is a moot point. As long as the residential expansion in Ontario continues, we're going to have more power needs, which means a larger grid with larger capabilities and newer technology. Which is one reason why residential development in Ontario should slow down.

     

  • At Mon Jun 12, 04:38:00 p.m. EDT, Blogger Christian Conservative said…

    "Aren't some of the reactors in Bruce-Grey still offline? Maybe we need to update existing infrastructure as opposed to building new facilities, if this is the case"

    From what I understand, that's the plan. You're right... a referb is often way cheaper than a new one.

     

  • At Mon Jun 12, 05:23:00 p.m. EDT, Blogger Blake Kennedy said…

    The fact remains that no politicians takes infrastructure planning seriously. Even Harris didn't, and everybody here knows what a fan I was of him. But the day a politician makes infrastructure a priority and established tightly-controlled and growing reserves for updates and exapansion is the day I keel over of a heart attack.

     

  • At Mon Jun 12, 08:29:00 p.m. EDT, Anonymous Anonymous said…

    Dirk, ou are the one that is mistaken. Read this and wake up. We just lost a chance at a really good new clean way to use coal so that Daltons buddies in the nuclear industry can make a few more billion.

    http://www.csmonitor.com/2006/0111/p01s03-sten.html

     

  • At Tue Jun 13, 01:04:00 a.m. EDT, Blogger Mark Richard Francis said…

    The coal plant in Alberta is not 100% clean burning -- that's the snake oil. There's no such thing.

    All of the coal scrubbing technologies still produce immense amounts of CO2, and you still have to dispose of the scrub residue somewhere! The heavy metals and other pollutants just don't vanish. You have to landfill them... where? In Michigan? Do you think they will take it?

    Coal gasification is the only method which actually produces no pollutants, and it is still under development. Note: It uses more coal to produce the same amount of electricity when compared to traditional coal plants.

    Although there is a lot of coal left, it isn't the 'wave of the future' -- at least, not for long, anyway. The coal industry in North America wants to:

    1. press it into diesel oil to relieve the fuel crunch
    2. Sell it to China (pop 1 billion)
    3. Sell it to India (pop nearly 1 billion)
    4. Burn it all over North America to make electricity
    5. Use it in the processed used to make ethanol (yes, they burn coal in the US to make it; Canada tends to use natural gas)

    It's a non-renewable resource, and probably more people die mining it in North America every year than have ever been killed working for the North American nuclear industry.

    My point is, we'd run out rather quickly. 100 years perhaps? What then? Nuclear?

    If nuclear, why not just do nuclear now and avoid the greenhouse gas emissions?

    So coal isn't the future, unless the coal lobbyists get their way.

    And watch the costs of those nuclear refurbs. They've a history of going way over budget as well.

    http://www.globeadvisor.com/servlet/ArticleNews/story/gam/20060506/RREGULY06

    Now, for a possibly better answer... Ever hear of flow batteries?

    http://tinyurl.com/n95st

     

  • At Tue Jun 13, 01:14:00 a.m. EDT, Anonymous Anonymous said…

    not more of this "greenhouse gas emissions" "immense amount of CO2" malakey again; that particular flim flam is so tiresome

     

  • At Sun Jun 18, 11:02:00 a.m. EDT, Anonymous Anonymous said…

    So maybe we should just ban every car in the country then too because they aren't 100% zero emmision. You have to realize that we still have to live, and to live you have to make some pollution. We can cut pollution back as much as possible until new technologies make things cleaner but we can't cut to the point where it is going to cripple our country.
    Also "OPG is a government-owned company: it's not publicly traded or privately owned"

    Do you think that the ontario govt. designs and builds these new reactors? This is being done by private companies that happen to have ties to McGinty and others. (probably also Mike Harris) Point is we are all being snowed on this.

     

Post a Comment

<< Home