GOLDSTEIN: Climate protesters actually demanding global blackouts
Let’s examine how Canada’s most successful project to reduce greenhouse gas emissions would never have happened if the climate protesters marching on the streets at the UN climate summit in Glasgow had their way.
Between 2003 and 2014, the Liberal government of Ontario under premier Dalton McGuinty eliminated the use of coal to produce 25% of its electricity.
As the Liberals noted, this was single largest reduction of greenhouse gas emissions in North America at the time.
It made the Ontario government the first jurisdiction in North America to eliminate coal-fired electricity.
What really eliminated the use of coal was nuclear power, natural gas and hydro power.
Nuclear and hydro power do not emit greenhouse gases.
Natural gas — ironically used in Ontario to back up unreliable wind and solar power — is the cleanest burning fossil fuel.
And all three are under relentless attack by environmental protesters and know-nothing politicians.
Even the UN says nuclear power is a key component to achieving net zero emissions by 2050. But in Canada, the NDP, Bloc Quebecois and Green party, along with Greenpeace and other environmental groups, oppose nuclear energy.
That includes not just nuclear power plants but small modular reactors known as SMRS — which the federal government and Ontario, Alberta, New Brunswick and Saskatchewan are considering as one way to reduce emissions.
