As reported in today’s @globeandmail, ... we now know that the Independent Electricity System Operator (IESO) fully understood that its report on the feasibility of a gas-fired power phase-out was highly misleading and skewed to present a frightening worst-case scenario.
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In the 400 pages of material released by the @IESO_Tweets in response to our FOI request, we discovered that the agency actually modeled three potential scenarios for phasing out gas.
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In two of the scenarios, phasing-out gas power would be good for the environment and your pocket book – either raising costs by a mere 3% or decreasing costs by 8% while reducing greenhouse gas pollution!
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So how did the IESO come to release a report last fall claiming that a gas phase-out would increase costs for Ontario consumers by 60%?
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By heavily skewing its own findings and allocating a hugely disproportionate share of costs to residential ratepayers, not to mention including loopy ideas like building a $3 billion new nuclear reactor – that’s how.
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It’s clear that this rejigging of results was designed simply as a scare tactic – what government would require residential customers to pay three times their fair share of the cost of phasing out gas power?
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In the alternative scenarios kept from the public, the IESO found that applying the federal carbon price to all gas consumed for power production would reduce gas plant pollution by 75% and raise costs by only 3%.
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This would mostly occur because the carbon price signal would lead to fewer gas-power exports and more imports of low-cost waterpower from Quebec.
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Even more incredible is the IESO’s finding that replacing polluting gas power with a combination of renewable energy, storage and deeper efficiency efforts would actually reduce costs by 8%. Exactly what OCAA has been saying all along!
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Did the IESO suppress this information knowing that the Ford government is adamantly opposed to renewable power development, and has already slashed spending by 60% on cost-effective efficiency efforts
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Did IESO Chair Joe Oliver, a notorious climate denier appointed by the Ford government, have a role to play? We can’t say for sure, but as Shakespeare wrote, “something is rotten in the State of Denmark,” or Ontario in this case.
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You can read more in today’s @globeandmail piece. You can also see our analysis of the FOI materials we received from the IESO.
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Please send a msg to @ONenergy Minister @ToddSmithPC asking him why these positive findings were suppressed, and what he will do to ensure we get a fair, honest and transparent analysis from the IESO in its next report on how Ontario can phase-out climate-damaging gas power.
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