Whenever environmentalists talk, grab your wallet.

Vincent J. Curtis

28 Aug 23

RE: Natural gas expansion in Ontario moving in wrong direction.  Op-ed by Keith Brooks, program director for Environmental Defence.  The Hamilton Spectator 28 Aug 23.

Whenever an avowed environmentalist starts talking about affordable energy, hold onto your wallet.  Environmental Defense wants Ontario to get off Alberta natural gas and switch to the Chinese unreliables, wind and solar.  What the author doesn’t know, or isn’t saying, is that behind every windmill and solar panel is a natural gas electrical generator ready to power up whenever the unreliables cease delivering.  Ross McKittrick, a professor of economics at the University of Guelph, calculated over a decade ago that it requires 7 MW of nameplate wind power to replace 1 MW of conventional generation in Ontario.

The Chinese unreliables are no bargain, and they present ongoing engineering problems to those who are responsible for maintaining a stable electrical grid.  You can’t get rid of natural gas generation because it is needed as backup.  You also need natural gas generation for periods of high demand, exceeding baseload supply.  Natural gas generators can be quickly spun up, or down, in response to varying power demands; whereas you have to take wind power whenever it comes, making it effectively an unreliable base load supply.

Environmental Defense seems to know none of this.  They fail to acknowledge that if Canada disappeared tomorrow, it would make no difference to global temperature in 2100.  They don’t seem to know that the magical 1.5℃ was famously exceeded in July, and the global climate didn’t collapse as often forecasted.  They don’t seem to know that, by one measure, the global temperature rises and falls 4.5℃ every year, and has for decades.

The environmentalists have their cause; they will say anything to support their aims, and suppress contra-indicating facts.

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