Poverty and Energy

Call to all people in Ontario!

Contents: Introduction, Structural Safety, Background, Solution, Positive examples, Employment/Industry, Conclusion

May 21, 2008

Introduction

We need affordable energy, affordable housing and living-wage jobs which do not hinge on environmental destruction.

It is important to link energy and poverty for a minimum of three reasons.

1. Structural safety

2. Environmental & Health Safety

3. Employment

Structural Safety

Access to energy means access to electricity/heating/cooling, water and food. It also means access to housing as skyrocketing energy prices will lead to rent increases, which in turn will be driving more people to poverty and homelessness.

Twenty per cent increase in gas heating rates announced for July 1, 2008 comes in tandem with cooling pattern of global warming, which admittedly we may have been witnessing in our local environment in the last two weeks. (Gunter Lorne 05/20/08) Extending the need for heating into the summer season together with sharp increases in heating rates is a heavy burden to carry for low-income Ontarians.

In a deregulated, *export-oriented market responsive to the highest bidder, it is not difficult to see why the call for Ontario Energy Board to set affordability rates for low income Ontarians wasn’t answered until Ontario’s Divisional Court’s decision that it is within “the legal authority [of Ontario Energy Board] to implement a special pricing plan to protect vulnerable residents from rising rates.” (Laurie Monsebraaten 5/10/08)

While Ministry of Energy is dragging its feet regarding the urgently needed ‘policy statement directing the board to base rates on consideration so the ability to pay,’ affordability rates should be recognized as a bridge to Ontario’s independence from fossil fuel burning, not as another aspect of subsidies thereof. (Ibid)

One of the central components of structural safety is renewable energy.

Renewable and communally owned energy production should be at the heart of envisioning affordable housing initiatives. Ontarians have shown they want renewable energy and they want it now. (Tyler Hamilton 5/19/08)

Powered on a mix of locally available elements from our commons (sun, wind, earth heat), renewable energy not only ensures structural safety but also environmental and health safety – and all this on the condition that the increase in renewable energy leads to decrease in fossil fuel burning.

If the fuels are not environmentally safe, then they are neither safe structurally nor economically. In light of this, the following questions should guide decision making process which seeks to address the issue of poverty in Ontario:

• What are the types of fuels used to produce energy? Where do they come from and under what conditions? Does their extraction create conflict and poverty elsewhere? Are they local? Are they least cost option? What is their impact on the poor? What is their impact on people with disabilities? What is their impact on elderly and children? What is their collective impact on our environment? Have we considered all available energy options? In short, have we chosen those energy fuels which are most environmentally, structurally, and healthwise safe and represent least cost options?

• Management of produced energy: who is it for? Is it for export or is it produced for our local use?

Background

We live in the context of Global Warming, which in everyday life translates into extreme and unpredictable weather patterns locally and globally plus deforestation, desertification, melting glaciers and permafrost etc.

Ontario Government relies for *more than 90% of * “its” energy on fossil and radioactive types of fuels – coal, natural gas, uranium.

These fuels are most environmentally and economically destructive and least energy secure fuels.

From their remote mining sites to their burning locations, fossil and radioactive fuels depend on forceful take-over of land, which generates fierce opposition by people under such attack and can lead to armed occupation if necessary. War is NOT a way to our energy. War is a way to poverty, homelessness, dispossession, refugee-ism, and death. Citizens of Ontario must refuse energy fuels which cause irreparable environmental destruction and war. Citizens of Ontario must refuse energy fuels which sacrifice our water, air, soil and irreversibly compromise our and our children’s health. Radioactive and fossil fuels may produce energy derived from remote-sites bloodshed, but with such energy we too stay without environmental conditions for survival: clean water, clean air, clean soil.

We must refuse energy which kills basic conditions for our survival. We need fuels for energy, which won’t compromise our water, air, soil, and our and our children’s children’s health for generations to come.

Moreover, radioactive and fossil fuels rely on fossil fuel-powered global distribution networks. Fossil fuel burning cause Global Warming and Global Warming creates weather conditions which easily disrupt fossil/radioactive fuels global distribution networks. Disrupted supplies and supply shortages coupled with global monopoly-driven almost sole demand for least secure fuels, rising fossil fuel and market goods prices lead to skyrocketing electricity/heating/cooling bills if not sustained blackouts.

In terms of energy, Ontario Government is setting Ontarians for environmental/energy/economic and humanitarian disaster as billions of public tax dollars are earmarked for fossil and radioactive fuels burning cartel, trumping the needs and safety of People of Ontario who are still paying off billions of dollars of nuclear debt.

This whole situation is especially dangerous for people who live on low incomes and people with disabilities. It is important to think about what happens to the poor and people with disabilities in the context of Global Warming and disastrously irresponsible energy / housing / economic / environmental practices in Ontario!

The context of environmental and fossil/radioactive fuel supply insecurity within a privatized/deregulated energy system meant for energy exports should trigger alarm bells.

-Will rents increase as a result of shocking electricity/heating rates hikes and push more people into poverty and homelessness?

-Will there be islands of darkness pointing to those unable to pay their electricity bills, while Ontario is deriving profit by exporting their electricity portion to the U.S.?

-Will there be living-wage jobs around if skyrocketing electricity/heating bills drive out the rest of industry to environmentally & energy smart places?

-What will happen to water and food supplies once electricity system breaks down?

-What will happen to people who depend on help from others even outside the worst case scenarios?

-Will Ontarians be subjected to irreversible environmental disasters due to fossil and radioactive fuel mining and burning for energy exports?

Solution

It is important to pressure government to:

• Stop subsidizing and phase out fossil and radioactive fuel burning for our energy

• Mandate and subsidize “access-for-all” installment of locally-suitable integrated-renewable energy systems (together and complementing each other: solar, wind, geothermal, wastegas) for every existing building in Ontario, especially affordable or social housing, achieving 100 per cent Green Buildings standard.

• Mandate and subsidize installment of a mix of locally suited renewable energy system for every newly constructed building in Ontario, especially social housing.

• Make renewable energy self-sufficiency a prerequisite for every new economic development. This will eliminate the need for construction of fossil and radioactive fuel burning plants in people’s communities.

Positive examples

There are positive examples in Ontario where companies themselves have broken barriers to accessing renewable energy systems. For example, Toronto-based Mondial Energy Inc. installs Solar Hot Water systems on apartment buildings with a central boiler but does not ask for upfront payment, instead leasing equipment through monthly billing approach. Mondial Energy installed its systems on Woodgreen Community Centre, Hospital for Sick Children and many other buildings. (John Lorinc, 04/08)

North Waterloo-based geothermal company Next Energy and Waterloo North Hydro forged a joint venture called Lifetime Energy providing estimates for a geothermal systems, overseeing installations, and handling lifetime maintenance of the system. Customers don’t pay upfront because “NextEnergy essentially rents it out over 20 years, charging a fixed fee on the customer’s monthly energy bill that comes from Waterloo North Hydro.” (Tyler Hamilton, 04/24/06)

There is no reason why citizens and local politicians anywhere in Ontario wouldn’t or couldn’t approach their utilities and Ministries of Energy and Environment asking them to form partnerships with renwable energy developers to enable access-for-all to integrated renewable electricity/heating/cooling systems.

There is no reason why citizens and local politicians anywhere in Ontario, especially those areas fighting proposed outdated dinosaur gas plants such as in King Township and Georgina of North York Region, wouldn’t or couldn’t approach their utilities asking them to stop buying power from fossil-fuel burning plants and instead enable integrated renewable energy system installations for all existing infrastructure as well as new economic development and growth through partnerships with renewable energy developers and policy makers. Indeed, natural gas plants are not an answer to closing coal-fired plants. We end up with an effect of almost 7 coal-fired plants in a situation where four coal plants are replaced with twenty gas plants. – 4 coal-fired plants + twenty gas plants = 6.9 coal-fired plants. (Ivona Vujica 05/21/08)

Eliminating billion-dollar subsidies for fossil and radioactive power, eliminating gas bills, eliminating fossil and radioactive-fuel burning-induced health care and environmental cleanup bills eliminates poverty.

We need to invest our money into affordable housing equipped with affordable energy. Renewable energy! After all, the best gift anyone could give themselves and their loved ones is a chance at survival and comfortable life through complete phase-out of fossil and radioactive fuel mining and burning.

Employment

Mandating energy efficiency and integrated renewable systems retrofits for all existing and new infrastructure would lead to creation of conditions for a vibrant green economy with living wage jobs for many across the province.

To survive and be around creating jobs, industry itself needs affordable energy. For now, rising fossil and radioactive fuels-based electricity prices promise to drive the rest of the faltering business out to environmentally & energy-smart places.

Even Ontario labour and ‘poverty reduction’ organizations have come up with a report calling for Green Economy in Ontario as a way out of the current economic, energy and environmental crises. (Laurie Monsebraaten 05/12/08)

Right now, fossil fuel and radioactive industries in Ontario are not only subsidized in billions of public dollars but with lives of those suffering unemployment or underemployment in the current fossil/radioactive fuel economy and with future of our children and grandchildren.

Conclusion

Decentralized, self-sufficient and/or communal production of integrated power from locally available fuels such as sunshine, wind and earth’s heat provides energy security which is of utmost importance to the survival of the poor and people with disabilities.

It is important to realize that integrated renewable energy systems are not a luxury but an emergency response to the all-encompassing crisis caused by fossil and radioactive fuel burning and mining.

We have to pursue energy options which lead to structural, environmental and economic safety in Ontario. Locally owned and operated renewable energy systems producing 100 per cent Green Buildings together with concerted efforts to phase-out fossil fuel burning accomplishes this goal.

Notes:

*Ontario’s energy mix made up of more than 90% fossil and radioactive fuels:

presently around 52% nuclear + more than 20% planned

• • 16% coal-fired (as brittle nuclear relies on coal-fired power, it is likely that promise to close coal-fired plants down in 2014 is already broken)

• numerous natural gas plants going up

*its” is in quotations marks because Ontario Government exports thousands of megawatts of electricity produced in Ontario’s coal-fired plants to the United States. Under Security and Prosperity Partnership (NAFTA on steroids) Ontario’s energy will be produced in Ontario (fossil and radioactive fuels burning plants in our backyard) to satisfy U.S. energy needs.

*Ontario’s energy for exports: 20 per cent of Ontario’s coal-fired power exported to the United States in 2007

Ivona Vujica

May 21, 2008

ontarioenergy@gmail.com

TO:

Ontario Cabinet Committee on Poverty Reduction

dmatthews.mpp.co@liberal.ola.org, dmatthews.mpp@liberal.ola.org,

bbalkissoon.mpp@liberal.ola.org,

bbalkissoon.mpp.co@liberal.ola.org,

gsmitherman.mpp.co@liberal.ola.org,

bcrozier.mpp.co@liberal.ola.org,

cmitchell.mpp@liberal.ola.org,

cmitchell.mpp.co@liberal.ola.org,

cbentley.mpp@liberal.ola.org,

cbentley.mpp.co@liberal.ola.org,

dorazietti.mpp@liberal.ola.org,

dduncan.mpp@liberal.ola.org, jwatson.mpp@liberal.ola.org,

kwynne.mpp@liberal.ola.org,

jmilloy.mpp@liberal.ola.org,

lrinaldi.mpp@liberal.ola.org,

lrinaldi.mpp.co@liberal.ola.org, mmeilleur.mpp.co@liberal.ola.org, ofa@ofa.gov.on.ca, mchan.mpp@liberal.ola.org, mchan.mpp.co@liberal.ola.org,

Ministry of Energy

Ministry of Environment

Ministry of Mining

Ministry of Aboriginal Affairs

Ministry of Innovation

Ontario Pollution Generation

Ontario Pollution Authority

Hydro One

Independent Electricity System Operator

Ontario Electricity Coalition

oec@electricitycoalition.org,

Ontario Tenants

ontariotenants@hotmail.com,

Toronto Disaster Relief Committee

housingnotwar@gmail.com,

Ontario Coalition Against Poverty

ocap@tao.ca,

Guelph Union of Tenants and Supporters

guelphunionoftenants@yahoo.ca,

Peterborough Coalition Against Poverty

pcap@riseup.net,

Kitchener/Waterloo Youth Collective

youth_space@hotmail.com,

Kingston Coalition Against Poverty

kcap@tao.ca,

Belleville Against Social Injustice Collective

BasicsBelleville@hotmail.com,

Citizens For Renewable Energy

cfre@web.ca,

Countryside Energy Cooperative

info@countrysideenergyco-op.ca

doug_fyfe@countrysideenergyco-op.ca

Low Income Families Together

into@lift.to

Low Income Energy Network

bhanjiz@lao.on.ca

Women Against Poverty Collective

womenagainstpoverty@gmail.com

Paradigm Shift Environmental Alliance

psea4earth@gmail.com

Local Ontario Hydro Utilities

http://www.canadaenergy.ca/index.php?hydro=hydro&direct=utilities

comments@barriehydro.com, emailus@bluewaterpower.com, info@brantcountypower.com, gsmits@boddy-ryerson.com, rkinnaird@expertech.net, craig.mann@citrix.com, fmfsprez@yahoo.ca, gmartin@brantford.ca, comments@burlingtonhydro.com, hs@burlingtonhydro.com, customercare@camhydro.com, bernie.haines@cnpower.com, kristine.carmichael@cnpower.com, stanton.sheogobind@cnpower.com, scott.hawkes@cnpower.com, info@cnpower.com, enquiries@cwhydro.ca, ckwebmaster@chatham-kent.ca, ehoughton@collus.com, lirwin@collus.com, dvaiciunas@collus.com, tfryer@collus.com, mfirman@collus.com, rpowell@collus.com, phogg@collus.com,info@enersource.com, info@enwin.com, info@erie-thamespower.com, customerservice@erhydro.com, feedback@essexpower.ca, websiteemail@festivalhydro.com, CustomerService@glp.on.ca, info@sudburyhydro.com, Customer_Service@sudburyhydro.com, info@grimsbypower.com, astokman@guelphhydro.com, dfrey@guelphhydro.com, nmailloux@guelphhydro.com, hmcinerney@guelphhydro.com, amolyneaux@guelphhydro.com, mweninger@guelphhydro.com, dwilkinson@guelphhydro.com, jsamuelson@haltonhillshydro.com, askidmore@haltonhillshydro.com, kurtd@haltonhillshydro.com, info@horizonutilities.com, CustomerCommunications@HydroOneNetworks.com, media@energyottawa.com, media@hydroottawa.com, customerservice@innisfilhydro.com, service@kenora.ca, info@utilitieskingston.com, customerservice@kwhydro.on.ca, lusi@lusi.on.ca, service@lakelandpower.on.ca, admin@londonhydro.com, email@middlesexpower.ca, midpuc@midlandpuc.on.ca, nmhydro@nmhydro.ca, info@niagarafallshydro.on.ca, troberts@norfolkpower.on.ca, hydro@oakvillehydro.com, info@orilliapower.ca, contactus@opuc.on.ca, dfee@orpowercorp.com, mhellingman@orpowercorp.com, smorris@orpowercorp.com, ggervais@orpowercorp.com, info@pspower.ca, info@peterboroughutilities.ca, info@powerstream.ca, customerservice@powerstream.ca, customerservice@ssmpuc.com, pmoyer@siouxlookout.ca, edo@siouxlookout.ca, mario.rasetti@slkt.net, contact@stesi.ca, info@tayhydro.com, customer_services@tbhydro.on.ca, bpeberdy@torontohydro.com, psardana@torontohydro.com, service@veridian.on.ca, customersupport@wnhydro.com, eclerk@wnhydro.com, Operations@wnhydro.com, danger@wellandhydro.com, customer.service@westario.com, whitbyhydro@whitbyhydro.on.ca, customer.service@whitbyhydro.on.ca, info@woodstockhydro.com,

Canadian Solar Industries Association info@cansia.ca

Canadian Biogas Association contact@biogas.ca

Ontario Sustainable Energy Association kristopher@ontario-sea.org

Canadian Wind Energy Association seanwhittaker@canwea.ca

Earth Energy Society of Canada info@EarthEnergy.ca

Media

Councilors, MPPs, Mps

Everyone

REFERENCES:

Abolition of Coal-Fired Plants – No nukes!

http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2007/10/28/18456731.php

“The Liberal’s circus of consultation” – “Ontario Liberals and ‘Poverty Reduction’

http://peterboroughcoalitionagainstpoverty.blogspot.com/2008/05/ontario-liberals-and-poverty-reduction.html

‘Green’ fix urged for Ontario’s job blues. Laurie Monsebraaten, Toronto Star. May 12, 2008

http://www.thestar.com/article/424378

Natural gas bills to soar by 20 per cent. Ellen Roseman, Toronto Star. May 14, 2008

http://www.thestar.com/Business/article/425195

Tenants & Hydro articles

http://www.ontariotenants.ca/electricity/ontario-hydro.phtml

Ontario’s impending nuclear monopoly. Should nuclear power meet up to 72% of Ontario’s electricity demand? Ontario Clean Air Allinace www.cleaniairalliance.org

Sunpower. John Lorinc, Canadian Geographic April 2008. pp 45-46

Down to Earth, the world’s most reliable renewable energy source is beneath our feet. Tyler Hamilton, Toronto Star. April 24, 2006 http://www.nextenergysolutions.com/Publicity/TheStar_down_to_earth.pdf

Natural Gas Plants not an answer to phasing out of coal-fired plants. Ivona Vujica May 21, 2008 http://floodiceorfire.wordpress.com/natural-gas-plants-not-an-answer-to-phasing-out-of-coal-fired-plants/

Coal plants ordered to reduce emissions. Rob Ferguson, Toronto Star May 17, 2008

http://www.thestar.com/News/Ontario/article/426847

Way clear to help poor pay heat bills. Laurie Monsebraaten, Toronto Star May 19, 2008

http://www.thestar.com/News/Ontario/article/427346

New rules jeopardize wind and solar projects. Tyler Hamilton, Toronto Star May 19, 2008

http://www.thestar.com/Business/article/427244

So much for ’settled science’ Lorne Gunter, National Post, May 20, 2008 http://www.nationalpost.com/opinion/columnists/story.html?id=f6fa4aca-61b4-4824-adb4-78eb8fa9081a