Chiarelli claims ‘other issues’ upsetting rural communities, not wind turbines
In this wide-ranging interview with the Ottawa Citizen, Ontario’s Energy Minister Bob Chiarelli claims that “other issues” are responsible for the severe divisions in rural communities, including “the abortion issue.” Yes, he really said that. Oh, and he’s running again in 2018.
Here is an excerpt of the interview.

… Ontario loves to boast that it no longer burns coal for electricity. But the new mix of nuclear, hydro, wind and solar costs a lot, in part because Ontario under George Smitherman signed fat 20-year solar power deals.
“It was a stupid thing,” says Bill Eggertson, who heads the Canadian Association for Renewable Energy. Ontario buys electricity from solar panels on his Ottawa home for 80 cents/kWh, and resells it for, at most, 18 cents/kWh. “I shouldn’t be getting 80 cents. I would have started at 50 cents.”
Chiarelli changed gears. Last month Ontario awarded contracts for 16 wind and solar projects through competitive bids, paying nine to 18 cents/kWh, and will begin this summer to take bids to buy double that amount of renewable power. Chiarelli relishes this role, as purveyor of clean power.
“When you look at price comparisons for Ohio, or Michigan or Nova Scotia or Saskatchewan or Alberta, they are all still burning dirty, cheap coal. And our prices, which are still competitive, are clean and coal-free. Yes, that puts pressure on prices, and that’s a social policy and an environmental policy that we choose to make.”
Does Ontario need more generation? As wind turbines multiply, factories decamp. Ontario power consumption has dropped 15 per cent in a decade, which regulators attribute to lower demand, increased efficiency and house-mounted solar panels, which don’t count in consumption numbers. Today Ontario exports 10 times the power it did a decade ago, often at a loss. (Ontario will buy zoo poo power for 17 cents/kWh; power sells for six cents/kWh on the spot market.) Why erect more wind turbines?
Chiarelli insists, “We do need to produce more electricity, because we are going to be taking nuclear units out.” He concedes that he awarded wind and solar contracts to companies who paid $7,500 for that “informal evening” with him at the Four Seasons Hotel in March. It’s all above-board, he says.
“There is no, ‘You fundraise and you get a contract.’ People who have made contributions to us have asked for things, and we’ve said absolutely no. And there are people who may have been successful.”
Chiarelli takes abuse on both sides of the energy debate. Eggertson serves on a panel studying Hydro Ottawa’s request for a $75 million transmission line. He says if Ontario mandated each new home to face south and put a solar panel on its roof, they wouldn’t need the line. Chiarelli is unmoved.
“That’s Czar Nicholas,” he says: Like the czar, he must push the transmission line through. “Ottawa is expanding like crazy.” The solar option “can’t be done.”
Chiarelli walks more slowly these day. “It’s my arthritic hips from my hockey days. I’m on watch for a possible hip replacement.” He plans to run in the next election.
Still, Chiarelli pauses when I read him a quote from [Dennis] Fife, the mayor of North Stormont: “The people who don’t want turbines no longer speak or wave to the people that have them.”
Chiarelli sucks in his breath and blows it out slowly.
“That’s very unfortunate,” he says. “There are probably a lot of other issues that divide communities. The abortion issue, for example.
“I am not sure that you should not take tough decisions because it might create some divisions among competing interest groups. You do what you believe is right, and you live or die by it. I was minister of energy in last election, and the number of votes I got went up.”
Read the full story here.
Another interview with Mr Chiarelli here.
Comments
This man is so out of touch with reality it is absolutely sickening. He has NO CLUE what rural Ontario is experiencing and could care less.
He is a buffoon!!! In all my years in rural Ontario, I have NEVER heard anyone discuss abortion. The wind turbines……that’s another story. Hard to ignore the conversation when IWTs are looming over homes, audible noise, infra-sound, blinking red lights, keeping people awake, making people sick….in your face 24/7!
He hums and haws through his spiel………..it must be a lying Liberal thing inherited from Trudeau.
The sign of a good manager/leader is the ability to recognize quickly when the direction he/she is heading in is creating negative ramifications and to make the necessary changes as soon as possible.
As I learn about the insensitive, dysfunctional and deluded personalities we’re up against in Ontario, it explains why we’re in this mess.
This is why I keep saying we need experts in the various pertinent fields to work as a team to manage the energy portfolio. Above all the decisions made would have to steer clear of social injustice. If a political party promised to make this happen before the next election in this province, I’d vote for them.
The social and environmental polices which he has admitted to that are key issues in this situation.
Big push to relying on renewable energy to supply Ontario.
What does he mean by “taking nuclear units out”?
A complete blithering idiot. Has no sense of what is going on. I notice he didn’t even include gas plants iinto his cost factor.
Wynne and hre cronnies want to desttle rural Ontario. They are going about it the right way.
Barbara: Yes, its been mentioned before by his office..do away with nukes. That’s why the current units have been given life extensions, and notig new is on the drawing board. He has no idea about power system operation and base load stations. If the wind stops in the middle of the summer for a few days, we’re down the tubes electrically.
Now I understand why he never responded to my “open letters” to him,
My future open letters to him will be addressed to: “Czar Chiarelli”. Maybe if I do that I might get a reply but then again he may just consider me to be one of the peasants? I wonder if he remembers that Russia had a revolution and overthrew the Tsarists!
“I am not sure that you should not take tough decisions because it might create some divisions among competing interest groups. You do what you believe is right, and you live or die by it…..”
Those are his words not mine but I hope it’s the latter.
How much public outrage is required to remove this buffoon from office?
I believe that Chiarelli and others in this ‘Alice in Wonderland liiberal government’ should be facing criminal investigations leading to probable charges
He is a absolute idiot that has told so many untruths over the years that he actually believes them, time to retire Tomato Bob & check into the nearest psychiatric facility for some much needed care.
Quebec
Oct.15, 2009
‘Al Gore’s NGO selects Montreal for hid Canadian headquarters’
Quebec government would assist The Climate Project Canada with launching its activities and would provide operating support.
Then:
In June 2009, Montreal was selected for the headquarters of the Global Campaign for Climate Action (GCCA).
Include: Union of Concerned Scientists, Greenpeace, Oxfam, Equiterre and the Pew Environment Group.
Some 20 organizations involved in this which created a N.A. hub.
http://www.international.gouv.qc.ca/en/Allemagne/actualites/7009
ICLEI, Sept.28, 2009
‘Montreal Supports New Global Campaign for Climate Action’
Initiated with the support of $300,000 from the Government of Quebec and start-up help from Montreal International.
http://www.iclei.org/details/article/montreal-supports-new-global-campaign-for-climate-action.html
More organizations named in this article.
Climate Action Network Canada
One of the many regional nodes of Climate Action Network International which also includes the U.S.
For Canadian Board information:
http://www.climateactionnetwork.ca/who-we-are/board-members
Barbara, It is interesting to note that Brent Kopperson is on the board of the Climate Action Network. He has quite the resume:
“Brent is a founding Director and former Chair of the Community Power Fund, a founding Director and Chair of the Ontario Sustainable Energy Association (OSEA), the former Chair of Green Communities Canada, a founding Director of the Canadian Renewable Energy Alliance and past Director of the World Wind Energy Association.”
Brent doesn’t claim his role in creating the GEA as one of the founders and principals of the Green Energy Act Alliance who were instrumental in writing the GEA for Smitherman. These people are like that “swatted mosquito”; they just keep attacking even though you thought they were all finished.
It’s a big help to know where the centres of activity are in Ontario and Canada as well. Ends a lot of the confusion.
The Globe And Mail, Jan.1, 2007, updated March, 2009
‘Provinces signing climate deals with states’
“Manitoba is already part of the voluntary Chicago carbon market where the province makes money each time provincial power is sold to Minnesota …”
http://theglobeandmail.com/news/national/provinces-signing-climate-deals-with-states/676183
This is an archived news article so maybe type in the URL or internet search.
US Climate Action Network (USCAN), Washington, D.C.
Affiliate Network of Climate Action Network International (CAN).
For U.S. Board information:
http://www.usclimatenetwork.org/about-us/board-of-directors
Also see: Members list.
Can you say: Agenda 21? That’s what its all about. These organizations are dribble downs fo agenda 21. There is a substantial list of Canadian municiplaities and governments tat have signed on to it. he green energy act and Chiareli’s comments and Wynnes upcoming energy plans fit right into it.
Check out this webpage where you will find Maurice Strong interviewed by the BBC in 1972 after the Stockholm Convention. It is a 5.45 minute interview but you he says a lot including needing a license if you wish to have a child!
In the beginning we had Maurice Strong:
http://www.infowars.com/maurice-strong-in-1972-isnt-it-our-responsibility-to-collapse-industrial-societies/
Seeing our Prime Minister and Environment Minister speaking publicly in praise of Maurice Strong in Paris made me cringe.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/canadian-maurice-strong-former-director-of-uns-environment-program-dies-at-86/article27520913/
Climate Action Network International
For Board information:
http://www.climatenetwork.org/can-international-board
CAN has 950 members in 110 countries.
See: Canadian Members list.
UNEP: Accredited Civil Organisations
Include:
Climate Action Network
Greenpeace International
Full list at:
http://www.unep.org/civil-society/Portals/24105/documents/Accredation/NGOs-6.11.14%20lz.pdf
Or search: unep.org > Civil Society
Chiarelli has now raised the bar on incompetence, ignorance, arrogance and just plain stupidity, he’s right up there with Georgy Slitherman.
Bob Chiarelli, dead dickhead walking.
The minister is very good at obfuscating the real issues; it’s called switch dee-bait. He is, after all, part of the Wynne-lose School of Obfuscation and can therefore wax ineloquently on anything but Industrial Wynne Turbines, like all the stars at the Wynne-lose School.
The picture of Uncle Bob says it all … talk to the hand, the face isn’t listening.