Don't follow Ontario into coal-free debt

I am responding to the article I just read on your web site entitled “Zinke energy plan big on resource extraction.”

I share U.S. House candidate Ryan Zinke’s fears that the Environmental Protection Agency “could put coal-powered facilities out of business.”

It is worrisome for us here in Canada when the United States, the primary defender of the free world, is bent on crippling itself in this way. After all, the U.S. has more coal than any other nation and it is still your least expensive source of electric power.

To get an idea of the impact of turning off 40 percent of America’s electricity (which coal still provides), just look north to my province of Ontario. In 2003, coal provided 25 percent of our electricity. It is now zero percent and electricity prices are skyrocketing as natural gas costs soar and our debt per capita is now five times that of California. 

Turning off our least expensive source of electricity is one of the major reasons Ontario has changed from what we call a “have” province to a “have not” one.

Ontario can survive our financial problems because Canada has equalization payments between provinces and so we get billions from oil-rich Alberta. 

Who will bail out the U.S. if you similarly turn off your most important power source? 

Harris, of Ottawa, Ontario, executive director, International Climate Science Coalition