Climate purity hurt Ontario liberals

Jeffrey Simpson writes in The Globe and Mail:

They closed the province’s coal-fired power plants, producing the single-largest decline of greenhouse emissions in Canada. This very positive decision for combatting climate change carried a price tag for which Ms. Wynne paid dearly politically.

Coal was dirty but cheap; renewables were clean but expensive. As a recent Financial Accountability Office report showed, the per-unit cost of a megawatt hour from wind power is $173 and from solar $480, much higher than nuclear ($69) or hydro ($58) or coal.

Huge price differences.

Climate virtue exacted a political cost. When the Liberals cancelled two gas-fired electrical plants near vulnerable seats, the decision cost the taxpayers an estimated $1-billion. When they spread wind farms across the province, as in Western Ontario and around Kingston, the reaction was sulphurous, except from landowners who collected rents from the turbines. 

At least they didn’t close down an entire industry, As Labour have done in NZ.