Published: April 10, 2006

The real cost of coal-fired plants is $4.4 billion

Published: April 10, 2006

In Tom Adams’ April 3 Second Opinion article, Ontario’s Renewable Energy Program Needs Competition, he claims he’s concerned about the “real costs” of sustainable nuclear energy, yet his organization continues to advocate building more greenhouse gas-emitting, pollution-prone coal-fired power plants, without any regard for the “real costs” of burning coal. Adams is the executive director of Energy Probe, a Toronto consumer and environmental research group.

Those “real costs” were outlined explicitly in an independent study conducted for the Ontario Ministry of Energy. The study found a relationship between increased air pollution due to coal-fired electricity generation and up to 668 premature deaths, 928 hospital admissions, 1,100 emergency room visits and 333,660 minor illnesses such as headaches, coughing and other respiratory symptoms, per year. The health, environmental and financial costs of coal-fired plants were estimated to be $4.4 billion annually — far in excess of the costs of nuclear energy.

And both the International Energy Agency and the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development’s Nuclear Energy Agency have said that new nuclear energy technologies make the construction and operating costs of nuclear energy less expensive than fossil fuel and any other form of electricity generation.

Adams is correct when he points out the excessive costs Ontario is paying for solar energy. He should now recalculate the “real costs” of coal.

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