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Learning to pay our way

Yes, there’s an upfront cost to green power (The High Cost Of Green Power – Jan. 8). But it’s better to pay the real cost of power now rather than hiding it in subsidies and forcing our children to pay off our debts.

There’s another line at the bottom of our electricity bills to pay off the $20-billion “stranded debt” that previous governments tried to hide. Most of the debt was incurred by relying on nuclear power plants that routinely broke down and cost billions to fix. Then there’s the question of paying to handle the waste for 100,000 years.

Electricity has always been one of the tools used by government to encourage industrial development. Paying a little more so our neighbours have jobs building and operating decentralized renewable power generation will benefit all of us. Oh, and protecting the climate and air quality is not a bad idea, either.

John Bennett, executive director, Sierra Club Canada, Ottawa