Ontario decided to shutter their coal-fired power plants in favor of wind, natural gas, nuclear power, increasing electricity rates to its customers. Particulate emission reductions could have been achieved less expensively by adding scrubbers
Ontario Achieves Minimal Emission Reductions From Closing Coal Plants
The Province of Ontario, Canada decided to shutter its coal plants in order to reduce criteria pollutants. According to the Fraser Institute, the environmental benefit of shuttering the coal-fired power plants was minimal and could have been achieved more economically by adding scrubbers to the coal plants rather than closing them. The political agenda in the province made it impossible to consider other options, resulting in the closure of the last coal-fired power plant in 2014 and making new coal plants illegal despite the knowledge that those plants contributed minimally to emissions of criteria pollutants in the province. Ontario's achievement from its hasty decision was an increase in electricity prices for its consumers. Despite this outcome, the national Canadian government and other provinces are considering a similar move regarding the country's coal plants.
While the policy direction that Ontario undertook is different than former President Obama's "Clean Power Plan", the result will be similar in that there will be premature closures of coal-fired power plants, higher electricity prices for consumers, and little environmental gain.
