The provincial government agency has recently announced its plans to reduce sulphur dioxide emissions as required by the Ontario government. Ontario Hydro, along with Inco, Falconbridge and Algoma Steel, were told to reduce the emissions by 1994.
Inco’s plans are the most ambitious of the three private- sector corporations. It plans to spend almost $500 million to install what amounts to a new smelting process at its Sudbury operations. The result will be a more efficient operation with emissions reduced by more than half, but the huge capital cost — to be undertaken without any government assistance — is only possible because of Inco’s recent profits.
Ontario Hydro, however, plans to spend five times that amount — $2.5 billion — to reduce its emissions.
The utility’s pollution controls are expected to translate into increased hydro rates by the late 1990s, about 3% higher than would have been the case without the controls.
The public is quite willing to pay such a premium to reduce environmental damage. The irony of this situation, however, is that two of the province’s largest hydro users are Inco and Falconbridge. Their refining operations use substantial amounts of electricity. Now they are going to have to bear the cost of their own cleanup as well as a large portion of Ontario Hydro’s.
The point here is not whether Ontario Hydro should reduce its sulphur dioxide emissions. It should. But it should do so within the same type of constraints that the private sector has to operate. Ontario Hydro should be forced to live in the real world where a billion dollars is still a lot of money.
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