Fighting the power

The Ontario Power Authority may have gone out of its way to avoid heading anything but the message it wants to hear...but even its negligible amount of public consultation has been enough to produce little doubt as to what Ontarians think about increased reliance on nuclear power:

A plan that recommends $40 billion worth of new nuclear power for Ontario was slammed at public hearings last night in Toronto and Mississauga.

At the Toronto meeting more than 250 people appeared just as angry about what they described as a sham three-day consultation process that continues today and tomorrow across the province...

Jeff Leal, parliamentary assistant to Energy Minister Donna Cansfield, however, suggested last night that the plan's hostile reception might delay a final decision.

Speaker after speaker last night argued nuclear power is expensive, unreliable and dangerous to the environment and human health.

It's a shame that the case against nuclear power apparently isn't one that had received much previous attention from the Authority. But one night's worth of public backlash has apparently had some impact. And if the continued consultations are along the same lines, then maybe there will be some hope for Ontario to make a move toward more positive energy sources, rather than relying on highly dubious assumptions as to the efficiency of continued nuclear development.