They get letters

During the recent Saskatchewan NDP leadership race, I noted the importance of valuing the message of a genuine endorsement rather than focusing solely on the name of the speaker. And today offers an excellent opportunity to extend the same principle to Saskatchewan's nuclear debate in the form of two noteworthy letters to the editor.

First, here's Bert Pitzel in the Leader-Post:

Many attending realize that the government has every intention of bringing nuclear power to Saskatchewan. Just note the memorandum of understanding already signed between the research centres of Idaho, Alberta and Saskatchewan, guaranteeing a Western Inland Energy Corridor. The overwhelming disapproval expressed at these hearings hasn't only been about influencing the government, but also about slamming shut the doors of the government's consultation-getaway car.

Additionally, many of the "anti-nukes", call themselves pro-renewable and in favour of a decentralized grid, a rational position that would help Saskatchewan de-link from a debunked globalized economic system and begin now what our great grandchildren will have to do.

Why go through the poison and expense in the interim?

And Chris Gallaway in the Star-Phoenix (reproduced in full since it's as concise a contrast as one could ask for):

I recently lived in Halifax for some time and watched Nova Scotia Power (the local private power company) release its long-term plan to provide electricity to consumers.

The two main planks of its proposal were to invest in a major provincewide conservation program and to build more wind power capacity. It saw this plan as the cheapest, as well as the greenest way to provide power to its customers while keeping rates low. The alternative was to build a new generating station at an estimated of more than $1 billion and increase power rates.

Meanwhile, our province has as its government a Saskatchewan Party administration that, immediately upon its election, closed the Office of Energy Conservation, stopped creating new wind power projects through SaskPower and is determined to fast track the building of an expensive nuclear reactor.

It's ironic that a private utility company in Nova Scotia is more concerned with having a long-term plan to keep rates low for its consumers than is our current government. The Saskatchewan Party members should take off their nuclear blinders and consider what is actually best for the province's businesses and residents who will be paying for this decision for decades to come.

Of course, some individuals are bound to become noticed more than others for their opposition - with Jim Harding, NDP MLA Sandra Morin and David Orchard earning headlines recently. But the decisive factor figures to be how far that message goes among people who aren't obviously at the head of the movement...and the two letters above are just a couple of many indications that Saskatchewan as a whole isn't going to accept being bullied into nuclear development.