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No fossil fuel expasion

A letter to the Manitoba government on their ludicrous plan. I can't remember where I found the template which I adjusted with my own comments, but it was probably from the Climate Action Team. Check out their resources for advocacy for a better energy future for Manitoba. 

Dear Premier, minister of the environment and minister of finance 

I am writing today to voice my utter horror regarding your government’s recent announcement of plans to build a new, $3 billion fossil gas power plant.

Could it get any more wrong at this moment?

Building new fossil fuel infrastructure that will fuel the climate crisis and keep us reliant on imported fossil gas from Alberta for decades to come is unacceptable. You haven't even tried to supplement our energy with solar, wind, heat pumps and district heat, to say nothing of improving efficiency so we simply need less.

My main concerns with this project are:

It expands fossil fuel use during an era of climate emergency.

After the summer of devastating wildfires that Manitoba just experienced, it is clearer now than ever that we are in a climate crisis, and we need to get off fossil fuels as quickly as possible. Manitobans like myself want a government that takes climate action seriously, and this project contradicts any progress your government has made on climate solutions.

  • It is a waste of public money.

    • We entrust the government to use public funds wisely, and spending $3 billion on a new fossil gas plant, that is only supposed to be turned on for a few days per year, does exactly the opposite. For only $1 billion, you could superinsulate buildings across Manitoba and just not need the same amount of energy this ridiculous power plant is supposed to supply.

  • It fails to put Manitoba on a path to clean energy and electrification.

    • We currently have such a path -- while everyone else including China and India are racing to catch up with us, why on earth would we choose to turn around and go in such a regressive direction?

  • Manitoba should be investing to capitalize on its solar and wind resources, paired with battery storage and neighbourhood- or even city-scale district heat.

    • These solutions are proven, reliable, and have seen dramatic cost reductions in recent years.

  • We should also be prioritizing funds for efforts to reduce electricity demand, such as scaling up geothermal and retrofits

    • It's completely tone-deaf and a refusal to perceive reality to act as though the future will be the same as today, and not one of crisis after emergency after tragedy, all of it surrounded with scarcity.

    There's no better time than the present for Manitobans to simply learn to to deal with energy shortages.

    Instead of ruining our green energy ratings to deal with an energy demand surge on one or two coldest days a year, let's put some creative strategies in place to reduce energy demand on those days: we must train Manitobans to unplug unnecessary power drains, temporarily shift energy sources and a host of other small mitigations which added together when all Manitobans participate, will achieve the reduction needed to keep demand within supply.

    Additionally, one can't help but suspect the rush to produce all this energy is not actually for Manitobans, but to supply data centres that will run down our water table and run up our electricity bills to absolutely no benefit whatsoever to Manitobans. Just say no to data centres.

As a concerned community member, the reason why I’m fighting for climate action is because I want to be able to breathe outside without a gas mask. I actually appreciate those miraculous -40 days when everything is still and sparkly and want to keep at least 1 around every year. I want to enjoy snowpack and to run out of places to shovel my snow in winter because it doesn't melt (not yoyoing back and forth between +2 and -20 all winter long with miserable and impassable sidewalks and bike lanes that are frozen ruts). I want to keep enjoying foods of all kinds and not starve as one freak weather event after another wipes out the crops of whole regions.

I demand you to invest in renewables, energy storage, and demand-side reductions, instead of new fossil fuel power.

As a first step, I hope your government will undertake and publish a full and transparent assessment of alternative sources of electricity generation and the remarkably large role reduction (insulating buildings) can play in reducing our energy demand.

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