Brief to the National Assembly Committee on Natural Resources at Hearings on Energy Policy.

Publisher:  Overcome Pollution (STOP), Canada
Year Published:  1977  
Pages:  21pp  
Resource Type:  Article
Cx Number:  CX385

A breif about the current state of energy conservation, nuclear power, and the like.

Abstract:  In the past, increasing our use of energy has been associated with an improvement in the quality of life. In its brief, STOP took the position that this is no longer true. There are tremendous capital and operating costs for new energy installations of all types. These new installations also impose heavy burdens on our environment. STOP believes it is possible to ensure a reasonable quality of life for ourselves and our children without building nuclear power plants and without increasing our dependency on oil. This could be done by a combination of a drastic reduction in our waste of energy and a development of alternative energy technologies. The brief then examines various groups of energy users in detail. Current electricity rates were designed to attract industry to the province, but not to encourage conservation. This means individual users now pay a disproportionately large share of the costs of increasing our generating capacity. In other areas: the brief recommends increased investment in public transport. The Canada Council has estimated
that a 25 per cent saving in space heating can be obtained by retrofitting of houses and that 50 per cent can be saved by setting appropriate standards for new houses. The brief then proposes various ways to encourage individual conservation of energy such as the elimination of mater metering of electricity in apartment buildings. With regard to nuclear energy STOP argues that because of the risk of release of radio-active substances into the environment and the non-existence of natural mechanisms to delimit the effects of such emissions to a small area or span of time, we must not build nuclear power plants. As an alternative, the brief recommended a major program to encourage the use of solar and wind power.

(Abstract drawn from an article by John Daily in STOP Press, Vol. 5, no. 3).