Dear Editor:
Premier Doug Ford is expanding fossil gas infrastructure in Ontario, and with Bill 165, racing to overturn the Ontario Energy Board’s sane and rational decision to stop Enbridge from subsidizing fossil gas expansions into new communities, paid for by its existing customers.
In a climate crisis, this is lunacy, especially when there are many far greener alternatives. New homes using fossil gas for heating and cooling will also increase Ontario’s greenhouse gas emissions at a time when they need to come down sharply.
This spring and summer, we will bite our nails watching wildfires, floods and tornadoes rip through our most treasured natural resources, our forests. We will wring our hands seeing flood waters contaminate many homes, washing away people’s hopes and dreams, and our hearts will break for them. We will be numb with loss and sadness. The climate crisis looks far too big for any of us to make a difference.
Are we the country that continually looks back and sighs? Will we, as unsuspecting citizens, allow big corporate interests to take over because they suggest and want us to believe we will be left in the cold and dark if we give up our addiction to fossil fuels?
No one who is advocating for clean energy wants or expects that outcome! We know a better tomorrow is possible but only if we stop burning the fossil fuels that are heating up and wrecking our planet and our children’s future.
Let’s look to the past and the courage of people who weathered the Great Depression and two world wars. They were willing to endure extreme deprivations, often putting their lives on the line, to make us safe and free from tyranny. What will we do to bring in a new era of clean energy, water and air for all future generations?
I hope Bill 165 disintegrates under scrutiny and never passes the Ontario legislature. Let’s instead move forward with heating and cooling with super-efficient heat pumps and solar panels to power them, in a far cleaner, greener environment that makes our lives – and our children’s lives – better in every way.
An anonymous person wrote: “The only emotion greater than fear is hope. And the only way you can feel hope is if you take action.”
I urge you to join me in fighting Bill 165, and let’s work together to build the cleanest, greenest communities we can for the sake of our kids and grandchildren.
Gerry Walsh,
Erin