Ontario's Energy Conundrum

Ontario can't seem to make up its mind about energy. Partway through a historic nuclear-powered coal phaseout, the province adopted the Green Energy Act (GEA), which established costly feed-in-tariffs for renewables in the footsteps of Germany's Energiewende. Now, three years after rising energy costs prompted the GEA's repeal, the planned 2025 closure of the 3.1 GW Pickering Nuclear Generating Station is leaving Ontario with no option to meet coming capacity shortfalls without winding back climate progress by burning much, much more gas. Chris Benedetti, Managing Partner at Ontario-based Sussex Strategy Group and Head of its Energy and Environment Practice, extracts lessons from the fascinating energy case study that is this Canadian province. Note: This episode was recorded on June 1, 2022 and contains outdated information pertaining to provincial elections.