Editor,
Another TCE letter?
Yes! Until the evidence, greed and perhaps corruption is acknowledged by this corporation and their Archaic Pumped Storage Project is finally cancelled, Meaford and all of Ontarians had best keep up and keep exposing the shortfalls of this project!
The recent completion of the Oneida 250MW Battery Storage Project by the Six Nations of the Grand River sums up where our efforts for energy storage should be directed: and where it should be rejected. Finally, can we say Goodbye to TCE’s ill-advised project? Or will we need to wait for the “10/10” to be forced upon us by the Provincial government. The choice is now indisputable!
Do we support a 10/10 project that costs 10 billion dollars and will take 10 years to complete and very likely end up over budget and behind schedule?
Or should we support projects that will cost 2 hundred thousand dollars, take 2 years to complete and can be built when needed? 250MW right away then if needed we build another or 2 or 3 or 10 or whatever number of 250MW systems all that can be online at a location we chose and certainly in way less time than TCE’s monstrous, destructive and inefficient system.
No noise, no pollution, no environmental and ecosystem harm (and don’t question the lack of recycling for batteries: the capability is already here), no dynamiting the escarpment, no displacing and damage to local communities, no high power lines buried under Georgian Bay, no high power lines needed from Wasaga Beach to Stayner and Barrie, no noise, no water needed from our Bay and no displacing a part of our much needed DND grounds!
Impossible? Have some more facts:
In 2017 Six Nations approached the province to pitch a battery project. For some reason they were met with skepticism (odd that is when TCE started their pitch). However, after ongoing explanations and negotiations, Six Nations and their development partners at Northland and NRStor were able to work with the Province to have our first large-scale battery project built. The province has contracted another 2800 megawatts battery storage this past year. Today after this Six Nations deal was struck the province have openly stated that “We need a lot more of it.” That is Battery storage not Pumped Storage!
Why would Meaford and Ontario support this TCE Pumped Storage fiasco when they should be pursuing our Indigenous partners the Saugeen Ojibwa Nation, the Metis Nation of Ontario, the Inuit and all other First Nations to build modern sustainable, efficient, and inexpensive energy storage solutions? Solutions that support all Canadians and not just a corporation!
Pat Maloney, Meaford
