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Green Party of Canada
Media Release
For Immediate Release
Refurbishing Lepreau plant will cost taxpayers dearly
(Montreal, 14 July 2005) -- If the PEI and New Brunswick Liberal parties had done their homework first they wouldn't be lobbying the federal government to provide hundreds of millions of dollars to prop up a trouble-prone nuclear plant run by a company that has grossly mismanaged its nuclear program, said Green Party of Canada Environment Critic Sharon Labchuk today.
Labchuk was reacting to a news conference held by the provincial Liberal parties in Charlottetown on Tuesday.
"Refurbishing the Point Lepreau nuclear plant will cost Canadian taxpayers dearly and slow the adoption of cleaner more sustainable alternatives to nuclear energy and fossil fuel," said Labchuk. Estimates for refurbishing Lepreau run as high as $1.4 billion.
"Federal taxpayers should not be forced to pick up the tab for NB Power's bungling. The company, overseen by New Brunswick Premier Bernard Lord, has under-collected the costs of operations and waste management from consumers giving the impression that nuclear power is cheap, and now wants a federal bailout." said Labchuk.
"This is an industry that has never generated a return on investment. No one really knows how much money taxpayers have given the nuclear industry in subsidies but estimates range as high as $20 billion."
The Green Party believes these subsidies create an unfair advantage so that the price of nuclear power is kept artificially low and doesn't reflect the true cost of production. As a result, research and the adoption of cleaner alternative energy sources have been stifled.
The Green Party notes that Ontario's experience with nuclear renovations shows what a bottomless money pit they become. Seventeen reactors in Quebec and Ontario all face the same renovations as Lepreau and it will be difficult for the federal government to refuse subsidies to these provinces if it gives in to New Brunswick's demands.
"The Green Party would end all subsidies to the nuclear and fossil fuel industries and phase out reactors as they become unsafe or reach the end of their useful lives. We would tax pollution from these sources and subsidize research and the implementation of energy from renewable sources like sun and wind," said Labchuk. "We're especially interested in promoting sustainable small-scale locally controlled energy projects.
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For more information:
Sharon Labchuk
902-621-0719
www.greenparty.ca
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