Dear Dr. Farrar, [President of McMaster University]
As an alumna of McMaster University, I have been following with growing alarm the unfolding story of the University’s decision to install gas generators on campus to support its power needs. This, in spite of the fact that such a move flies in the face of everything we know about climate change and blatantly ignores the increasingly dire warnings of climate scientists and the IPCC.
It is highly regrettable that it took a hunger strike by a group of committed students to bring this issue into the spotlight, so that members of the broader community are made aware of what I can only term a reprehensible decision by McMaster’s management. It is the first time in my life that I’ve ever not felt proud to call myself a Mac grad.
A university, particularly one renowned for its engineering and science programs as McMaster is, should be at the forefront of innovation and take every opportunity to show how modern green technologies can support the practical needs of a higher learning institution. Doug Ford’s recent praise of Mac’s “out-of-the-box” approach, which he deems a creative way to solve cost and electricity challenges, is perhaps more ironically damning than all the criticisms of experts, coming as it does from a Premier whose environmental track record and grasp of climate change urgency show him to be stuck somewhere in the middle of the last century.
Nevertheless, these criticisms are valid and worth re-stating:
- 61% of community or local power generation is solar, making Mac’s choice of gas “an anomaly among the small power generation systems in Ontario” (Julie MacArthur, associate professor, Royal Roads University);
- Battery storage represents a more affordable, carbon-free option, made more attractive by the federal government’s new 30% investment tax credit for this solution (Jason Rioux, of NRStor, a Toronto-based battery storage company);
- Conservation can save costs too: managed correctly, it can shave usage without compromising vital operations, says James Quinn, chair of the faculty group MacGreenInvest;
- The gas generators will emit 8900 tonnes of carbon over the next 13 years, (MacDivest) and will become an expense liability as the carbon tax doubles the price of natural gas by 2030. Meanwhile, the cost of renewables continues to drop.
McMaster has an obligation, as a community partner and higher education institution, to reverse its disastrous decision. Instead of lining the pockets of fossil fuel giants, the University should be calling them out and using 21st century, truly creative solutions – conservation, solar power, battery storage – to solve its energy problems. We all know that “renewable natural gas” isn’t “natural” or “renewable”, and a university should demonstrate both thought and practical leadership, informed by a vision of how it can help shape a carbon-free world for its students to inherit. Other organizations are doing this. Trent University, for example, projects savings of $1M annually on electricity costs with its battery installation, and Six Nations Oneida Energy will soon install Canada’s largest grid-scale battery project.
As a concerned graduate and a grandmother who worries about what the future holds for our youth, I ask you to reverse McMaster’s ill-conceived, unethical and environmentally irresponsible choice of gas power generation. This is more important than ever, with atmospheric CO2 surpassing all previous recorded levels at over 424 parts per million just recently.
Please do the right thing, stay true to your own sustainability vision, and use the power of McMaster’s renowned innovation to bring about a truly creative, carbon-free solution to meet your energy needs.
Thank you,
Jane Jenner, class of ’73; Burlington resident