The Fraser Report think tank says that shutting down all of Ontario’s coal-fired power plants didn’t change the level of pollution much and certainly didn’t justify the cost of the project to consumers. The conservative philosophy think tank says just using pollution scrubbing technology would have had the same effect. CBC says the report estimates that air pollution levels have decreased slightly as a result of shutting down the plants in Toronto, Hamilton and Ottawa, but installing “scrubbers” on the plants would have been cheaper and have accomplished the same thing. The study, authored by Ross McKitrick and Elmira Aliakbari, specifically notes pollution reduction in Toronto and Hamilton was “not statistically significant” with regard to coal plant closures. They cite industrial pollution, emissions from natural gas plants and natural weather conditions as having a greater impact on pollution across the province.
