The Ontario government has raised the ire of environmentalists, but says it will push ahead with plans to refurbish old plants and build new nuclear power reactors to supply the province's energy needs.

Energy Minister Dwight Duncan made the announcement on Tuesday, saying that the province didn't have many alternatives.

Dwight Duncan

"Listen, if I had my druthers, it would be 100 per cent hydroelectric, the way it was the first 50 years of the 20th century."

But, said Duncan, "nuclear power has an important role to play."

The energy minister said only two new reactors will "likely" be built. The rest of the power the province will need over the next 20 years will come from energy conservation and renewable resources like wind and hydroelectric power.

Old nuclear plants will be refurbished

Duncan calls the building of two new reactors just a modest expansion of nuclear power.

But Sean-Patrick Stensil, spokesman for Greenpeace, disagrees. "Spending $40 billion refurbishing old plants, and building new plants, that's basically what [former Ontario premier] William Davis did in the 1970s, and we know it didn't work."

Opposition doubts targets will be met

The opposition parties think the government won't be able to meet its targets for energy conservation and renewable energy.

"If they're not increasing the floor, they're not going to be able to meet their targets unless everything falls into place," said Conservative critic John Yakabuski.

NDP Leader Howard Hampton said there will only be one alternative if the government cannot meet its targets for conservation and renewable energy: build more than just the two reactors. "There's a real attempt here by the McGuinty government, to [put off] all of these electricity supply issues, all of the environmental issues … [until] after the next election."

Mark Winfield, with the Pembina Institute, an environmental think-tank, said the announcement is carefully designed to appear to be a compromise. Any decision, he said, to adopt more nuclear energy poses a risk to the public. He also points out that Ontario's nuclear history is filled with multibillion-dollar cost overruns and missed deadlines.

Winfield said other nations have avoided nuclear power altogether by embracing alternative energy and conservation programs. "The alternatives are there for the taking. It's a question of whether the government can summon the courage to go down that path, and unfortunately its courage failed it today."

It could take up to 15 years to bring more reactors on line in Ontario, while the province's energy consumption continues to grow.

But Ontario government officials say they will meet the targets for energy conservation because for the first time they'll be relying on laws and regulations to force tougher building codes and more efficient air conditioners and lighting.