The best opportunity to "get more green" into Ontario's electricity supply mix is to allow clean, sustainable sources of power to replace ageing nuclear reactors when they reach the end of their operational lives. 

The graph below illustrates the gap which opens up as Pickering B and Bruce B (in red and orange) come offline beginning in 2013 and presents how additional clean options can fill this gap. 

According to the Ontario Power Authority (OPA), the Ontario government must decide early in 2009 whether to rebuild or replace the Pickering B nuclear station scheduled to come offline in 2013. A similar decision about the Bruce B nuclear station must be made within the mandate of this government as well. 

However, by framing these two decisions as "either rebuild or replace" nuclear stations, the OPA has failed to consider the option of expanding renewable energy beyond the minimum in the supply mix directive. There is a better green energy choice: Replace aged nuclear reactors with quick-to-deploy green energy sources and conservation.

Instead, the OPA has given the government an unpalatable choice: rebuild old reactors at high cost and high risk or build new nuclear plants by 2020. Both options increase fossil generation until reactors are refurbished or built, resulting in the risk of higher greenhouse gas emissions.