Ottawa’s reliance on batteries to back up wind and solar power: a cautionary tale for governments everywhere

China controls most of the lithium and cobalt, both important components of solar panels, wind turbines, and batteries, which are often produced with child labor and near-slave labor, with practically no health, safety, or environmental safeguards.

ICSC-Canada Economics/Policy Advisor Robert Lyman explained:

A recent United Nations report warned that the raw materials used in EV batteries are highly concentrated in a small number of countries where environmental, labor and safety regulations are weak or non-existent. 'Artisanal' cobalt production in the Democratic Republic of the Congo now supplies two-thirds of the global output of the mineral. Many of the mines employ child labor in extremely dangerous tasks. Up to 40,000 children are estimated to be working in extremely dangerous conditions, with inadequate safety equipment, for very little money in the mines in Southern Katanga.

This is just a sample of the injustices to meet current raw material requirements for wind and solar power. Imagine the raw material demands, Third World mining, child labor conditions and ecological destruction, under the huge demands of the planned "green" energy expansion.

We can see that, as large-scale wind and solar power must rely on large-scale lithium battery storage, they are entirely infeasible and, indeed, immoral to introduce in our society. We need to supply our citizens with inexpensive, reliable and plentiful energy, which cannot be achieved with renewable energy no many how many batteries are hooked up to these flimsy power sources.

The City of Ottawa's Climate Change Master Plan is doomed to failure. However, it does have one bright side. As Ottawans freeze in the dark because of our useless virtue signalling, politicians in other jurisdictions may very well take heed to not fall into the same environmental extremism trap. Let's hope they learn from our mistakes.