Energy Probe is a Toronto-based environmental policy organization, best known for its role in opposing nuclear power.[1][2][3] Founded in 1970 as a sister project of Pollution Probe[4] and incorporated in 1980 as EPRF Energy Probe Research Foundation, it is dedicated to resource conservation, economic efficiency, and effective utility regulation. Energy Probe led the opposition to Ontario Hydro's nuclear expansion plans during the 1970s and 80s. Its plans to break up Ontario Hydro's monopoly and end support for nuclear power were endorsed in 1984 by the leaders of the Ontario Liberal Party and the Ontario New Democratic Party, the two opposition parties at that time. Later, the Progressive Conservative Party of Ontario, led by Mike Harris, formally adopted Energy Probe's positions in its Common Sense Revolution. Under this model, the grid would be operated as a separate regulated entity while the generating units would operate in a competititve marketplace. It was subsequently adopted in the United Kingdom under Margaret Thatcher.[5]
In 1978, before its incorporation, it capitalized on the Three Mile Island nuclear disaster, and acquired notoriety by printing up brochures on the morning the accident occurred. By the afternoon, these brochures, entitled, "It's no longer just a movie," were being distributed to theater goers as they left the Jane Fonda movie, The China Syndrome.[6]
Stephen Dale, in his book McLuhan's children: the Greenpeace message and the media, praised Energy Probe for its stance on utility regulation whilst criticizing it for having turned away from its democratic roots to "embrace the discipline of the marketplace".[5]
See also
editReferences
edit- ^ Energy Probe. "About us". Retrieved 2009-09-26.
- ^
McDonald, Bob (Sep, 2004). "Nuclear Waste - Burying a Problem, or a Solution?". Retrieved 2009-09-26.
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Paehlke, R. (ed.) (1995). Conservation and Environmentalism: an encyclopaedia. Taylor & Francis.
{{cite book}}:|author=has generic name (help) - ^ Dewar, E. (1995). Cloak of green: The links between key environmental groups, government and big business. James Lorimer & Company Ltd.
- ^ a b
Dale, S. (1996). McLuhan's children: the Greenpeace message and the media. Between the Lines.
Greenpeace took the same approach to the nuclear power industry in Britain, casting the organisation as an unlikely ideological ally of Margaret Thatcher in her campaign to privatize government enterprises.
- ^
O'Connor, R. (Jul, 2009). ""It's no longer a movie": Three Mile Island, The China Syndrome, and Anti-Nuclear Activism in Canada". Retrieved 2009-09-26.
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