Can Ontario cut off power to the US?
Ontario Premier Ford told reporters if tariffs are imposed on Canada, he will cut off power to the US.
Let’s start with the fact that to transfer any realistic amount of power from province to province, that power has to move from the province to the US to the other province. If Ontario needs power from Quebec, that power has to flow into the US and then to Ontario. Statistics Canada (their EIA++) says in 2023 exports of electricity from Canada to the United States decreased by 26.8% (-17.6 million MWh). Total imports from the United States increased by 47.5% (+6.7 million MWh) compared with the previous year. Exports were:
-Ontario – 15.2 million MWh
-Quebec – 13.4 million MWh
– Manitoba 7.2 million MWh
– British Columbia remains the largest importer of electricity 16.8 million MWh of electricity from the United States.
Note the numbers don’t add up, because there is both export and import in each province to and from the US. Ontario would have to take brownouts during bitter cold winter weather.
https://lnkd.in/eFDXrSSk
The second link is a detailed article and cool map of the complexity of actually doing this.
https://lnkd.in/eSndRCR9
It may be possible to do, but it would be like cutting off your nose to spite your face, and just as problematic for Canada as the US. It would be better to cut off exports of engine blocks to the US. 😎
