BulletinsThe Ontario Clean Air Alliance sends out email bulletins on air quality and energy issues two to three times a month. Read our latest bulletins below or browse the archive. You can also add your own thoughts on the issues raised in our bulletins by clicking the "Add Comment" link below each posting. Sign up for our email list or manage your subscription
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Time for Hydro to get religionSubmitted by OCAA on Wed, 03/03/2010 - 05:00.March 3, 2010 Time for Hydro to get religion Despite earlier assurances from Toronto Hydro that it opposed a provincial proposal to build a disruptive and costly high-voltage transmission line through Scarborough, Leaside and Riverdale, the utility now says it is open to the idea. In a recent submission to the Ontario Energy Board, Toronto Hydro said the utility is "agnostic" about the best solution for addressing the "serious supply mix problem facing the City of Toronto." The utility, apparently, sees no advantage to meeting our electricity needs by a combination of energy conservation and small-scale, high-efficiency combined heat and power plants rather than a disruptive new transmission line. This is despite the well-known advantages of generating power locally: eliminating transmission system power losses; the ability to keep hospitals and other critical centres fully operational in the face of a widespread blackout; and, best of all, no need to construct much more costly transmission lines and new nuclear units to supply power to Toronto. But to avoid the need for a third transmission line to downtown Toronto, we need Toronto Hydro, Hydro One and the Ontario Power Authority to work together to eliminate the multiple barriers to combined heat and power plants. In other words, it is time for Toronto Hydro, Hydro One and the Ontario Power Authority to get religion on the advantages of energy conservation and small-scale distributed power, and for the province to actively support the development of such projects. You can find out more about what needs to be done to ensure a reliable power supply in downtown and central Toronto from our new report, Toronto on the electricity edge: Fixing Toronto's electricity security of supply problems available at http://www.cleanairalliance.org/toronto. Please email Ontario Energy Minister Brad Duguid at Brad.Duguid@ontario.ca and ask him to implement a plan to avoid the need for a third high-voltage transmission line to downtown Toronto (and cc me). Please pass this message on to your friends and colleagues. Thank you. Angela Bischoff, Outreach Director 402-625 Church St, Toronto M4Y 2G1 Phone: 416-926-1907 ext. 246 Clean Air Alliance We Can Phase-Out Coal Now!Submitted by OCAA on Thu, 02/18/2010 - 05:00.February 18, 2010 We Can Phase-Out Coal Now! Ontario now has a significant surplus of coal-free electricity, making it possible for the province to complete the coal phase out ahead of the G20 Summit in Toronto this June. According to an Ontario Clean Air Alliance (OCAA) report released today, Finishing the coal phase-out: An historic opportunity for climate leadership, Ontario’s coal-free generation capacity is now 23% greater than the province’s forecast peak day demand in the summer of 2010, and 27% greater than its forecast peak day demand in 2014. This means we no longer need our dirty coal plants to keep the lights on in Ontario or to ensure a reliable electricity supply! The OCAA is recommending that the province immediately put the coal plants on standby reserve and operate them only in the event of a power emergency or to support grid stability until their permanent shutdown in 2014. Let’s show the world that we do care about our health and our climate. Key Facts
Please email Premier McGuinty and ask him to provide climate leadership for Canada and the world by phasing out our dirty coal plants before the G20 Summit. (And cc me.) Please pass this message on to your friends. Thank you, Angela Bischoff, Outreach Director Clean Air Alliance Can your hospital operate during a blackout?Submitted by OCAA on Wed, 01/20/2010 - 05:00.January 20, 2010 Can your hospital operate during a blackout? The vast majority of Ontario’s hospitals cannot operate at full capacity during a blackout for two reasons. First, the capacity of their emergency diesel generators is significantly lower than their peak electricity demand. Second, in the event of a prolonged blackout they may not be able to obtain a continuous supply of diesel fuel. However, a handful of Ontario hospitals have installed natural gas-fired combined heat and power (CHP) plants that allow them to continue to operate at full capacity in the event of a blackout (for a list of hospitals that have CHP plants, see http://www.healthpower.ca/facilities.php ). By using natural gas more efficiently to produce both heat and electricity, these hospitals are also lowering their environmental impact. Numerous Ontario hospitals would like to install CHP systems, but we need a system to pay them for the electricity they produce similar to the program now in place for renewable energy sources. Paying Ontario’s hospitals to produce electricity will benefit all Ontario electricity consumers since small-scale CHP plants can meet our electricity needs at a lower cost than new nuclear reactors. Please email Ontario’s new Minister of Energy and Infrastructure, Brad Duguid, and ask him to direct the Ontario Power Authority to pay Ontario’s hospitals a fair price to produce electricity from CHP. Please pass this message on to your friends. Thank you. Angela Bischoff, Outreach Director Clean Air Alliance You don’t have to go to Copenhagen to make a differenceSubmitted by OCAA on Wed, 12/16/2009 - 05:00.December 16, 2009 You don’t have to go to Copenhagen to make a difference It’s easy to despair that global action on climate change will never move forward while watching 190 countries wrangle in Copenhagen. But right here in Ontario we have a major climate success story in the making that you can help push over the top. In 1997, a small upstart group called the Ontario Clean Air Alliance urged the provincial government to phase out the use of coal in the electricity sector. Twelve years later, we are almost there – in 2009, coal-fired electricity generation in Ontario hit an all-time low. What is shocking, however, is that Ontario could have burned almost no coal this year and kept the lights on in this province. We now have more than enough coal-free electricity supply to shutter our coal plants, the largest greenhouse gas producers in Ontario. In 2009, Ontario Power Generation’s primary reason to burn coal was to produce dirty electricity for export to the United States. This has to stop – now. We need your help to make that happen and to prove that something can be done to address climate change right now. Please consider making a financial contribution to our work to end coal use and usher in a renewable energy future for this province. By putting your dollars behind the OCAA, you are backing one of the leanest and most effective climate change action organizations in Ontario. With a small staff and modest budget, we have almost toppled mighty King Coal – the biggest industrial polluter in Ontario. With your help, we can bring coal use down to zero, five years ahead of the government’s official deadline. Action on climate can’t wait another half decade. Make a contribution today to help get the job done. With a couple of clicks at www.cleanairalliance.org/get_involved_donate you can rest assured that you’ve done something important for the climate today. With appreciation, Angela Bischoff, Outreach Director Jack Gibbons, Chair Dalton - Ontario can shine in CopenhagenSubmitted by OCAA on Mon, 11/30/2009 - 05:00.Novermber 30, 2009 Dalton - Ontario can shine in Copenhagen Ontario’s coal phase-out is North America’s single largest greenhouse gas reduction initiative. It will be equivalent to taking seven million cars off the road. But there’s no reason to wait till December 2014 to phase out coal. Let’s go to Copenhagen with a message that something can be done about climate change right now! Today Ontario has virtually no need for dirty coal. According to Ontario’s Independent Electricity System Operator, Ontario’s coal-free generation capacity is now 23% greater than Ontario’s forecast peak demand for electricity in 2010. [click here for more facts] As a result, Premier McGuinty can achieve a virtually complete coal phase-out now, without jeopardizing our security of supply, by directing Ontario Power Generation (OPG) to put its dirty coal plants on standby reserve. That is, only operate them if, due to an extreme event, they are necessary to keep the lights on. You can help make it happen: 1. Contact Premier Dalton McGuinty at https://www.premier.gov.on.ca/feedback/feedback.asp?Lang=EN and ask him to direct OPG to put its dirty coal plants on standby reserve today. 2. When your kids ask you what you did about dangerous climate change, tell them you helped take the equivalent of seven million cars off the road. Support the OCAA’s campaign for real climate action by donating to our coal phase-out campaign. With your help, we can push this critically important climate action over the top. Click here to donate now. Thank you. Angela Angela Bischoff, Outreach Director Nukes -- a spending scandal in the making?Submitted by OCAA on Wed, 11/18/2009 - 05:00.November 18, 2009 Nukes – a spending scandal in the making? In June 2009 former Energy Minister George Smitherman suspended the procurement process for two new nuclear reactors when Atomic Energy of Canada’s bid came in at $26 billion – 3.7 times the Ontario Power Authority’s (OPA’s) forecast. Nevertheless, according to the OPA’s recently released 2010-2012 Business Plan, the McGuinty Government is still committed to contracting for two new nuclear reactors at the Darlington Nuclear Station (2,400 MW) and the refurbishment of the Bruce B Nuclear Generating Station (3,300 MW) According to the OPA’s Business Plan, 50% of the new supply that it will contract for between 2010 and 2012 will be nuclear. 1-Minute Action: Please email Premier McGuinty and tell him that Ontario’s taxpayers cannot afford another government boondoggle. Tell him that there is no need for the OPA to contract for new nuclear projects. Ontario can meet its electricity needs at a much lower cost by a combination of energy conservation and efficiency, wind power, water power imports from Quebec, and by converting our apartment buildings, shopping centres, hospitals and factories into small scale but highly efficient combined heat and power plants. Protect Ontario’s electricity consumers and taxpayers from high-cost and unreliable new nuclear power projects! Please pass this message on to your friends. Thank you – together we’re bringing on the renewable energy age! Angela Bischoff, Outreach Director |
