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.
Recent PostsDon’t let nuclear projects blow our electricity bills through the roof! – new leafletSubmitted by OCAA on Mon, 01/16/2012 - 14:59.January 16, 2012 Don’t let nuclear projects blow our electricity bills through the roof! – new leaflet Despite the fact that Ontario electricity use has fallen by 10% (while GDP increased) since 2005, plans to spend tens of billions of $$ on new nuclear projects are moving full-steam ahead. That’s money that could be spent on energy efficiency (where Ontario still lags behind most of its major competitors), more renewable power, and safe combined heat and power technology. With the province struggling to address a $19 billion deficit, there has never been a better time to end the expensive nuclear goose chase. This is the year that will decide where Ontario dollars flow: into more bloated nuclear projects or into more cost-effective options. You can help ensure Ontario makes the right choice by helping to distribute our new pamphlet: Don’t Let Nuclear Projects Blow Our Electricity Bills through the Roof! They’re free! And they contain postcards to Energy Minister Bentley. Spreading the word to your friends, colleagues and neighbourhoods helps us tremendously when it comes to getting attention from Queen’s Park for our smarter alternatives. Order your free and beautiful leaflets today and make sure the province starts the New Year off right! Thanks for your help! And if you’re in Toronto, please join OCAA’s chair Jack Gibbons and me in a discussion about Ontario as a coal- and nuclear-free province:
Angela Bischoff P.S. Order your free leaflets now! Outreach Director Ontario coal-fired electricity production hits 50-year low and electricity demand down 10%Submitted by OCAA on Wed, 01/11/2012 - 13:35.January 11, 2012 Ontario coal-fired electricity production hits 50-year low and electricity demand down 10% Last year, Ontario’s coal-fired electricity generation fell to its lowest level in half a century. In 2011, just 2.7% of our electricity generation was coal-fired, our lowest level of coal use since 1961. And there’s more good news: Ontario’s electricity consumption in 2011 also continued its downward trend with total electricity consumption 10% lower than in 2005. Ontario is heading in the right direction after making a dirty detour into coal and nuclear power from the 1960s onwards. Now we can finish the job by completely phasing out coal in 2012 and by investing in energy efficiency to reduce our electricity demand even further, increase our productivity and lower our energy bills. Please email Ontario Energy Minister Chris Bentley (and cc me) – ask him to finish the coal phase-out in 2012 and invest in energy conservation. Clean air can’t wait. Thanks for your help shaping ON’s energy policy. Here’s to some clean energy action in 2012! Angela Bischoff A new holiday tradition? Guess the nuclear cost!Submitted by OCAA on Mon, 12/19/2011 - 10:08.December 19, 2011 A new holiday tradition? Guess the nuclear cost! Some traditions are better than others. In our view, singing Christmas carols off key, exchanging hideous neck ties and sweaters, and sawing through Aunt Mabel’s Christmas cake all beat the long-standing tradition of under-estimating the real cost of nuclear fix-it projects in Ontario. But unlike most holiday traditions of old, the tradition of vastly underestimating the cost of fixing aging nuclear plants in Ontario continues. Take the current Bruce A repair project. Originally forecast to cost $2.75 billion, it’s now estimated to cost $4.8 billion – $2 billion over budget. (Maybe they should have waited for some Boxing Day sales on parts.) No surprise; on average, every nuclear project in ON’s history has gone 2.5 times over budget. So here’s our gift to long suffering Ontario electricity consumers: We are offering a $100 cash prize to the person with the closest estimate of the final cost of the Bruce A refurbishment project. You can put that $100 toward your share of paying down Ontario’s $19 billion nuclear debt, or pay off your hydro bills inflated by runaway nuclear project costs – either way, it beats another sweater. To enter the contest, go to www.cleanairalliance.org/brucecontest and fill out the form with your estimate. One entry per person. Enter now. Happy holidays! Angela Bischoff P.S. Please support our efforts by making a secure donation through our website. Clean air and a safe climate should be on everyone’s holiday shopping list. Outreach Director Help Ontario break free from nuclearSubmitted by OCAA on Thu, 12/08/2011 - 08:36.December 8, 2011 Help Ontario break free from nuclear The Fukishima nuclear disaster sent shock waves – and radiation – around the world. And, of course, this disaster is far from over, with radioactive leaks and contamination continuing to this day. The one positive outcome of this terrible tragedy is that much of the world has learned a valuable lesson about the dangers of nuclear power. Germany and Belgium have declared they will phase out nuclear power, and many other countries are following suit. But not Ontario. Here, energy planners remain determined to spend upwards of $80 billion on dangerous and unnecessary nuclear projects – including new reactors at Darlington, and rebuilt reactors at Bruce and Darlington – despite reams of evidence that nuclear is the highest cost and highest risk option for keeping our lights on. With public support for nuclear power at an all-time low, there has never been a better moment to turn the page on nuclear power in Ontario. Help us seize the opportunity to push Ontario in a cleaner and safer energy direction. Your financial contribution to our campaign to secure a 100% renewable energy grid in Ontario can have a world-changing impact. We now have a critically important window of opportunity to push forward better options, like made-in-Ontario green energy, increased energy efficiency, and water power imports from Quebec, but we can’t do it without your support. It’s easy to despair. Today, however, we are at a turning point where Ontario could embrace a sustainable energy future by ending its multi-billion-dollar entanglement with nuclear energy. Help us make this breakthrough happen by donating to our efforts to make Ontario the next jurisdiction to declare an end to the use of nuclear power. Here’s to a nuclear free Ontario. Thanks for your support… Angela Bischoff Our climate needs you. And so do we.Submitted by OCAA on Tue, 11/29/2011 - 17:18.November 29, 2011 Our climate needs you. And so do we. It has been a tremendous year for clean energy in Ontario, and for the Ontario Clean Air Alliance. Dirty coal is virtually gone (down to 2.9%). Renewable energy is growing by leaps and bounds. Three of Ontario’s four major political parties have adopted our proposal to import water power from Quebec as a cost effective way to meet our electricity needs. But the cleanest source of energy – improving efficiency – remains all but forgotten. So while we can celebrate some big victories, there is still a lot of work to be done. Thanks to your support, we are now within a hair’s breadth of achieving the biggest action to combat climate change in North American – eliminating Ontario’s dirty coal power plants. At a time when warnings about a climate tipping point and runaway warming are multiplying every day, we desperately need victories like this. That’s why we are asking for your financial support to help us tackle the next big challenge facing Ontario: reducing our heavy energy footprint. We started our campaign to eliminate coal use 14 years ago by revealing Ontario’s dirty secret – our then growing reliance on highly polluting coal to produce electricity. Now it’s time to face another of Ontario’s dirty secrets – our incredibly wasteful energy consumption. We use more energy per person than just about any other place on Earth. That has to change if we’re going to have any chance of reducing the threat of climate change and the toxic impacts of coal and uranium mining, oil and gas drilling, and the stockpiling of radio-active waste. We simply have to end the “all you can eat” energy mentality and the idea that our atmosphere can be used as a dumping ground for pollution. If there is one group that can change Ontario’s energy direction, it’s the Ontario Clean Air Alliance. Our combination of dynamite research and outreach, pull-no-punches policy advice, and super committed supporters (that’s you!) makes us a force to be reckoned with. We’re proud of what we’ve achieved and ready to achieve more – with your help. Together, we can shape a future for this province that makes it a stand-out leader in a low-carbon, light footprint world – a place we would have had trouble imagining just two decades ago, but that is fully within our grasp if we make the right choices over the next five years. Please support our efforts to build this future by making a secure donation through our website. Clean air and a safe climate should be on everyone’s holiday shopping list. Thank you in advance for your contribution and for your confidence in us! Jack Gibbons, Chair Angela Bischoff, Outreach Director
P.S. You can also send a cheque to the address below. Ontario Clean Air Alliance angela@cleanairalliance.org Hudak endorses water power imports from QuebecSubmitted by OCAA on Wed, 11/23/2011 - 05:00.November 23, 2011 Hudak endorses water power imports from Quebec In a speech to the Association of Power Producers of Ontario last week, Opposition Leader Tim Hudak endorsed importing water power from Quebec to lower our electricity bills. Hydro-electric imports from Quebec would cost Ontarians just 5.8 cents a kWh, vs. new nuclear which would cost us 19-37 cents per kWh. During the recent provincial election, hydro-electric imports were endorsed by NDP Leader Andrea Horwath and Green Party Leader Mike Schreiner. By importing water power from Quebec and by developing our huge, untapped energy efficiency potential (Ontario’s energy consumption per person is 50% higher than New York State’s), we can move our great province towards a renewable electricity future and lower our energy bills. Please email Energy Minister Chris Bentley (and cc me) and ask him to join his colleagues in the other 3 parties in supporting the import of water power from Quebec. Thank you. Angela Bischoff P.S. Follow me on Twitter – @NoNukeBailouts Ontario Clean Air Alliance |
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Ontario Clean Air Alliance, 160 John Street, Suite 300, Toronto, Ontario, M5V 2E5, contact@cleanairalliance.org, phone: 416-260-2080