Too big, too costly and too polluting - plan for Northern York Region deeply flawed
Submitted by OCAA Staff on Mon, 05/12/2008 - 09:15.
Meeting Northern York Region's Power Demands The Ontario Government is proposing a large 350-400 megawatt simple cycle gas plant to meet the power needs of Northern York Region. This low-efficiency plant will cost hundreds of millions of dollars and will operate on only a handful of very hot summer days. Our Too Big, Too Costly & Too Polluting - Part 2 report looks at who benefits and who loses from the decision to build an overly large and overly pollluting power plant in Northern York Region. Fact Sheet #27 - Lower cost and cleaner answers: Meeting Northern York Region's Electricity Needs Please contact George Smitherman, Minister of Energy and Infrastructure - George.Smitherman@ontario.ca - and urge him to re-establish the Northern York Region Working Group (Ontario Power Authority, municipal officials, local utility representatives and concerned citizens) to develop a better plan to meet the region's electricity needs. For additional information about the proposed power plant for Northern York Region, visit:
Do your part to avoid the need for the NYR power plant - sign up for peaksaver (click on your utility or visit www.everykilowattcounts.com) If you manage or are an employee of a York Region business, find out how enrolling your business in a demand response program can be profitable and good for the environment:
Find out more about the potential for highly efficient combined heat and power (CHP) systems to meet Northern York Region's electricity needs. Read our factsheet, Towers of Power: Advancing combined heat and power in multi-residential buildings and our Places of Power factsheet, which profiles the City of Markham's groundbreaking district energy system among other institutional combined heat and power applications. Correspondence with the OPA On April 22, 2008, the OCAA received a letter from Dr. Jan Carr, CEO of the Ontario Power Authority, disputing the OCAA's information about the proposed Northern York Region power plant. Dr. Carr included with his letter a copy of a letter from David Butters, CEO of the Association of Power Producers of Ontario, to the mayor of Aurora. The OCAA has sent Dr. Carr a reply to his letter outlining our responses to his contentions and pointing out major gaps in his information. You can read this correspondence and judge for yourself who is working to bring Ontario's electricity system into the reality of a world facing catastrophic climate change and who is working to maintain the status quo. Letter from Jan Carr (OPA) with copy of letter from David Butters (APPrO). Response from the OCAA to Dr. Carr. Georgina says "No Thanks" On April 28, 2008 the Town of Georgina passed two resolutions stating that it was unwilling to be the host of large peak power plant and that urged the province to look in more detail at what could be done to reduce peak demand in Northern York Region. Newmarket-Aurora MPP Frank Klees wants the Minister of Energy to get a second opinion before committing to the construction on the power plant. Read more:
MPP Peter Tabuns is introducing a private members bill, “An Act to promote the conservation of power in Northern York Region and the Town of Bradford West Gwillimbury". If passed, it will make it illegal to build a simple cycle power plant of greater than 30 MW in NYR or Bradford West Gwillimbury. The Ontario Green party issues a news release about the proposed plant. Environmental Defence calls for the re-establishment of the York Region Working Group.  |