CHRIS BERUBE: The Canadian National Railway is under fire this week after a train derailment spilled more than 20,000 litres of fuel into the Ottawa River. A train derailed carrying diesel fuel at around 3:10am Wednesday morning, after hitting a patch of washed out track near Mattawa, Ontario. The Canadian Environment Ministry has vowed to look into the incident, particularly because it took CN over five hours to report the spill to local authorities. According to the London Free Press, CN officials failed to report to the 24-hour emergency spill centre set up by the government, who are supposed to receive immediate notification if any spills that could be hazardous to drinking water or other important water supplies take place. The Ministry says that the report on the spill was not delivered to their office until 8:37am. Representatives from CN say that the company was waiting for daylight to report the spill, as they assumed the Minister of the Environment office would not be open until then. Presently, the Ministry and CN have hired a cleanup contractor to determine the condition of the site and if anything was badly contaminated. We will have more information on this program as the Ministry’s investigation continues into the next few weeks. The derailment comes the same week that CN plead criminally guilty to two massive oil spills from August 2005. Those two spills spilled 196,000 litres of heavy fuel oil and pole treating oil into Wabamun Lake in Alberta, and sodium hydroxide into the Cheakamus River in British Columbia. CN agreed to pay nearly $2 million in renumeration to help prevent future spills in addition to $140 million already spent by CN in the past to help prevent future spills. CN has agreed to start working with national authorities to come up with a more coherent plan for preventing spills. [ index ]

DARYN CAISTER: Jim Prentice will be in court this week defending charges from environmental groups over stonewalling protections for the sage-grouse. The Canadian bird is on Canada’s list of at risk species, however several Canadian environmental groups including Ecojustice Canada will be in court making its case that Canada’s Environment Minister intentionally blocked action to protect the species. Several peer-reviewed scientific studies have been done identifying the habitat of the animal, but the federal government’s recovery strategy has so far failed to delegate it citing a need for its own ongoing studies. The court will also hear arguments in two other lawsuits focusing on similar charges over BC’s killer whale population and the Nookack dace fish. The lawsuit was originally filed in 2008 by Ecojustice on behalf of the Alberta Wilderness Association, the Federation of Alberta Naturalists, Grasslands Naturalists, Nature Saskatchewan and Wilderness Committee. The groups hope to send a message to Mr. Prentice and Premier Ed Stelmach that it must take the federal Species At-Risk act seriously, charging that they failed to comply with its provisions by not identifying critical habitat within a timeline that would prevent its extinction in those areas. The previously plentiful species has been listed as endangered since 1998, and is now confined in dangerously low numbers in south-eastern Alberta and south-western Saskatchewan. If no action is taken immediately, some studies predict the species will disappear from Alberta within 6 years. The green majority will follow this case and bring you an updates on the case as they happen. [ index ]

DARYN CAISTER: Toronto’s plans for a cross city bike lane have hit a speed bump. Last week, Toronto city councillor Adrian Heaps who is also the city’s cycling committee chair said that the first phase of the lane could be implemented as early as this year as soon as it was approved by city council. This week Mr. Heaps said that a thorough new third-party cost-benefit review of parking and traffic issues would now need to be performed to ensure that the impact for local businesses could be fully understood before proceeding with the plan. Mr. Heaps did not say what had caused his change of heart on the issue as one of the more vocal supporters of the plan. Mr. Heaps now says that if the study showed that the new lanes would hurt local businesses, that he would no longer support them however he refrained from being specific from quantifying what such impacts might justify losing his support. Mr. Heaps comments now seem to be in conflict with Mayor David Miller’s stated position at a city hall meeting last week on the issue in which Mr. Miller identified that there would need to be some minimal sacrifices by some parties to make way for fairer public infrastructure access. Mr. Heaps also said that a private consultant would be more objective on the matter than city staff could be. City reviews have shown to the council’s satisfaction that several stretches of the proposed lanes would not interfere with business and should therefore go ahead with council consideration, and the city is still considering 24 kilometres of smaller bike lanes throughout the city. The committee will also continue to look into a 3000 bike, municipal “bike share” program similar to those found in many European countries and one it Montreal next year. [ index ]

CHRIS BERUBE: Canada hasn’t had a proper political scandal in a couple of months, so it was a relief to us newsfollowers this week after Canada’s natural resources minister incurred one, spawning a saga that’s being called by the media Raitt-gate. Minister Lisa Raitt was asked by opposition members in the House of Commons this week to resign after it was discovered that she had left secret documents about Canada’s nuclear energy supply at the offices of a news agency. Minister Raitt left over a dozen documents, many of which were labelled ‘Secret’ at the offices of CTV in Ottawa. Noone from the minister’s office called to find the documents for over a week. According to CTV, the documents include much information about the money being pumped into the Chalk River nuclear facility, revealing, among other things, that the government has spent $$351-million this year in the sprawling Chalk River complex, that $72-million has been spent to “maintain the option of isotope production”, and that the AECL, who run Chalk River, will face an overrun of $100-million for the facility in this year alone. In addition, the documents claim that the Conservative government has spent $1.7-billion at Chalk River since taking office in 2006. The cost overruns are particularly damning, given that they failed to prevent the Chalk River NRU reactor from having to go offline for more than three months due to worries about leaks by the Canadian Atomic safety regulators. It also comes the same week that Natural Resources Canada announced that it would be looking for alternatives to restarting the NRU reactor, with some existing nuclear producers offering to produce the medical isotopes that Chalk River produced in bulk to provide quick and effective cancer tests, which is the reason the government has been trying to expedite the process of getting the reactor back online. While Minister Raitt offered her resignation to Prime Minister Harper this week, he refused to accept it, saying that the documents were lost by an aid, who has already been dismissed, and that the minister is not at fault. In the meantime, the opposition will continue to call for the minister’s head, saying that there is precedent for removing cabinet ministers that lose secret documents. [ index ]

DARYN CAISTER: Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty came through on a promise to protect Ontario’s boreal forests. The draft of the Far North Planning and Protection Act was presented to the provincial government this week, setting the course for legislation that would help Ontario combat climate change, protect important forests and also ensure that Ontario first nation’s people have control over land-use decisions within their territory. The proposed legislation follows a promise by Mr. McGuinty from last year to protect Ontario forests and improve relations with first nation’s people. The new legislation also lays the groundwork for plans that would reduce Ontario’s carbon footprint by 50 billion tonnes of carbon emissions. The coalition of environmental groups, including Ecojustice Canada and Environmental Defence which helped coach the Premier through the formation of the law set out five benchmarks to judge the quality of new laws including clear statements of intentions and goals, community planning bodies to approve land use, equal representation of Aboriginal people, adequate community funding support and a science advisory board to help regulate the decisions all of which they say have been achieved with the new legislation. Environmental Defence gave a statement in response to the announcement that while they were concerned about appropriate funding for the projects as the draft law was finalized and enacted that at this point they were very excited about the look of the bill and were looking forward to helping the government complete and enact the legislation. [ index ]

DARYN CAISTER: Nova Scotia has designated Hetford and Ciboux Islands as a provincial wildlife management area. The islands are known collectively as the Bird Islands are off the north-eastern shore of Cape Breton and cover about 2.25 square kilometres and house the largest colony of Great Cormorants in North America. The area also houses Nova Scotia’s largest populations of Razorbills and Black-legged Kittiwakes. Most importantly the new designation will provide legal protection for the habitat, including a provincial permit that will now be required to visit the islands thus reducing the threat from human disturbance. This type of habitat, which are referred to as IBA’s protect vital breeding, migrating and wintering bird populations and are also the site if scientific observation and species monitoring. The program is a partnership between Nature Canada and Bird Studies Canada facilitates Bird Studies Canada operations which also run partnership programs in 178 countries worldwide. Canada itself also has over 600 other IBA’s. Since the start of the IBA program in Canada, Nature Canada has assisted in facilitating over 100 grassroots groups in identifying and designating IBA sites. [ index ]

DARYN CAISTER: The city of Toronto has announced that it will be starting several pilot projects to attempt to deal with coffee cup waste. The existence of the project was announced this week, however so far they have given few details of what they might entail. The issue of coffee cups has been bouncing back and forth at city hall as Toronto attempts to take strides towards it’s “Zero Waste” goal, however they have been experiencing a lot of push-back from industry on what form these new policies will take, particularly from Tim Horton’s. Glenn De Baeremaeker, the city’s public works committee chair make the announcement this week, while dates for a decision of what the new policy for Toronto will look like continues to be pushed back, now expected in the fall of this year by latest count. Most of the push back from industry has revolved around whether the new rules will take the form of laws, or voluntary guidelines, and who would foot the bill for the costs. The green majority is planning to do a more in depth look at this issue in the near future, so stay tuned for that. [ index ]

CHRIS BERUBE: The plan to create a transit corridor that would allow passengers to travel by light rail from northern BC all the way to California has hit a snag that may lead to scrapping the project perminently. Amtrak Cascades, a company funded by the Washington state government, publically offered to build a light rail train between Vancouver and Seattle which was bound the lay the groundwork for a proper trans-border railline. But the Canadian Border Services agency this week said that such a company would have to pay half a million dollars a year just for the right of their trains to cross the border. This week, Amtrak Cascades announced that it was abandoning the project altogether, though they would continue to run their current limited fleet of trains from Seattle to Vancouver, which run once a day currently. The Washington state government is crying foul over the fee, noting that all other transportation authorities like this one that cross the border do not have to a pay a fee of any amount, let alone this much money. The Border services agency said that it would need the extra money to hire new guards to search passengers crossing the border with each new train. City planners are decrying the cancellation of the project, which was projected to help bring an additional 50,000 visitors a year to Vancouver and reduce the number of cars travelling across the border by as much as 10%. [ index ]

TYLER IRVING: This week saw the start of a fresh round of negotiations toward a possible successor to the Kyoto protocol. Delegations from 182 countries met in Bonn, Germany to discuss a 53-page document released by the secretariat of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. The document is designed to serve as a negotiating text for a new deal to be signed in Copenhagen next December. The UNFCCC’s executive secretary Yvo de Boer called the document a “significant new step in the talks” but warned that “there are some hard nuts still to crack.” For example, the US has criticized the document as being weighted too heavily toward developing nations. For their part, the developing countries making up the so-called G-77 insist that their own attempts to cut emissions should be supported financially by rich nations. One proposal raised by Mexico is that of a global “Green Fund,” which would be paid into by all nations in proportion to their GDP, greenhouse gas emissions and population. Thus, rich countries would be forced to pay more, but fast-growing economies like India and China would also have to bear some of the burden themselves. This round of talks is the second of five that will take place in advance of the Copenhagen conference. The talks will continue until June 12. [ index ]

TYLER IRVING: In California, state senators have voted to endorse a measure that would ban the use of bisphenol A in baby bottles, toddler cups, and food containers. The vote passed by a narrow margin of 21-16, and was vigorously opposed by lobbyists from the chemical industry. Bisphenol A (also known BPA) is used as a hardening agent in a variety of plastics. It is also a key ingredient in polycarbonates, as well as the epoxy resins commonly used to line food cans and drink bottles. Although it is not acutely toxic, many studies have linked long-term low-level exposure to BPA with a variety of ailments, including impaired brain development in children and various types of cancer. The substance has already been banned in products for children in Chicago, Minnesota, and Canada. However, most European jurisdictions consider exposure to BPA through plastic bottles and food containers to be well below the limits of safety. Although the California bill has passed the senate, it still must face the full Assembly of representatives. A similar bill was voted down in the Californian Assembly last year. [ index ]

TYLER IRVING: According to a new UN report, 2008 was the first year in which global investment in renewable energy outstripped that for fossil fuels. Of the $250 billion invested in energy production last year, $140 billion was directed toward green sources such as wind, solar, geothermal, and biofuels. Fossil fuel investment made up the remaining $110 billion. The report, called Global Trends in Sustainable Energy Investment 2009, was released on Wednesday and was the product of collaboration between the United Nations Environment Program and New Energy Finance, a London-based research firm. The rise in investment is driven largely by developing countries keen to increase their energy independence. Taken together, the developing world spent $36.6 billion on green energy last year, 27% more than in 2007. By contrast, Europe’s investment grew by only 2% and that of the US actually fell by 9%. Analysts point to the fact that in Western economies, incentive programs such as tax credits have been muted by the global recession. The recession is also having an impact on investment for this year; results from the first quarter of 2009 show green investment at $13.3 billion, 53% lower than the same quarter in 2008. Still if the appetite for green energy in countries like India and China continues unabated, there’s a chance that this new trend will become a permanent feature in the global energy market. [ index ]

TYLER IRVING: This week Brazilian environmental protection agency IBAMA issued a permit to begin construction of a hydroelectric dam on the Madeira river, the largest tributary of the Amazon. The project, called Jirau, is being overseen by a consortium of companies led by France’s GDF Suez. The consortium will also construct a second dam nearby, called the Santo Antonio. Taken together, the two-dam complex will generate 6,450 MW of energy, enough for several million households. However, the project has long been opposed by environmentalists and local officials, who argue that the dam will flood hundreds of thousands of hectares, and will take up part of a national park. The consortium responded with a deal whereby they will pay the equivalent of $27.6 million to the state as compensation. The IBAMA permit was the final step in seeking permission to begin the project, and shovels were in the ground hours after the permit was issued. When completed, the complex will be one of the largest in Brazil, although it is still dwarfed by the 14,000 MW Itaipu station in south Brazil. The project is expected to take until 2013 to complete. [ index ]