TYLER IRVING: Speculation that the federal Conservative Government is about to release a two-tiered climate change plan has worried the premiers of both Ontario and Quebec. Dalton McGuinty and Jean Charest met over dinner last night in advance of a joint Ontario-Quebec cabinet meeting to be held today. Both premiers have also met recently with federal Environment minister Jim Prentice, and although the meetings were private, sources have told the Toronto star that they focused on a new federal climate change plan. The plan, which would be the eighth released by the federal conservative government, is said to allow for different industries to be subject to different types of emissions targets. Those for the oil and gas sector would be intensity-based; that is, lowering the amount of carbon produced per barrel of oil, but allowing overall emissions to increase. Other industries would receive absolute targets. Such a system would disproportionately benefit Alberta and Saskatchewan, while dealing yet another blow to the already-struggling manufacturing sectors in Ontario and Quebec. On the record, Jim Prentice denies that any such plan is in the works. On Thursday, he said, “there’s never been any suggestion on my part that the oil sands or any industry would receive special treatment in any of my consultations.” Still the central Canadian premiers were worried enough to hold a joint press conference Thursday night to air their concerns. Premier McGuinty said “They have obviously not nailed down the final details, but our intention is to ensure that Ontario is not the subject of discrimination.” [ index ]

TYLER IRVING: On Tuesday, federal Green Party leader Elizabeth May announced that she will be seeking the Green Party nomination in the riding of Saanich-Gulf Islands. During the last election May ran in the riding of Central Nova and garnered 32% of the vote. However, it was not enough to defeat her incumbent opponent, Defense Minister Peter McKay. The coast-hopping move came after the party made it clear that getting Ms. May a seat in parliament was an absolute priority for an anticipated fall election. Her campaign manager John Fryer says that party polls indicate the west-coast riding has some of the strongest Green support in the country. Despite this, May will by no means have an easy run. The current MP for Sannich-Gulf Islands, which includes suburbs north of Victoria, is another high-profile conservative, Minister of Sport Gary Lunn. Lunn has held for over a decade, starting with his first victory as a Reform candidate in 1997. On top of that, the Green nomination is also contested by Stuart Hertzog, an activist with Greenpeace. Hertzog is protesting what he sees as a shift from in the party from a grassroots to a top-down organization. However, May’s campaign manager insists that the fact that the nomination will be contested rather than simply appointed points to the strong democratic nature of the party. Despite the tough battles ahead, Elizabeth May is optimistic. She says, “Saanich-Gulf Islands has a tremendous appetite for change.” [ index ]

DARYN CAISTER: Toronto will soon be the home of Canada’s largest hospital solar system. Sunnybrook hospital in Toronto celebrated the completion of a 140 panel solar array over two stories of its parking complex this week. The system is expected to generate 27,000 kilowatt hours annually and are mounted to face the entrance and street according to hospital representatives to remind hospital visitors and passers-by of the need for these technologies. The parking complex panels will be followed by another system on the roof of the U-Wing of the hospital, which will be twice the size of the current 140 panel parking garage system. The solar systems are part of a larger plan by the hospital to reduce its energy use and environmental impact by including a high-tech automation energy management system for the hospital, as well as new optimized ventilations and heating and cooling equipment, new high-efficiency lighting systems, and new chillers and cooling towers. Total the project will cost the hospital $28 million dollars which will be paid for in part by a total $1 million dollars in government subsidies and grants, and the rest will be paid for from the savings to the hospital in energy costs which is expected to be approximately $2.7 million dollars a year for at least the next 15 years. The company which has designed and is installing the upgrades, an American company called Honeywell, assured the hospital and the public that all possible old materials and equipment that is demolished and removed from the hospital will be disposed of in a sustainable manner. The panels on the parking structure will also provide real time energy generation and carbon savings information in real time to visitors and staff at the hospital. The remainder of the projects are expected to be completed by the end of 2009. [ index ]

DARYN CAISTER: Gutted federal science programs may prevent detailed answers in the Pacific Salmon collapse. Fisheries and scientists were shocked earlier this year when one of the largest expected salmon runs in the Fraser River inexplicably turned into the smallest on record. The salmon run this year was expected to be as high as 10.5 million fish, but ended up with only about 1.3 million. The salmon run on the Fraser River is not only a critical part of the local ecology and natural system, but also an important part of the local economy in British Colombia. In response to the salmon collapse the federal government is pulling together a variety of scientists and researchers to try to shed some light on the drastic loss of fish stock, but some scientists have already indicated some scepticism as to how effective such investigations may be. The Watershed Watch Salmon Society for instance, along with many BC aquatic scientists say that significant cuts have been made to scientific research over the two last decades. In many cases, data needed for a solid analysis of salmon systems just isn’t there according to Scott Hinch of the University of British Columbia. Mr. Hinch also said that Canada used to be studying almost every aspect of the pacific salmon systems, and now are doing almost nothing. Once the fish leave spawning and before they return almost everything is a black box. The rest of the 8.5 million salmon may have succumbed to temperature changes, invasive species competition, or impacts from the controversial fish farms the salmon must pass by when entering and leaving the Frasier River. The most likely situation being that there is a combination of all these factors. Not only are the fish important to BC but knowledge of the die off may provide important information about changes in the ocean ecosystem that could continue to impact humans and the environment at large. [ index ]

TYLER IRVING: This morning, Ottawa city councillors are attending an emergency meeting at city hall. They are trying to decide whether or not to approve a $36.7 million settlement to a consortium of companies that are suing the city over its 2006 decision to cancel a transit plan that was already partly underway. The cancelled plan was based on a north-south light rail line, and would have cost approximately $800 million. However, critics said the plan would not do enough to address downtown congestion, and the issue was a major factor in the 2006 election of mayor Larry O’Brien, who promised to scrap the plan. Six months later, the city was sued for $215 million by a consortium of companies led by Siemens Canada, who had been contracted to build the new system. Despite the high cost of the settlement, many councillors are expected to vote for it, as the costs of a full-blown trial could be much higher. However, a number of details need to be worked out, such as whether the payments are made in a lump-sum or spread over several years, and what councillors can legally say about the deal. The $36.7 million dollars is in addition to a further $60 million the city had already spent on the first stages of the cancelled plan. Ottawa’s new transit plan, approved last November, is much more ambitious than the previous one. Among other things, it calls for the construction of a tunnel through the downtown core. It is expected to cost over $4 billion and to be completed by 2031, making it the single biggest construction project in the city’s history. [ index ]

DARYN CAISTER: A British Columbia NGO has confronted the provincial government on its new transportation policies. The group Western Canada Wilderness Committee critiqued the BC government’s current proposal they accuse further exacerbates a transit crisis by failing to provide additional funding, while simultaneously paying out $1.5 billion for new roads. The WCW Committee proposes that the $1.5 billion dollar South Fraser Perimeter Road project be scrapped and the money should all be invested in public transportation. The money for the SFP road is part of the newly announced September 2009 budget for BC which includes a 20% increase in spending on highway expansion. Meanwhile public transit has been considering shutting down proposed rapid transit extensions, and potentially cutting back bus services. The WCW Committee also says that the proposed “1950’s style freeway” endangers farmland, Burns Bog and some designated at-risk species habitat. A spokesperson for the group accused the government of having “one foot on the brakes, and one on the gas”, by committing to reduce green house gas emissions in the province by 33% by 2020, and simultaneously diverting funds away from sustainable transportations infrastructure into its less sustainable counterpart. The BC provincial government has promoted in the past that doubling transit ridership as one of the key steps in reaching its carbon emissions targets. Part of the reason for BC’s reduced budget for September is due to falling natural gas prices which constitute an important portion of the provinces industrial sector income. [ index ]

TYLER IRVING: First-nations groups, ecotourism guides and conservationists in BC have raised the alarm over what they say are dramatically fewer bear sightings across the province. On Tuesday, a coalition including the conservation group Pacific Wild released a statement calling on the federal Department of Fisheries and Oceans and Premier Gordon Campbell to call off the fall bear hunt. The group blames the disappearance of bears on last year’s unusually long and cold winter, combined with the below-average returns of chum salmon, a large and fatty fish that the bears depend on to gain weight for their winter hibernation. Like the sockeye salmon further south, the return runs of chum have been low for several years running. However, at least one expert described the calls to cancel the bear hunt as alarmist. Steve Miller, a senior biologist with the U.S. National Wildlife Federation, told the Canadian Press on Wednesday that “the likelihood that you have adult bears starving to death as a consequence of a decline in a single food source is very small.” B.C.’s environment minister Barry Penner agrees, but has asked wildlife officials to update their bear counts, particularly in the region of the Kimsquit river, north of Bella Coola. In the meantime, there are no plans to call off the fall bear hunt; as of Sept. 10 bear season officially began across the province. [ index ]

KATHERINE BROWN: China has made plans for the world’s biggest solar plant—a 2,000 megawatt solar photovoltaic farm is to be built in the Mongolian Desert. The Chinese government is partnering with the U.S-based company First Solar to make it happen. The plant will be 16,000 acres, and construction will begin on the first phase next year. Over the next decade, the plant should grow to power around 3 million Chinese homes. The project is set to be completed by 2019. China aims to have 20 percent of its energy come from renewable energy sources by 2020—this project will be a large component of reaching that goal. This is also a very significant project because of its size—if it does succeed, it will demonstrate that solar power on a large scale really can work as an economically feasible option. [ index ]

KATHERINE BROWN: Toxins found in crude oil may be broken down through using microbes. It’s been found that very toxic acidic compounds, which ordinarily take up to 10 years to decompose, can be degraded or neutralized in just a few days if digested by a mixture of bacteria. These were the findings of research conducted by microbiologists at the University of Essex, published this past Monday. This research is especially significant as we begin to depend on crude oil more and more. The process of extracting and refining the crude oil is very harmful to the environment as many threatening toxins are produced as by-products. According to this research, the use of microbes may be one solution to lessen the harm done by extracting the oil. It’s also apparently quite a feasible solution– the bacteria are naturally occurring, cheap, and the process of removing toxins is relatively simple. [ index ]

KATHERINE BROWN: New evidence has surfaced which possibly links natural gas drilling to groundwater contamination. Federal officials in the United States have found at least three water wells containing chemicals used in hydraulic fracturing—a natural gas drilling process. These contaminated wells were found in Wyoming. The results came from a study conducted by the Environmental Protection Agency, or the EPA. In the past, groundwater contamination from the natural gas industry has been a difficult area to investigate because the exact chemicals used by the gas industry are protected as trade secrets. This makes it difficult for scientists to even know what contaminants they’re looking for. The EPA has more access to the list of chemicals, making it have a critical role in the investigation. So far, the EPA has only conducted preliminary investigations—but they will continue to do research in this area as officials are alarmed by the findings as of yet. [ index ]

KATHERINE BROWN: Half of the fish consumed globally is now raised on fish farms. This was the finding of a new report released by an international team of researchers. While the industry is more efficient than ever—it’s also still putting a huge strain on environmental and marine resources. This is because it consumes large amounts of feed made from wild fish harvested from the sea. Aquaculture farms use large quantities of fishmeal and fish oil of less expensive varieties of wild fish for feed. Species like anchoveta and sardine are used to maximize growth of farmed fish, and to enhance their flavour. In 2006, aquaculture production sat at around 52.7 million metric tonnes— about 20 million tonnes of wild fish were harvested for the production of fish meal. The real problem is that fish farming is rapidly depleting the ocean of smaller species of fish. The authors of the study conclude that unless anchoveta, sardine and other wild fisheries are carefully regulated, they may see collapse, putting the future of aquaculture in danger. [ index ]