TYLER IRVING: This week, the Ontario Municipal Board began a hearing to mediate between the energy developer Pristine Power and King Township, just north of Toronto, over a natural gas-fired power plant to be built in the area.

The 395-megawatt York Energy Centre is part of a plan to replace the coal plants Ontario wants to phase out of its energy mix. Pristine Power was to build and operate the gas-fired plant, which would be used during times of peak electricity demand. An environmental assessment of the project completed in 2008 by Dillon Consulting Limited stated that the plant will not have significant environmental effects, provided that mitigation measures such as nitrogen oxide scrubbers are put in place.

Yet farmers and residents of the area where the plant is to be built remain unconvinced. They say that the proposed location is too close to the Holland Marsh, a well-known agricultural producing area and a noted floodplain. The location is also in the middle of Ontario’s five-year-old Greenbelt, an area of land that was meant to be protected from unnecessary development.

The Ontario Energy Board and the Ministry of the Environment have already signed off on the project, leaving the current OMB hearing as the last hurdle to be surmounted before construction can begin. If approved, the plant could be in operation as early as 2012.  [ index ]

LEEANNE MACGREGOR:  Ontario Energy Minister Brad Duguid made an announcement yesterday in what he calls “the largest climate change initiative in all of North America”. More than half a million homes in Ontario will be powered by solar panels and wind turbines from 2,500 megawatts of new renewable energy projects. With the new cleaner energy investments Ontario plans to close its five remaining coal fired power plants by the year 2014. Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty promises that the new investment will allow for the creation of 50,000 new jobs in the province. The Ontario government together with the Ontario Power Authority say that the project will bring roughly $9-billion dollars in renewable energy investment from the private sector. The project marks the largest investment of its kind in Canadian history. Unlike the $7 million dollar renewable energy deal awarded to Samsung earlier this year, this new project will see contracts awarded to entities such as first nations communities, major overseas corporations, and companies in US and Canada. The result will be 184 large-scale renewable energy projects such as wind, solar, and run-of-river hydro projects located across the province. The contracts will be awarded under the feed-in-tariff program which pays premium prices for renewable power. Companies are guaranteed to receive a fixed price over 20 years for the electricity they produce. These prices translate to 13.5 cents per kilowatt hour for on-shore wind farms and up to 80.2 cents for solar power. This is a significant rise in price from the Ontario market price currently which sits at 3.4 cents per kilowatt hour. The Ontario Energy Board which regulates the cost of electricity has stated that the average household, which uses 1,000 kilowatt hours of electricity a month, can expect to pay about $5 more each month for renewable energy. Many feel that the cost is a small one if it means getting rid of coal energy in Ontario once and for all. [ index ]

TYLER IRVING: On Wednesday, hundreds of members of the Grassy Narrows First Nation and their supporters marched on the Ontario Provincial Legislature. They waved a giant blue banner representing the water of the Wabigoon River, where fishing was banned exactly 40 years ago this week after high levels of toxic mercury compounds were discovered.

The source of the chemical was the Dryden pulp and paper mill, which between 1962 and 1970 was allowed to dump an estimated 20,000 tons of mercury compounds into the Wabigoon and English rivers. In 1975, residents of the area were tested for mercury by Dr. Masazumi Harada, a Japanese scientist and an expert on mercury poisoning. He found people with mercury levels three times higher than the Health Canada guidelines. When he returned in 2002 and 2004, most of those people were dead. However, Dr. Harada also found that people who had mercury levels below those considered safe by Health Canada, including those who had been born since 1975, were exhibiting signs of mercury poisoning. These include numbness in the extremities, tremors, loss of balance, and speech impediments. A translation of Dr. Harada’s report was released on Tuesday.

Some Grassy Narrows residents are receiving compensation of about $250 to $800 per month, but only if they are certified by the Ontario Mercury Disability Board. Many residents with symptoms do not qualify for compensation. Premier McGuinty has promised to study Dr. Harada’s report. [ index ]

LEEANNE MACGREGOR:  A new transnational agreement between Canada and the U.S. will attempt to force drastic improvements in fuel efficiency. Both governments announced yesterday that they will jointly introduce new emission controls to make a 40 per cent improvement in car fuel efficiency by the year 2016. The new standards will require all cars and light trucks manufactured in the two countries to get an average of 100 km per 6 litres of gas. Currently the average fuel efficiency is 10 litres per 100 km. It is expected that auto manufacturers will be complicit in the new standards specifically because the controls will be made uniformly across both countries and the playing field will be levelled for all manufacturers. Canadian Environment Minister Jim Prentice was in Ottawa this week to make the long overdue announcement. Canada says it has been waiting years for the U.S. government to make a bilateral agreement regarding emissions. Such an agreement was put on hold during the last Administration. The agreement was resuscitated thanks to the Obama Administration’s willingness to reach consensus among its states. The state of California had previously been the biggest opposition to a nation-wide standard saying that the control level was set too low. Now it seems the U.S. has adopted the standard set by California. In Canada, the province of Quebec was the first to enforce tougher fuel emissions standards. In January of this year, Quebec announced that it would push for a 35 per cent reduction in emissions from car fuel. The new nation-wide agreement will lead to a 25 per cent reduction in emissions by 2016 based on 2008 levels. Quebec received criticism by Prentice at the start of this year when the province introduced the new measures. The Environment Minister called Quebec foolish for isolating itself from the rest of the provinces. Now Quebec has agreed to weaken its standards to align itself with the rest of Canada. [ index ]

TYLER IRVING: The federal government is changing the rules for conducting environmental assessments; a move that critics say will weaken Canada’s environmental laws. The changes are being proposed as part of a ways and means motion designed to implement aspects of last month’s budget. This means that the only way to stop the changes is to bring down the government, something that no opposition party is likely to do.

Environmental assessments (EA), which began in Canada in 1995, are studies undertaken to gauge the potential impact of the government projects and to recommend mitigation strategies. They are currently required for any project that requires federal funding or approval, from roads to hospitals, mines to power plants. For many project, a parallel process is run at the provincial level, and many developers argue that unnecessary duplication slows down economic growth.

The new rules would remove the requirement for an EA from project that only receive federal funding. They would also give the environment minister more power to determine the scope of the study, meaning that for large projects, the EA could be limited to only one component. Critics such as the Sierra Club’s John Bennet point out that the EA process was already slated to be up for review this spring. By making the changes now in a confidence motion, the government is avoiding public debate. [ index ]

LEEANNE MACGREGOR:  A study released earlier this month shows Toronto is the worst city for traffic congestion and lack of public transportation infrastructure. The study compared Toronto to 19 major cities around the world. When it came to public transit, Toronto came in last for effectiveness of services. The study showed that Toronto commuters spend an average of least 80 minutes a day commuting roundtrip, which is longer than commuters spend in either London, New York, or Los Angeles. The report also found that 70 per cent of Torontonians drive to work. The city came in last compared to New York where 60 per cent drive to work, 40 per cent in London, and 25 per cent in Paris. The report indicates that the reasons for Toronto’s traffic issues are urban sprawl and decades of under-investment in public transit. The province’s decision to stall $4 billion dollars in public transit funding ensures the problem will only get worse. [ index ]

TYLER IRVING: On Tuesday, the Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce appointed Don Roberts as its new vice-chair of renewable energy and clean technology for its wholesale banking division. Although CIBC already provides loans, capital, and advice to companies in the renewable energy sector, this is the first time a Canadian bank has provided an integrated approach.

Roberts points out that total capital invested in clean energy has increased 60 per cent over the last five years, and he says he expects even faster growth in the coming years. He will also focus on opportunities in the emerging water and carbon markets.

Outside observers say that the appointment shows that green energy projects are part of a long-term trend, rather than a fad. It is likely that other Canadian banks will make similar appointments in the coming years. [ index ]

BRYANT BOULIANNE: A Chinese freighter remains stranded in the Great Barrier Reef where it ran aground six days ago. The Shen Neng 1, a freight ship owned by the Shenzhen Energy Group, became stuck when it struck a shoal at full speed. The shoal is located in the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park, a marine reserve where fishing is tightly regulated and commercial shipping must stick to designated lanes. The Shen Neng was 12km outside of its shipping lane when it ran aground, leading the Australian government to threaten legal action against both the owner and the captain of the ship. This comes amid anecdotal reports that commercial ships may be taking illegal shortcuts through the reef. The ship was on its way to China from the port of Gladstone, and is carrying 65,000 tonnes of coal and 950 tonnes of oil. The hull of the ship is punctured and has been leaking oil, causing concern about a spill into the Great Barrier Reef. Fortunately, salt water has apparently intruded into the oil tanks, causing the oil to float up within the ship and preventing most of it from leaking out. The ship is at risk of breaking apart, however, and crews are working on isolating the spill and salvaging the ship. [ index ]

BRYANT BOULIANNE: An investigation by the British government has concluded that the Climatic Research Unit at the University of East Anglia and its director, climate scientist Phil Jones, did not fabricate or manipulate data. The investigation was launched by the government following allegations that climate scientists at the university manipulated data to support the theory of climate change. These allegations came about last year when e-mail correspondence between climate scientists at the university were stolen from servers and spread on the internet. The stolen e-mails suggested that researchers were hiding data from climate sceptics. Although the government investigation concluded that the scientists purposefully withheld data from access to information requests, they found no evidence of data tampering. There are still two other independent inquiries into the scandal that are pending and whose results are due later this year. [ index ]

BRYANT BOULIANNE: Glacier National Park, located in the state of Montana, is losing its glaciers. According to the US Geological Survey, Miche Waburn Glacier and Shepard Glacier have shrunk to below 10 hectares in size, meaning that they no longer qualify as glaciers. Warmer temperatures in the park have led to rapid shrinking of its namesake glaciers. Of an original 37 named glaciers, only 25 now remain. As the glaciers shrink and disappear, so too does the steady source of melt-water that feeds local streams and rivers. This could have a big impact on white-water tourism in the area, which brings in about $1 billion a year for the state. Environmentalists highlight the disappearing glaciers as palpable evidence of global climate change. [ index ]

BRYANT BOULIANNE: The European Space Agency has successfully launched CryoSat-2, a satellite designed to measure ice on the Earth’s surface. CryoSat-2 will be used to measure the extent of surface ice in the Arctic and Antarctic. It will be able to determine the extent to which ice retreats in the summer and hopes to give climate scientists a better idea of how much polar ice has retreated in the last few decades. Previous missions had been able to measure the surface area of polar ice, but CryoSat-2 will be the first one that will be able to determine the volume of the ice by measuring the height of the ice above sea level. This data will allow scientists to know how much water is locked up in the polar ice caps, and will improve predictions of how sea levels will be affected by climate change. [ index ]