JESSE ROGERSON: Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty says he believes a cap and trade system to regulate green house gas emissions is inevitable in North America. Premier McGuinty made the comments while in Quebec City for a joint cabinet meeting between the Ontario and Quebec governments. While little initiative has been taken at the federal level, McGuinty, along with Quebec Premier Jean Charest, have already introduced legislation to allow for a cap and trade system in the future.

Cap and trade places an upper limit on allowable green house gas emissions, above which a company would have to buy more carbon credits on the carbon market. Companies with lower green house gas emissions may trade their un-used carbon credits.

There is no word yet on when the Premiers plan to put the cap in trade system in place. Currently, the regulatory measures that will govern the proposed system are being drafted. [ index ]

JESSE ROGERSON: The Corporate Knights Research Group has reviewed the environmental and social governance of 60 Canadian companies listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange. The report found that only 10 of the 60 companies provide detailed reports on their energy and water use, carbon footprint, and waste generation for investors.

While the majority of companies in the review have begun disclosing their CO2 emissions, the report finds a lack of transparency on water use and waste generation.

Major pension funds in Canada have urged for a review of environmental and social governance of these corporations, as environmental impact is playing a larger role in risk management. Citing the Gulf of Mexico oil spill, British Columbia Investment Management Corporation has urged companies to adopt stronger environmental and social practices. Enforcement of disclosure ultimately lands on governmental regulators, who currently do not require reports specifically on environmental impact.

Grocery chain Loblaws Companies Limited was ranked first on the list for best environmental disclosure, with heavy manufacturer Bombardier coming in last. [ index ]

JESSE ROGERSON: Hi Knoll Park and McLallen creek path in Surrey, British Columbia have been closed in sections due to an ongoing gasoline spill from ABC Recycling, a car recycling company.

The spill first occurred nearly two months ago when fuel and chemicals from dismantled cars began leaking through a drainage pipe the company’s facility. The leak in the pipe was then worsened as heavy rains flushed large amounts of the unchecked gas and oil into the nearby McLallen creek.

The Ministry of the Environment ordered ABC Recycling to initiate clean up efforts immediately. Booms and absorbers have been deployed to remove the contaminants, and prevent further spread. ABC has also been ordered by the Ministry to draft a report outlining the company’s mistakes leading to the spill and the measures they plan to take to prevent a similar spill from taking place in the future.

Health officials have concluded there is a low threat to fishery operations in the area as the amount of contamination is relatively low. No charges to ABC Recycling are expected. [ index ]

DARYN CAISTER: Ex-Oil company employee turned green energy advocate, Jerome Ringo, came to Ontario to share his expertise on energy issues. Mr. Ringo, a former member of the National Wildlife Federation, came to Ontario with a message; to help Louisiana, Ontario should help itself by using the BP disaster to help motivate change away from dirty energy. According to Environmental Defence, there is enough untapped wind potential in Ontario to provide 10 times its current consumption. With this is mind, Mr. Ringo said it’s time to take the transition to electric vehicles seriously and start planning for the infrastructure needed to sustain it. Canadian advocacy group Environmental Defence brought Mr. Ringo to Ontario to speak to his expertise on the oil and gas industry as well as using the event as an opportunity to present its new report on the state of Ontario’s energy infrastructure, which they claim shows that a transition to a large scale electric fleet in Ontario is within reach.

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DARYN CAISTER: A notice of judicial review was applied for this week by Ecojustice and Environmental Defence, challenging the city of Ottawa over the South March Highlands project. The project entails the extension of Terry Fox Drive in Ottawa, a major arterial road for the city named after the famous Canadian athlete. The environmental legal groups claim that the City of Ottawa is not in compliance with the provincial Environmental Assessment Act because it is using an outdated environmental assessment for the application process. They said that projects like this need to occur within 5 years of the assessment to ensure that the analysis is still valid, and that because this time has come and gone, the City needs to take a closer look at the wetlands in the area.  [ index ]

DARYN CAISTER: In a related story, Canada’s Western Premiers emerged from their annual conference proclaiming that the environmental assessment process must be streamlined. Currently, projects must undergo both a federal and a provincial environmental review. The group of Premiers said that the double assessment process between is redundant, wastes time, and costs far too much money to both to the government and the applicants. The Premiers stressed that they didn’t want to weaken the assessment process. Gordon Campbell, the Premier of BC gave a stated that Canada’s environmental assessments should be thorough, comprehensive and scientifically sound, but that one would do. Alberta Premier Ed Stelmach said that he was concerned about the competition for international investment and the impact of Canada’s assessment system. [ index ]

BRYANT BOULIANNE: Efforts to control the leaking oil well in the Gulf of Mexico are now focused on capturing as much oil as possible, with attempts to seal the gusher outright on hold until the completion of relief wells sometime in early August.

Engineers managed weeks ago to place a temporary cap on the well, allowing some of the oil to be siphoned up to oil tankers waiting on the surface. British Petroleum estimates that it is capturing around 20- to 25,000 barrels of oil per day. Though there are as yet no solid estimates on the total amount of oil gushing out of the well, what is certain is that only a fraction is currently being captured, with an untold amount of crude still being released into the ocean. BP hopes to increase its capture capacity to between 60- and 80,000 barrels per day by mid-July once additional ships are in place.

The capture operation hit a snag Wednesday morning, however, when a robotic submersible bumped into a vent pipe designed to prevent crystals from clogging up the riser pipe. As a precaution, BP engineers have had to temporarily remove the siphon to check for clogs, allowing oil to gush un-captured into ocean.

Also of note, the current capture efforts could be in danger, as the potential for hurricanes in the region raise the risk that the operation could need to be suspended before the well is sealed. [ index ]

BRYANT BOULIANNE: A U.S. federal district court overturned the Obama administration’s 6 month moratorium on offshore oil drilling Tuesday. In the decision, Judge Martin Feldman stated that the federal government had not properly justified the ban or the impact it would have on the regional economy.

The decision was in response to a lawsuit brought about by companies that service oil rigs in the Gulf of Mexico. They had argued that the failure of one rig did not justify shutting down the entire industry. In the White House stated that it would appeal the decision.

President Obama had ordered a one month halt to new drilling in the Gulf on May 6, which was then extended to 6 months on May 27. The government argues the moratorium is needed so that it can investigate what caused the Deepwater Horizon disaster, and to ensure that other rigs in the Gulf are not at risk of a similar disaster. [ index ]

BRYANT BOULIANNE: The U.S. Supreme Court has overturned a lower court decision to block the sale of genetically modified seeds pending safety approval.

At issue is a genetically modified strain of alfalfa designed by the Monsanto Corporation to be resistant to herbicide. The federal district court had decided in 2005 that the seeds could not be sold in the U.S. until an environmental impact study could be completed.

The Supreme Court, however, ruled this week that the ban was inappropriate and that the Department of Agriculture is within its rights to allow limited use of the seed while it continues to work on the safety report. While the Supreme Court did agree that a report is required under federal law before the seed can be fully approved, it said that a permanent injunction was not justified until an environmental impact statement can prove the seeds to be unsafe.

Environmentalists worry that the GM alfalfa could spread uncontrollably, and that the alfalfa’s genes could be passed into wild plants, creating resistant weeds. Monsanto defends its product, dismissing such concerns as “bad science fiction.” The seed is not currently used in Canada, and a bill currently before the House Commons seeks to block the introduction of any genetically modified seed into Canada before an analysis of potential harm is completed. [ index ]