On Wed, Jul 27, 2011 at 7:06 PM, Frank Young
<fyoung@mountain.net> wrote:
In about 2004 the Canadian Province Ontario made a deliberate decision to phase out its coal fired electricity generating facilities. It was motivated, not by direct "environmental concerns", but by the province's direct economic costs of health care- which are paid for by the Province itself.
In the United States, the community health costs of mining coal, and of burning coal to produce electricity are externalized away from the coal operators and the electricity generating plant operators onto the health care system. Thus, the coal operators and generating system operators have no significant direct economic incentive to clean up their acts and their facility operations.
But in Ontario (and most of Canada) a majority of the electricity generating "industry" and the health care "industry" are operated by the government- usually by the provinces. The Ontario Power Authority (OPA) is an independent, non-profit corporation established through the Electricity Restructuring Act of 2004. Licensed by the Ontario Energy Board, it reports to the Ontario legislature through Ontario's Ministry of Energy.
By 2004 Ontario had determined that its health care costs could be significantly less were the province to do away with its coal fired power generating facilities. So heath care cost, borne directly by the Province of Ontario, was the driving catalyst that pushed the closing of the unhealthful soot belching coal burners there.
Frank
----- Original Message ----- From: "James Kotcon" <jkotcon@wvu.edu>
To: <EC@osenergy.org>
Sent: Tuesday, July 26, 2011 2:17 PM
Subject: [EC] Fwd: 8 coal-burners closed Fwd: Ontario Waves Bye-Bye To Coal Fired Power Generation
Ontario Waves Bye-Bye To Coal Fired Power Generation
by Energy Matters
[image: Coal fired power generation phaseout - Ontario Canada]
Ontario, Canada's most populated province, has seen a boom in renewable
energy jobs, with 20,000 employed in the sector. It's not such a rosy
picture for the coal industry though, with coal fired power generation in
Ontario slated to go the way of the dodo by 2014.
Ontario's Ministry of Energy says the province's Green Energy Act is on
track to create 50,000 clean energy jobs by 2012 and coal usage for the
first six months of 2011 was 94 per cent lower than for the same period in
2003.
According to Ontario's recently released 2011 Progress
Report<http://www.ontario.ca/en/initiatives/progressreport2011/index.htm>,
eight coal fired power generation units have been closed already and two
more will close later in 2011.
Thanks to initiatives such as feed-in tariffs, renewable energy is rapidly
replacing fossil fuels. To date, over 2,000 medium and large-scale feed in
tariff projects have been announced, representing enough electricity each
year to provide the power requirements for around 900,000 homes.
Ontario's government says it will be one of the first places in the world
and the first in North America to cease coal-fired power generation totally.
It has set a goal of eliminating coal entirely by 2014. It believes shutting
down coal will save Ontario's health care system CAD$3 billion annually and
in relation to emissions, will be the equivalent of taking up to 7 million
cars off the roads.
The Ministry predicts that by 2018, 10.7 gigawatts of clean renewable
electricity from
wind<http://www.energymatters.com.au/renewable-energy/wind-energy/>
, solar <http://www.energymatters.com.au/renewable-energy/solar-power/> and
bio-energy will be operational; producing enough electricity for 2 million
households.
Residents of Ontario are also becoming more energy efficient, saving 1,700
megawatts of electricity through conservation - which is the equivalent of
taking half a million homes off the grid.
Ontario's clean energy economy has generated more than $20 billion in new
private-sector investment. The province's energy plan will rebuild 70 per
cent of its electricity infrastructure over the next 2 decades.
While Ontario's commitment to renewables and the end of coal is admirable;
its continuing love affair with nuclear power has been criticised. Nuclear
power has been part of Ontario's energy mix since the 1960's and currently
provides more than half of the power used by Ontarians every day.
###
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