August 12, 2010

Hot and not-so-smoggy summer a winner

Hot weather continues to blanket Southern Ontario, but thanks in part to conservation programs like peaksaver®, the need to burn dirty coal to produce power has been kept in check. So a big thank you to everyone who has enrolled in the peaksaver program or taken other actions to reduce electricity use – your actions are paying off with cleaner air.

August 10, 2010

St. Catharines says end coal use now!

In response to a flurry of calls and letters from concerned residents, St. Catharines’ city council has unanimously supported the OCAA’s call for an early end to burning coal. St. Catharines has now joined the cities of Hamilton, Kitchener and Guelph and Toronto's Board of Health in calling on the province to only use its coal plants in the event of a true power emergency.

August 9, 2010

St. Catharines staff oppose coal phase-out

July 22, 2010

Conservation still low priority in Ontario

As of December 2009, for every dollar that the Ontario Power Authority (OPA) has spent on energy conservation, it has contracted for $44 of new electricity supply.

Yet the OPA's payments to large industrial consumers to save a kilowatt-hour (kWh) are as much as 89% lower than the cost of producing a kWh from a new nuclear reactor, making investing in efficiency a terrific bargain for Ontario.

July 16, 2010

Conservation and cooperation a winning formula

By working together, Ontario and Quebec can reduce the greenhouse gas emissions of their electricity systems while also keeping rates in check for businesses and consumers.

July 8, 2010

Smog is in the air 

June 29, 2010

The Gulf oil spill is sending us a message

What do the Gulf oil spill and coal power in Ontario have in common? They are both symptoms of our addiction to fossil fuels that are fuelling climate change and smog and destroying ecosystems. But we don’t have to watch helplessly as disasters like the Gulf oil spill unfold. Instead, by acting to reduce our own energy use, we can help point the way to a cleaner and greener future.

June 14, 2010

Third Anniversary of OPA Inaction on the Duncan Directive

On June 14, 2007 in the Ballroom of the Hilton Toronto, Ontario’s then Minister of Energy Dwight Duncan announced that he was directing the Ontario Power Authority (OPA) to establish a standard offer program for natural gas-fired combined heat and power (CHP) projects.

CHP plants use natural gas that is currently used just for heating to simultaneously produce both heat and electricity.

June 7, 2010

McGuinty OKs 17% increase in dirty coal-fired electricity generation

The McGuinty Government has issued a shareholder directive giving Ontario Power Generation permission to increase the output of its dirty coal-fired power plants by 17%, in each year from 2011 to 2014 inclusive, relative to its actual level of coal-fired electricity generation in 2009.

June 2, 2010

Toronto Mayoral candidates support CHP

Joe Pantalone, George Smitherman, Rocco Rossi and Sarah Thomson all support the installation of natural gas-fired combined heat and power (CHP) plants in Toronto’s hospitals and multi-residential buildings to help meet our electricity needs according to their responses to an Ontario Clean Air Alliance mayoral candidates survey released today.