Category Archives: Environmental sustainability

12.14.09
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Here’s how a similar mindset to Dalton’s Green Energy Act is playing out in the north of England


Posted by Ian:

Does this not sound very much like Dalton McGuinty’s Green Energy Act which severely limits local municipal and resident opposition to wind farms. And where is the requested study on the effects of wind turbine noise? Here’s what is unfolding on the Yorkshire Dales, one of the most scenic environments in the north of England …

Government officials suppressed a damning report on the noise caused by wind turbines in order to push ahead with the building of hundreds of on-line windfarms in England, a report in the Sunday Times alleged yesterday (December 13).

This will come to a shock to residents of the western Yorkshire Dales, where a planning enquiry is to be held in the New Year into plans by a German company to erect five giant wind turbines the size of Big Ben just outside the Yorkshire Dales National Park near Gargrave.

The turbines could be seen across 40 miles of the most beautiful countryside in the north of England, not just from the national park but also from the Forest of Bowland in Lancashire and Pendle Hill, site of the infamous witch trials and a tourist magnet.

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12.02.09
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What happens when politics displaces market forces in green energy initiatives?


When driving through Don Quixote country in Spain’s Castille-La Mancha region, you are dazzled by the spectacle of wind farms proudly churning out the energy that will save Iberia and the planet, followed, once you cross into Andalusia, by solar farms and the green jobs of the future.

Except that if things continue as they are in Spain, the world’s poster child for renewable fuel, wind and solar energy may not save us after all — or renew the capitalist economy.
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11.15.09
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S. Ontario straw becomes Ford Flex storage bins

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Research at the University of Waterloo has led four southern Ontario farmers to send straw from soft, white winter wheat to an auto parts plant in Ohio for plastic production that is ending up as third-row storage bins in the Flex crossover vehicle in Oakville.

In an industry that is quickly developing and manufacturing so-called green interiors, Ford says it is the world’s first automaker to develop and use straw for plastic in a vehicle.
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10.30.09
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Canadian Hydro drops plan to buy Lake Erie wind farm

Calgary-based Canadian Hydro Developers Inc. said Friday it has terminated its earlier plans to purchase a subsidiary that is developing one of the largest wind farms in the world in Ontario.
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10.19.09
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Canada’s Largest Solar Farm Opens in Ontario

Stone Mills Project Helps Province Become North American Solar Leader
TORONTO–(Business Wire)–
Canada’s largest solar farm is now producing power in the township of Stone
Mills, near Napanee – paving the way for Ontario to become a solar power leader
in North America.

This new green energy supply will help support Ontario’s elimination of dirty,
coal-fired generation, which is Canada’s single largest climate change
initiative. With two more large solar projects expected to come on line by the
end of 2009, Ontario will join the elite ranks of North America’s leaders in
installed solar capacity.

First Light Solar Park – currently the largest-scale commercial solar farm
operation in Canada – is a joint venture between SkyPower Corp. and SunEdison
Canada. With more than 126,000 solar panels spanning across 90 acres, this farm
is expected to generate more than 10 million kilowatt hours (kWh) of renewable
electricity in its first year — enough to power 10,000 households.

Full story

10.17.09
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Teachers promoting environmental biases in classrooms

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October 2009

By Tim Ball
Senior Fellow
Frontier Centre for Public Policy

My grandson is five years old. After his second week in school, he asked his father what he was doing about global warming.

Think about that for a moment. Does anyone believe that a five year old can even understand the controversy surrounding the science of global warming, let along question what he is being told?

Rather than teaching my grandson the knowledge he will need to succeed academically – analytical skills and open mindedness, among others – his teacher is spending time indoctrinating him with her beliefs on global warming.

I am outraged. As Ignatius Loyola, founder of the Jesuits, said, “Give me the child until he is seven and I will show you the man,” and classrooms today are definitely practicing what he preached.
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10.13.09
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Ethanol subsidies a useless boondoggle

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Ethanol is the gift that keeps on giving – but only to corn-growers and opportunistic automakers. For taxpayers, however, it’s a dream that failed and a rat-hole down which our governments keep pouring our tax money. This useless boondoggle must stop.

Last week, CanWest News Service reported on a government memo that says clearly that Ottawa’s costly effort to promote E85 fuel – industry shorthand for 85 per cent ethanol and 15 per cent ordinary gasoline – will do no good.

In fact, we believe the whole push for ethanol – produced mainly from corn in Canada – will bring no actual reductions in total greenhouse gas emissions, but will cost taxpayers $2.2 billion in federal subsidies, plus more from provinces, especially Ontario.
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09.27.09
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Ontario in talks with Samsung to bring renewable energy business to province

TORONTO — South Korean electronics and industrial giant Samsung is in talks with the Ontario government to establish a renewable energy business in the province.

In a release, Ontario says talks have been ongoing for months and progress is being made toward an agreement.

In May, Samsung announced plans to enter the wind turbine market in 2010.
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08.18.09
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Ontario to launch wind forecasting service in 2010

Ontario plans to launch a centralized wind forecasting service next year, its bulk electricity manager said on Tuesday, as it tries to add more wind-generated energy to its grid.

Ontario, Canada’s most populous province and biggest energy consumer, already leads the other provinces in installed wind energy capacity, with 1,200 megawatts of power. But it wants to increase this and is seeking other sources of clean energy as it phases out dirty coal-fired power stations.
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