At a meeting on Monday evening, Loyalist Township declined to support a new gas plant. On Tuesday, Napanee council endorsed a bid by Atura power to build a new gas plant in their community.
Local municipal councils in Eastern Ontario rejected one new gas plant but welcomed another this week, complicating the province’s plan to build new fossil fuel projects. At a meeting on Monday evening, Loyalist Township declined to support a new gas plant, with councillors saying they could not support energy projects that both pollute local air and make climate change worse.
“We should not entertain at all any fossil fuel developments in our township,” said Loyalist Councillor Paul Proderick. On Tuesday, Napanee council endorsed a bid by Atura power – a subsidiary of the publicly-owned Ontario Power Generation – to build a new gas plant in their community, citing the growing demand for electricity.
“I believe we are going to need more power than wind and solar (are going to be able to provide),” said Napanee Councillor Dave Pinnell Jr. The conflicting decisions testify to the way that energy planning in Ontario has transformed from a top-down decree to a courtship road show, in which energy planners and electricity developers have to make their cases to each and every community where they want to build.
For the rest of this article: https://www.thestar.com/news/canada/ontario-s-plan-to-build-new-gas-plants-just-got-more-complicated/article_f9df1e3d-9fad-5126-aa4b-97ce8ff9aaf1.html