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Mining Power Issues

We all breathe easier in post-coal Ontario – by Stephen Bede Scharper (Toronto Star – December 2, 2013)

The Toronto Star has the largest circulation in Canada. The paper has an enormous impact on federal and Ontario politics as well as shaping public opinion.

The elimination of coal-fired plants in Ontario is a deeply hopeful story. It shows that progress can be made in fighting climate change.

A decade ago, in the team-taught core environmental studies course at the University of Toronto, my colleagues and I assigned the Ontario Medical Association (OMA) Smog Report as our touchstone text. The report noted the severe health effects associated with air pollution in Ontario.

In 2000, for example, the OMA detailed, there were 1,925 premature deaths, 9,807 hospital admissions, 45,250 emergency room visits, and over 46 million minor illnesses engendered by increased Ontario smog levels. Taken together, these fulsome effects take your breath away—literally.

These disquieting figures all jumped significantly five years later, as indicated in the OMA 2005 report, and were projected to continue to rise unless something were done about elevated levels of air pollution in the province.

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North Western Ontario [and Ring of Fire] prime for Manitoba power – by Steven Fletcher (Thunder Bay Chronicle-Journal – November 30, 2013)

Thunder Bay Chronicle-Journal is the daily newspaper of Northwestern Ontario.

Steven Fletcher is the Conservative MP for Charleswood-St. James-Assiniboia-Headingley and helped develop the Building Canada Fund.

Manitoba Hydro needs new markets for its electric power to help finance its current and future operations, and Northern Ontario would benefit from low-cost power to develop its mining resources. There is potential for mutual benefit if these two provinces worked to meet each other’s needs.

Northwestern Ontario is undergoing significant growth in mining exploration and development. The area is rich in deposits of chromium, palladium, nickel, gold and other base metals. Much of it is in a mineral-rich area known as the Ring of Fire, which is located northeast of Thunder Bay. It has been conservatively estimated this development could have an economic impact of up to $120 billion. The impact of the Ring of Fire on Ontario’s economy could be similar to the impact the Alberta economy has experienced due to the oil sands.

However, the mining development is far from Hydro One’s main electrical system and there are no transmission lines to that area. In addition, the cost of power throughout the province’s Northwest is so high, it is said the cost is a disincentive for mining developments which utilize large amounts of electricity.

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Canada’s Ontario joins global ‘war on coal’ – by Cecilia Jamasmie (Mining.com – November 28, 2013)

http://www.mining.com/

The Canadian province of Ontario may soon become the first place in North America to snuff out coal-fired electricity generation for good, as it is set to introduce next week legislation aimed to ban the burning of coal and the building of new such plants.

If the proposed Ending Coal for Cleaner Air Act is approved, it would means that no Ontario generating station will ever burn coal again, once this kind of facilities stop operating by the end of 2014, the government said in a press release.

The plan has been in the works for quite a while. The Liberals first promised to close the coal plants in 2007, then pushed back the timetable to 2009 and again to 2014.

In January this year, Chris Bentley —who was then Ontario’s minister of energy— vowed he would make coal account for less than 1% of the province energy supply by 2014.

He also said the province’s largest coal-fired electricity plants, Nanticoke and Lambton, would be shut by the end the year. And the province will likely deliver— it is finishing the conversion of Nanticoke to run on biomass.

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Massive project gives new life to old hydro dams – by Josh O’Kane (Globe and Mail – November 27, 2013)

The Globe and Mail is Canada’s national newspaper with the second largest broadsheet circulation in the country. It has enormous influence on Canada’s political and business elite.

SMOKY FALLS, ONT. – Halfway between Timmins and James Bay, it’s below zero and already snowing in October. The weather, though, does little to stop 1,100 workers stationed here. Men and women, professionals and apprentices – including many First Nations people – have been working year-round since 2010 to lay the foundation to power Northern Ontario for future generations.

If all goes according to plan, by 2015, they will double the capacity of the four dams that make up the Lower Mattagami River Hydroelectric Complex, a $2.6-billion project that will add 438 megawatts to the Northern Ontario grid – enough peak power for at least 400,000 homes.

In Smoky Falls, Ontario Power Generation is refurbishing three hydroelectic stations and completely replacing a fourth along the Mattagami River, which flows north into James Bay. It’s a long play on sustainable energy infrastructure in Canada’s North: By building onto existing stations, the project will avoid disrupting additional watersheds, minimizing its environmental impact while maximizing output.

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Ontario cuts coal, while BC looks for more – by Mike Chisholm (Vancouver Observer – November 22nd, 2013)

http://www.vancouverobserver.com/

It may be the industrial heartland of Canada, but Ontario took a major step forward this week by announcing all its coal fired generating plants would shut down, while in ‘super natural” BC the province is preparing to increase its coal mining and shipments.

On Thursday, the Ontario government announced it is taking the final steps to reach its goal to close all provincial coal burning facilities, including the Nanticoke Generating Station – the largest coal-fired electrical generating plant in North America. And the government has announced a permanent ban on all coal-fired electricity from the province, making Ontario the first jurisdiction in North America to do so.

When burned, coal is one of the greatest generators of carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas, which contributes to climate change.

“Our work on eliminating coal and investing in renewables is the strongest action being taken in North America to fight climate change,” says Ontario premier Kathleen Wynne. “I believe we can work together as stewards of our natural environment and protect our children, our grandchildren and our fellow citizens.”

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Burying lousy climate policies in Warsaw – by Peter Foster (National Post – November 22, 2013)

The National Post is Canada’s second largest national paper.

Gore in Toronto, chaos in Warsaw, and carbon capture on the ropes

The Al Gore climate parade rolled into Toronto Thursday, apparently oblivious to the fact that he was coming to praise the Ontario Liberal government for its successful relaunch of the province’s giant fleet of nuclear reactors, 4,250-megawatts of carbon-free electricity production. Premier Kathleen Wynne, in comments at an event with the Goracle, also neglected to mention that it is thanks to nuclear power that her government can now go through the charade of proposing a complete ban on the burning of coal. Oh oh. Time for Ontarians to start hoarding charcoal briquettes?

The Gore-Wynne Toronto love-in looked distinctly at odds with the intergovernmental hate-in that is now winding down in Warsaw. In the Polish capital, where the official IPCC gathering of the NGO tribes and state climate negotiators has been underway for two weeks, the climate circus has been reduced to its ugly core, which has little to do with science and everything to do with money and power, with the UN as the ringmaster.

After the abject failure of the Copenhagen conference in 2009, rich countries hypocritically signed on to provide $100-billion annually to “poor” countries by 2020. Now poor countries want their hand outs, and it’s not about mitigation any more, it’s about “compensation” for climate crime.

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Ontario’s cost cancer started with coal – by Tom Adams (National Post – November 21, 2013)

The National Post is Canada’s second largest national paper.

“A coal phase out could provide huge benefits at a very low cost, the cost of a cup of coffee and a donut a month… This is no sacrifice, just gain.”

So began Ontario’s coal phase-out. The “coffee and donut” talking point belonged to Jack Gibbons of the Ontario Clean Air Alliance. The Alliance was launched in 1997 and attracted a wide array of supporters, including government agencies, major natural gas utilities and renewable energy companies.

By the time of the 2003 election, the decision to phase out coal power in Ontario had become a three party consensus. For newly elected Premier McGuinty, the coal phase-out went on to become his only major election plank he lived up to.

Later today, Premier Wynne will join with former U.S. Vice-President Al Gore at an event coordinated and hosted by Environmental Defense — another environmental group taking substantial government funding — to mark the removal of coal power from Ontario’s electricity supply.

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Al Gore coming to Toronto to help Kathleen Wynne lie about Ontario’s green energy record – by Terence Corcoran (National Post – November 21, 2013)

The National Post is Canada’s second largest national paper.

Ontario Liberals, waist deep and maybe drowning in $1-billion energy scandals and soaring electricity prices, hope Big Green Al Gore can bail them out. At a downtown Toronto event Thursday, the celebrity master of climate hyperbole will join Premier Kathleen Wynne to claim essentially that all the scandal and price increases should be swept aside.

The news release announcing the ceremony/photo-op — from Environmental Defence, whose agents helped create Ontario’s electricity mess — said Al Gore and Ms. Wynne would join arms to celebrate “a precedent-setting climate achievement.” The achievement, they claim, is that “as Ontario goes coal-free, the global significance of the largest carbon reduction project in North America will be highlighted.”

Oh what a tangled bit of misinformation, exaggeration, distortion and misrepresentation those few words contain. You can’t call them lies, because that’s apparently only what drunken mayors do.

Ms. Wynne and Mr. Gore will trumpet that by moving to close down coal plants and fund billion-dollar wind and solar farms across the province, thereby doubling electricity rates, the McGuinty/Wynne Liberals have miraculously and dramatically reduced Ontario’s carbon emissions, and helped save the planet from climate change.

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ONTARIO GOVERNMENT NEWS RELEASE: Cleaner Air for Ontarians

November 15, 2013

Mauro and Gravelle Announce Province Converting Thunder Bay Coal Plant to Advanced Biomass

Ontario will achieve its goal to eliminate coal-fired generation before the end of 2014.

Over the next year, the Thunder Bay Generating Station (TBGS) will stop burning coal and be converted to use advanced biomass as fuel for electricity generation.

TBGS, which is operated by Ontario Power Generation (OPG), will be the first advanced biomass station in the world that was formerly a coal plant and will have a five-year contract to generate electricity. The modifications to the plant will begin in 2014, and it is expected to be operational in 2015.
Eliminating coal-fired generation and protecting the environment while providing clean, reliable and affordable power is part of the government’s plan to invest in people, build modern infrastructure and support a dynamic and innovative business climate across Ontario.

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INTERVIEW-Russian nuclear exporter’s foreign hires battle Soviet-style secrecy – by Alissa de Carbonnel and Svetlana Burmistrova (Reuters India – November 14, 2013)

 http://in.reuters.com/

MOSCOW, Nov 14 (Reuters) – An ambitious export drive by Russia’s nuclear reactor corporation is being hamstrung by dated Soviet-style secrecy rules, foreign executives at the company say.

Rosatom has hired a former Finnish nuclear regulator, Jukka Laaksonen, to be the face of Russian nuclear energy abroad and a guarantor of safety.

But in a throwback to Soviet secrecy rules, Laaksonen and two other new foreign vice presidents are barred from working out of its Moscow headquarters, a hulking colonnaded building that housed the Soviet Union’s atomic ministry in the 1950s.

Before Rosatom’s export branch, Rusatom Overseas, moved to its own offices, its Czech vice president, Leos Tomicek, often worked out a cafe across the street, a company spokesman said.

Tomicek and Laaksonen say strict internal commercial secrecy rules prevent the Russian state firm from advertising its latest technology and are the biggest obstacle to Russia’s ambitions to triple sales by 2030.

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High energy rates could jeopardize mining: NDP – by Jonathan Migneault (Sudbury Northern Life – November 04, 2013)

http://www.northernlife.ca/

Energy makes up to 30 per cent of the costs for mining operations in the province

Ontario’s power rates jeopardize the future of the province’s mining sector, said Michael Mantha, the NDP’s critic for northern development and mines.

Mantha, the MPP for Algoma-Manitoulin, said the province needs to ensure the mining sector has more long-term predictability for hydro costs.

“We need to focus on programs that will have a greater impact,” he said. The provincial government has a number of programs in place to provide competitive energy rates to heavy industry, including the Industrial Accelerator Program, the Industrial Electricity Incentive, changes to the Global Adjustment and the Northern Industrial Electricity Rate.

Electricity is the second highest operating cost for Ontario’s mining industry, after labour. According to the Ontario Mining Association, 15 to 30 per cent of the costs associated with a typical mine in the province are tied to energy.

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Ontario shuts down Lambton power plant ahead of schedule – by Adrian Morrow (Globe and Mail – October 23, 2013)

The Globe and Mail is Canada’s national newspaper with the second largest broadsheet circulation in the country. It has enormous influence on Canada’s political and business elite.

 TORONTO — One of the last coal-fired power plants in Ontario has been shut down early, bringing the province’s Liberal government closer to fulfilling a long-delayed promise, industry and Queen’s Park sources told The Globe and Mail.

Energy Minister Bob Chiarelli will announce Wednesday that the coal plant in Lambton, near Sarnia, Ont., finished operating in late September, three months ahead of schedule, the sources said. The government, which is on a long-term mission to replace all of the province’s coal facilities with greener sources of energy, said in January that the Lambton plant, along with another in Nanticoke, would close by the end of the year.

But one source said the government moved the time-frame for Lambton up to the end of September, and the plant burnt its last coal Sept. 26. The source said the Nanticoke plant is set to keep burning until Dec. 31.

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Nuclear suppliers still hope for new Ontario reactors – by John Spears (Toronto Star – October 22, 2013)

The Toronto Star has the largest circulation in Canada. The paper has an enormous impact on federal and Ontario politics as well as shaping public opinion.

Companies that supply Canada’s nuclear industry still hope Ontario will build new reactors

Canada’s nuclear industry isn’t taking the province’s decision to scrap plans for two new reactors as final, says the spokesman for nuclear suppliers. “I think the province will, in a year or two years time, once again open the file and look at new construction,” said Ron Oberth of the Organization of Canadian Nuclear Industries.

Oberth expressed the hope in an interview after speaking to the Toronto Star’s editorial board. Energy minister Bob Chiarelli said earlier this month that Ontario won’t proceed with two new reactors at Ontario Power Generation’s Darlington nuclear station.

“It is not wise to spend billions and billions of dollars in new nuclear when that power is not needed,” Chiarelli said.
Over-all demand on Ontario’s power grid dropped 10 per cent from 2005 to 2012. (The figures don’t capture power supplied from some renewable energy projects).

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Wynne’s [Ontario] electricity disaster – by Lorrie Goldstein (Toronto Sun – October 20, 2013)

http://www.calgarysun.com/home

Ontario’s Liberal government is making up its energy policy on the fly, for its own political ends

In explaining why Ontario’s Liberal government scrapped its previous intention to build two new nuclear reactors, Energy Minister Bob Chiarelli offered up that the province now has a “comfortable surplus” of electricity.

That’s a strange way of describing the decimation of Ontario’s manufacturing sector — in part due to the uber-high electricity rates the Liberals have contributed to with their insane rush into expensive and unreliable wind and solar power.

Indeed, the main reason Ontario now has a “comfortable surplus” of electricity — whereas a mere decade ago we were worried about shortages and rolling brownouts — is not because our supply is better but because our economy is worse.

Simply put, when there are fewer manufacturers producing fewer goods, electricity demand goes down. If and when our manufacturing sector recovers, electricity demand will rise again, and that’s when we’ll need adequate sources of it if we’re not to return to the dire situation of just 10 years ago when Ontario was routinely described as “power starved” by energy experts.

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Ontario drives manufacturers away with overpriced electricity – by Barrie McKenna (Globe and Mail – October 14, 2013)

The Globe and Mail is Canada’s national newspaper with the second largest broadsheet circulation in the country. It has enormous influence on Canada’s political and business elite.

“Ontario is probably the worst electricity market in the world,” said Pierre-Olivier
Pineau, an associate professor and electricity market expert at the University of
Montreal’s HEC business school. (Globe and Mail – October 14, 2013)

OTTAWA — The laws of economics suggest that when supply goes up, prices fall. Not so in Ontario’s increasingly twisted electricity market. Here, heavily discounted surplus power is routinely sold to neighbouring utilities in Quebec and various U.S. states, while customers at home face a steady diet of higher rates.

Ontario had net exports of more than 1,000 megawatts of electricity last year, or enough to power a million homes. Occasionally, Ontario Power Authority even pays Hydro-Québec to take electricity off its hands – power the Quebec utility can then resell in New England at a profit.

Al Yousef, process improvement manager at plastic packaging maker Par-Pak Ltd. of Brampton, Ont., is appalled by this bitter irony. The company pays 12 to 14 cents per kilowatt hour for electricity at its three Toronto-area plants – four or five times the price charged to Ontario’s neighbours in the wholesale market.

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