Seven years after the blackout
Seven years after ten million people were affected by the August 14, 2003 blackout, our electricity policy remains somewhat schizophrenic. I’m a strong supporter of the Green Energy Act; we do need to shift what we can to conservation and to small scale, distributed, renewable electric…
Continue reading the post titled Seven years after the blackoutHanna lawsuit against wind turbines grinding on
Procedural skirmishing is underway in the Hanna lawsuit against Ontario wind turbines.
Continue reading the post titled Hanna lawsuit against wind turbines grinding onBerendsen going to SCC
I think I forgot to mention it: The Supreme Court of Canada granted Berendsen leave to appeal from the Court of Appeal’s dismissal of his lawsuit against the province for the contamination of his land. The case has now dragged on for more than 20 years…
Continue reading the post titled Berendsen going to SCCOld coal to improve, slowly….
Canada’s electricity sector is responsible for 17 percent of national greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Most of that -13%- comes from 51 coal-burning electricity plants, along with mercury, particulates, NOx/ SOx and other health hazards. [i], [ii] Minister of the Environment Jim Prentice has …
Continue reading the post titled Old coal to improve, slowly….Bike tourism: We’re glad to help
One of the joyful things to do on a lovely spring, summer, or fall day is to cycle the beautiful areas around Toronto. We are proud to be sponsors, for the third year running, of Bikes and Transit. This great website has maps, GPS coordinates and encouragement for combining bicycles and publ…
Continue reading the post titled Bike tourism: We’re glad to helpWater quality trading ebbs away again
Ever since the Newt Gingrich “Common Sense Revolution”, much ink has been spent on the alleged superiority of economic instruments over “command and control”. In theory, government cannot efficiently or effectively tell people what to do; instead, government should give people an economic …
Continue reading the post titled Water quality trading ebbs away againHidden contamination: it wasn’t my tank!
Two Vancouver families have had an expensive nightmare due to an leaking underground storage tank.
Continue reading the post titled Hidden contamination: it wasn’t my tank!Retroactive injustice
For more thoughts on the unjust aspects of Smith v. Inco, see our column in Slaw.
Continue reading the post titled Retroactive injusticeAnd in the U.S..
Three and four decades ago, Canada was an environmental leader. Now, in many ways, we just follow the US. On climate change, in particular, the Harper government has promised to do little until the US adopts its own climate bill. It is therefore particularly disappointing that last week cong…
Continue reading the post titled And in the U.S..GHG reductions: are we getting better?
The federal government has quietly admitted that its greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) reduction efforts are having little effect. The Harper Conservatives won’t comply with the action plan portion of the Kyoto Protocol Implementation Act, 2007 , but they do file the reports to Parliament that…
Continue reading the post titled GHG reductions: are we getting better?