Toronto: Environmental Defence hosted Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne and former U.S. Vice-President and Chairman of the Climate Reality Project, Al Gore, at an event November 21 to announce the elimination of coal-fired electricity in Ontario. The event marked the fact that Nanticoke Generating Station, the largest coal-fired plant in North America, would stop burning coal by the end of 2013.
“Ontario has shown the world that bold action on climate change can be done,” said Tim Gray of Environmental Defence, an Ontario-based environmental group that advised on the ambitious energy initiative. “Ontarians should feel proud to live in the first jurisdiction in North America that is kicking the coal habit, and we hope others follow this lead.”
A decade ago, coal-fired electricity provided 25 per cent of Ontario’s power needs, the group noted, at a cost of $4.4 billion to the province when the environmental, financial and health impacts were considered. The group called the elimination of coal from Ontario’s grid the largest greenhouse gas reduction project on the continent. In 2005, there were 53 smog days in Ontario and in 2013 there have only been two. The Nanticoke station alone produced nearly 18 million tonnes of CO2 in 2005, the equivalent of 3.7 million cars on the road.
Also on November 21st, Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne announced the Ending Coal for Cleaner Air Act, which will permanently ban coal-fired electricity from the province, making Ontario the first jurisdiction in North America to enact such legislation.
In the past ten years, the government counts more than 3,700 MW of new renewable energy capacity brought online and an estimated 31,000 jobs created as a result of the Green Energy Act. More than 25,000 homes, farms, schools, churches and businesses have also installed or been accepted to build small-scale grid-connected solar PV projects.