PLAYING THE BLAME GAME with the Green Energy Act

Windsor Star
Wed Jul 13 2011
Page: A6
Section: Editorial/Opinion
Source: The Windsor Star

The Liberals and Tories are taking shots at each other after a story last week revealed Siliken Canada will lay off two shifts at its Windsor plant.
Each has accused the other of making inflammatory statements, but in reality, there's enough blame to go around. Both parties have contributed to the problems the company now faces.
There's no question Conservative Leader Tim Hudak jeopardized the long-term viability of the fledgling solar panel operation when he vowed to kill the Green Energy Act if elected premier on Oct. 6.
That threat created a chill throughout the entire industry, and the layoff of 70 workers - most of whom were unemployed before Siliken hired them - reflects that sense of trepidation.
Richard Monk, the company's production manager, called Hudak "Public enemy No. 1," and said "the impression he creates scares away business." It certainly looks that way.
But Monk was just as blunt when talking about the Liberals' inability to cut through red tape. "The real issue is the lack of action by Hydro One. You're at the bottom of the list if you're solar or wind power," he said.
Neither Hydro One nor the Ontario Power Authority have a stake in renewable energy, said Monk, and because of that they're slow to deal with capacity issues.
We believe that's the real crux of the problem, and it must be dealt with quickly. The provincial Liberals have ownership of these delays, which began long before Hudak shook the marketplace with his comments about feed-intariffs and other aspects of the Green Energy Act.
The Liberals are trying to deflect responsibility and justify the long delays because of what MPP Sandra Pupatello calls the "skyrocketing growth that has come too fast for the province's Hydro One and the Ontario Power Authority to keep pace and get solar, wind and other renewable sources on to the grid."
This comes as a big surprise to Essex County, because there was no evidence of these problems when she and Finance Minister Dwight Duncan attended the opening ceremonies at Siliken in May. Indeed, having actively recruited makers of wind and solar energy to locate in Ontario, one could assume a plan had been put in place.
If there are problems getting the grid to function more quickly, it's the government's job to fix it. If - and this is more likely the case - Hydro One and the power authority aren't convinced these are top priorities, the government has to make it clear that they are.
And if Premier Dalton McGuinty believes it is unreasonable for Hydro One to limit renewable energy to just seven per cent of peak-time generation, that should be changed.
"We've got the product, we've got the technology and we've got the customers," Monk told The Star. "But until things change with the government and the politics we have no other recourse but to lay people off."
Mayor Eddie Francis, dismissing the claim that the problems were caused by Hudak rather than restricted grid access, sent this message to those in charge of Ontario's power production: "Get your act in gear."
We agree. As the battle continues, it's worth noting the Conservatives backpedalled last week and said they wouldn't kill existing green energy agreements if elected. That should make companies like Siliken breathe easier - if they don't fall prey to bureaucratic red tape first.

Poisoning Canada's water

Dear friends,
An American hedge fund is about to break ground on a massive mining project that could poison a million people's drinking water, would create an open pit deeper than Niagara Falls and decimate thousands of acres of lush farmland -- and we have 4 days to stop them. Sign the petition to stop the mega-quarry:

http://www.avaaz.org/en/stop_the_quarry/?cl=1145842351&v=9524

An American hedge fund is about to break ground on a massive mining project that could poison a million people's drinking water and the headwaters for five major rivers, would create an open pit deeper than Niagara Falls and decimate thousands of acres of lush farmland -- and we have 4 days to stop them.
For years, Highland Companies deceived residents, posing as a potato farming company and quietly buying up thousands of acres of land from local farmers. Then, it was suddenly revealed that the massive plot of farmland would be converted into a limestone quarry -- a 2300 acre pit so deep it would seriously interfere with the ground water system in the region. But, in order to start digging, Highland must win approval from Minister of Natural Resources Linda Jeffrey.

Jeffrey is taking 4 more days to consider public opinion on this quarry before making her decision. We can deliver an overwhelming wave of opposition to Highland's destructive plan. Sign the petition, forward it to everyone and it will be submitted to Jeffrey before the consultation period ends.

Highland's mega-quarry is smack dab in the middle of farmland the whole country depends on for food production. If built, it could poison clean ground water that feeds the lakes and rivers many Canadians use for drinking water. The quarry would require over seven thousand trucks to transport limestone each and every day, upping carbon emissions and requiring new roads to handle the exploding traffic -- further destroying the natural habitat of hundreds of species of animals. The city-sized pit would scar the land long after the mining was finished.

But, residents and environmental activists are working hard to oppose the quarry's license -- even the Environment Minister has called for further assessments. Ontario's Liberal government faces a tough re-election fight in October and Liberal Minister Linda Jeffrey is concerned about public opinion in these key months before votes are cast. A national call will put pressure on Jeffrey and her party to stand up for Canada's environment, its farmers and the fresh water many Canadians depend on for survival.

Let's bring the voice of all Canadians to Ontario's Minister of Natural Resources and force her to kill Highland's plan for environmental destruction. Sign the petition and then forward widely.
Ontario's government should not be allowed to destroy the rivers, forests and farm land we all depend on for survival. For too long, provincial governments have kept key environmental decisions out of the national conversation -- we have a chance to change that. As one country, with a commitment to the environment and the health and safety of all Canadians, we can speak up.
MORE INFORMATION

Council of Canadians report on the mega-quarry
http://www.canadians.org/index2.html

Limestone quarry threatens prime farm land (Toronto Star)
http://www.thestar.com/news/ontario/article/734969--limestone-quarry-threatens-prime-farm-land

Environment ministry blasts mega-quarry proposal (Toronto Star)
http://www.thestar.com/news/article/1017849--environment-ministry-blasts-mega-quarry-proposal

The call for open submissions to the Ministry of Natural Resources
http://www.ebr.gov.on.ca/ERS-WEB-External/displaynoticecontent.do?noticeId=MTEyNTY2&statusId=MTY4ODI5&language=en

Chong calls for federal review of quarry proposal (Guelph Mercury)
http://www.guelphmercury.com/news/local/article/549053--chong-calls-for-federal-review-of-quarry-proposal

Oilsands activity blamed for caribou decline

The Canadian Press Posted: Jun 22, 2011 10:17 AM ET

DNA in the feces suggest there were about 330 caribou in Alberta's oilsands region, more than double the government's population estimate of 150. (Canadian Press)

 

 

 

Humans, not wolves, are behind declining caribou populations in Alberta's oilsands region, an analysis of animal feces shows.
The same research also found there may be many more caribou in the region than previously thought, meaning there may still be time for industry to change how it does business without resorting to wolf culls to protect the herds.
"Nobody is denying that the trend in caribou decline is alarming," said University of Washington biologist Samuel Wasser, lead author of a paper published Wednesday in Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment.
"While we still think we need to do something now, we think that there's a little bit more time than some people have been advocating."
Caribou in the oilsands are considered a threatened species and have been in decline for decades. Balancing oilsands development and healthy herds has proved to be a tough act for the provincial government, which is still trying to develop a caribou policy for the area.

Biologist Samuel Wasser and his team were brought in by oilsands leasee North American Oil Sands, and their research continued when the lease was sold to Norway-based Statoil. (Jeff McIntosh/Canadian Press)

Some scientists have predicted caribou will be gone within 30 years, suggesting the desperate measure of a wolf cull could be the only way to preserve them. Alberta does cull wolves to protect caribou, but not in the oilsands area.
In 2006, Wasser and his team were brought in by oilsands leasee North American Oil Sands to look for answers. Their research continued when the lease was sold to Norway-based Statoil, which has so far spent about $500,000 on Wasser's work.
Using dogs trained to sniff out caribou, wolf, moose and deer droppings, scientists eventually found about 2,000 samples and carefully marked when and where each was found. Those samples were carefully analyzed for chemicals that revealed how the animal was feeling at that moment.
Animals under stress produce hormones that show up almost right away in their feces. Feces can also reveal how well-nourished an animal is. DNA contained in the material can even identify — and count individual animals.

Population higher than thought

After four winters of sampling, the researchers concluded that there seem to be a lot more caribou than previously thought.
Government estimates put the number in the area at about 150; DNA in the feces suggest there were about 330 animals. Nor did that number change during the study period.
They also found that about 80 per cent of the wolf diet was deer, with only about 11 per cent from caribou. Wolves even seek out deer in preference to caribou.
And once they started analyzing scat for stress hormones, they found what really bugged caribou was people. Stress increased the closer the animals got to busy roads and also during times when humans were nearby.
Caribou — unlike moose and deer — are so skittish they'd rather hang out somewhere where the food isn't as plentiful if it's further from human impact, Wasser concluded.

Read full story here

Melting Northwest Passage lets Pacific species cross

The Associated Press Posted: Jun 27, 2011 9:54 AM ET

Grey whales still live in the Pacific Ocean, but were hunted to extinction in the Atlantic by the mid-1700s. The one spotted near Israel and Spain last year is believed to have entered the Atlantic Ocean through the Northwest Passage. Associated Press

When a 13-metre grey whale was spotted off the Israeli town of Herzliya last year, scientists came to a startling conclusion: it must have wandered across the normally icebound route above Canada, where warm weather had briefly opened a clear channel three years earlier.
On a microscopic level, scientists also have found plankton in the North Atlantic where it had not existed for at least 800,000 years.
The whale's odyssey and the surprising appearance of the plankton indicates a migration of species through the Northwest Passage, a worrying sign of how global warming is affecting animals and plants in the oceans as well as on land.

'It's a threshold that has been crossed.'—Philip C. Reid, Alister Hardy Foundation for Ocean Science

"It's an indication of the speed of change that is taking place in our world in the present day because of climate change," he said in a telephone interview Friday.
Reid said the last time the world witnessed such a major incursion from the Pacific was 2 million years ago, which had "a huge impact on the North Atlantic," driving some species to extinction as the newcomers dominated the competition for food.
Reid's study of plankton and the research on the whale, co-authored by Aviad Scheinin of the Israel Marine Mammal Research and Assistance Center, are among nearly 300 scientific papers written over the last 13 years that are being synthesized and published this year by Project Clamer, a collaboration of 17 institutes on climate change and the oceans.
Changes in the oceans' chemistry and temperature could have implications for fisheries, as species migrate northward to cooler waters, said Katja Philippart, of the Royal Netherlands Institute of Sea Research who is coordinating the project funded by the European Union.
"We try to put the information on the table for people who have to make decisions. We don't say whether it's bad or good. We say there is a high potential for change," she said.

Read the full story here

Lemons and Cancer

Eating a Lemon is lot Healthier than eating an Orange ........

LEMON will clean all your INTESTINES.. Oranges do NOT….

Institute of Health Sciences
819 N L.L.C. Charles Street
Baltimore , MD 1201

This is the latest in medicine, effective for cancer!

Read carefully & you be the judge.

Lemon (Citrus ) is a miraculous product to kill cancer cells . It is 10,000 times
stronger than chemotherapy .

Why do we not know about that?   Because there are laboratories interested in making a synthetic
version that will bring them huge profits. You can now help a friend in need by letting him/her
know that lemon juice is beneficial in preventing the disease. Its taste is pleasant and it does not
produce the horrific effects of chemotherapy. How many people will die while this closely
guarded secret is kept, so as not to jeopardize the beneficial multimillionaires large corporations?
As you know, the lemon tree is known for its varieties of lemons and limes. You can eat the
fruit in different ways: you can eat the pulp, juice press, prepare drinks, sorbets, pastries, etc...
It is credited with many virtues, but the most interesting is the effect it produces on cysts and
tumors. This plant is a proven remedy against cancers of all types. Some say it is very
useful in all variants of cancer .

It is considered also as an anti microbial spectrum against bacterial infections and fungi, effective
against internal parasites and worms, it regulates blood pressure which is too high and an
antidepressant, combats stress and nervous disorders. The source of this information is fascinating: it
comes from one of the largest drug manufacturers in the world, says that after more than 20
laboratory tests since 1970, the extracts revealed that: It destroys the malignant
cells in 12 cancers , including colon, breast, prostate, lung and pancreas ... The compounds of this tree showed 10,000 times better than the product Adriamycin, a drug normally used chemotherapeutic in the world,
slowing the growth of cancer cells. And what is even more astonishing: this type of therapy with
lemon extract only destroys malignant cancer cells and it does not affect healthy cells.


Institute of Health Sciences
819 N L.L.C. Cause Street
Baltimore, MD1201

Polar Bears - On Thin Ice

Ashore on Svalbard, a male polar bear investigates a whale's backbone. Fat reserves from hunting ringed and bearded seals, and sometimes walruses, must carry bears through lean summers.  Photograph by Florian Shultz

 

 

On Thin Ice

The Arctic is warming so fast that by 2050 it may be largely ice free in summer. Without their frozen hunting platform, how will polar bears survive?

By Susan McGrath

Photograph by Florian Schulz

In August 1881 the naturalist John Muir was sailing off Alaska aboard the steamer Thomas Corwin, searching for three vessels that had gone missing in the Arctic. Off Point Barrow he spotted three polar bears, "magnificent fellows, fat and hearty, rejoicing in their strength out here in the bosom of the icy wilderness."

Were Muir to sail off Point Barrow in August today, any polar bears he'd see would not be living in a wilderness of ice but swimming through open water, burning precious fat reserves. That's because the bears' sea-ice habitat is disappearing. And it's going fast.
Polar bears ply the Arctic niche where air, ice, and water intersect. Superbly adapted to this harsh environment, most spend their entire lives on the sea ice, hunting year-round, visiting land only to build maternal birthing dens. They prey mainly on ringed and bearded seals (it's been said that they can smell a seal's breathing hole from more than a mile away) but sometimes catch walruses and even beluga whales.

Sea ice is the foundation of the Arctic marine environment. Vital organisms live underneath and within the ice itself, which is not solid but pierced with channels and tunnels large, small, and smaller. Trillions of diatoms, zooplankton, and crustaceans pepper the ice column. In spring, sunlight penetrates the ice, triggering algal blooms. The algae sink to the bottom, and in shallow continental shelf areas they sustain a food web that includes clams, sea stars, arctic cod, seals, walruses—and polar bears.
Read full story here

Solar for Dummies

By Nick Hodge | Wednesday, June 22nd, 2011
The headlines say it all...
Total (NYSE: TOT) Pays $1.4 Billion for Stake in SunPower

Army/Marines Charge Critical Equipment With Solar Panels

Google Invests $280 Million in SolarCity

Solar Market Tops $70 Billion in 2010

In only a few years' time, the solar market has gone from “That stuff'll never work” to a billion-dollar acquisition target of the biggest oil companies in the world.

At the turn of the century the world only had 1.4 gigawatts (GWs) of installed solar capacity.

By the end of last year 40.7 GW had been installed – a growth of 2,752%.

Oil didn't do that. Coal didn't do that. Nuclear didn't do that.

Most of the growth has come from Europe – particularly Germany with 17 GW – which boasts over 75% of all installed solar worldwide.

Their head start can be attributed to attractive policies the U.S. failed to embrace. But falling prices, as you'll soon see, will mean the spread and mass adoption of solar in the next few years.