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| NEWSLETTER # 15,
SEPTEMBER 1999 |
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Beautiful fall colours are on the trees as it is time again to report to you all on the activities over the last three months. And it has been hectic! Starting with an invitation from the Ministry of Energy to attend a "Round Table Discussion on Electricity Certification" in Toronto in late June, a slide presentation to the Bruce Peninsula Environment Group on our pilot project with an organization on renewable energy in Argentina, attending the Natural Live Festival in St. George with our display and information material, organizing a workshop at Ontario's second oldest hydroelectric plant near Paisley in August and, thanks to the support by Great Lakes United (GLU), being able to attend a week-long activist camp in Michigan entitled "Sustainable Energy for the New Millennium". September was just as hectic in following an invitation to attend an inauguration event at the University of Toronto, the Feast of Fields culinary outdoor event, always displaying CFRE materials, selling our attractive T-shirts and answering a multitude of questions. The third weekend saw me heading to Ottawa to attend the Water Watch Summit, and on my return I had to rush to set up our display at the International Plowing Match (IPM) near Exeter, where I was able only to attend the first two days and then had to fly to Milwaukee, Wisconsin, to take part in the International Joint Commission (IJC) Bi-annual to make submissions on the radioactive releases of Great Lakes nuclear plants into air and water. I was so gratified that I had always members coming forward to help me at these events or take over when I was not able to be there! Special thanks, too, to a dedicated member who took time out of his busy schedule to erect a hybrid wind turbine/solar display at the IPM. The Natural Life Festival, again, was most successful in terms of gaining new members: 47 people signed up, thanks to the special efforts of Elise with her sunny disposition, and Vitold and Grant, two of CFRE's board members. To conclude, I have to apologize for this newsletter being out so late that the notification for our Port Hope workshop did not reach our members in time. October started with the OEN conference up here in the Bruce Peninsula, requiring much preparation, and our appearance before the Atomic Energy Control Board (AECB) in Port Hope October 7 was another effort requiring much of my time. As consolation for our members in eastern Ontario we are holding another workshop there November 7 at the Rideau Valley/Baxter Conservation Facility and hope that as many of you as possible take advantage of the expertise that four of our high-profile presenters are bringing! As our next newsletter will likely not be out before the holiday season, may I take this opportunity to wish you all a peaceful and blessed Christmas! P.S.: Here's hoping that you will take part in our action campaign on the MOX protest and also the renewable energy postcard mailing as included with the newsletter.
GET OFF THE GRID!! Sunday, November 7, 1999 at the McManus Conservation Centre in the BAXTER CONSERVATION AREA, south of Manotick. Call 1-800-267-3504 for directions. Agenda for Workshop:
Workshop Fee: $25/person, $40/couple, $10/students (16 and under) PLEASE: PRE-REGISTER by Nov. 3/99, as space is limited!!! Call or fax:
Kim MacMullin @ 613-821-0807 (message) QUOTABLES... Thomas Fuller CONSUMER CHOICE The opening up of the electricity generation for competition to Ontario Hydro (now OPGI) should give hydro customers a choice from whom and what source their power will come from. Deregulation already has opened up the market for natural gas consumers and the telecommunications sector has brought lots of choice of long distance suppliers. Bill 35, the Energy Competition Act, 1998, passed by the Ontario legislature, is an "Act to create jobs and protect consumers by promoting low cost energy through competition, to protect the environment, to provide for pensions and to make related amendments to certain acts" - so goes the introduction to this new legislation. Originally, the opening of the competitive energy market for wholesale and retail was set for early next year. But the government, working with several different committees, is struggling to come to grips on how to regulate all the new aspects of this huge market, and now looks at a November 2000 target date. According to the "Power Switch" update report issued by the Ministry, a local distributor education program will start in November ‘99, with a consumer education campaign to follow in February of next year. In March, power retailers who have been licensed by the Ontario Energy Board (OEB) can start to sign up customers to begin supplying them in November 2000. It will be a challenge for customers to pick the right supplier and length of contract. It is very important to look closely at the energy source - not the price! Invariably, the cheapest electricity will come from the most polluting generators: coal and nuclear. If we are at all concerned about our and our children's health, about the detrimental effects of climate change, would it not be worth to pay a little more? It depends to a great deal on consumers making their priorities known on how the industry will respond. Consumer choice is consumer power! People coming toget her in so-called Green Power Councils, like the one formed in Grey-Bruce earlier this year, will encourage investors to build wind turbines and reactivate run-of-the-river hydro projects to meet the demand. Co-operatives like the Toronto Renewable Energy Co-op (TREC) are another effort to sway the power suppliers to offer consumers a choice of safe, pollution-free electricity. We, as consumers, now have the power and the choice; when the new open market comes, lets use it!!
Our profound thanks goes out to the Knives and Forks Association for picking CFRE as an organization worthy of their support. We were very happy to receive a $500 donation to further our campaign to promote pollution-free and safe renewable energy.
Dr. David Suzuki
Please take a minute to sign the enclosed card(s) and send them off to the Prime Minister to remind him of the promises Canada made at Kyoto! Just as important is your letter to the Prime Minister to rescind the plan to import deadly weapons grade plutonium for burning in Ontario's nuclear reactors. (Concise information is in the enclosed fact sheet). Please don't wait, do it now!!
. PRIVATIZING OUR NUCLEAR POWER PLANTS? A new ploy by the Harris government is to lure private corporations into resurrecting the ruins of Hydro's Bruce A and Pickering A stations. Billions of dollars are needed to practically rebuild these worn-out reactors. The government knows that the public purse will not cover these huge expenditures. Those eight reactors have been shut down for almost three years. The remaining twelve have been able to carry the load even with several unplanned outages. So why spend a fortune to bring them back on stream? Further than that, why bring in private corporations to fix and run these stations? Looking for the example of Margaret Thatcher's quest to rid the United Kingdom of the indebted nuclear stations, she practically had to give them away to private investors. Now it turns out that she gave them what practically amounted to a licence to pollute! What we are facing in this province can't be much different. A corporation's first responsibility is to it's shareholders, who want to see profit generated! Nuclear safety costs lots of money, and there is real temptation to cut corners. We have seen that in the recent Tokaimura accident, the worst nuclear accident in Japan. What's more, both federal and provincial governments feel that it is our public duty to get rid of the plutonium from decommissioned nuclear warheads by irradiating it in those patched-up reactors. They would love to give the private investors the promise of free fuel at our expense. They certainly won't make them liable for the highly radioactive waste disposal and the decommissioning of the burnt-out reactors - another huge cost that our children and grand-children are inheriting. Now this is so much more reason for making our voices heard to ask for sanity and accountability!
A demonstration project underway in Hamburg, Germany, is intended to demonstrate the application of gaseous Hydrogen as a renewable source of energy. It is undertaken by private funders to generate broad acceptance among the general public. A fleet of small vans is retrofitted with an Otto motor (2.3 Litre, 4 cylinder, H2 output approx. 60 kW). The Hydrogen fuel is carried in three pressurized air tanks, each containing 115 Litres at 200 bar pressure. The design of the H2 compressed gas equipment in the vans is based on that of compressed natural gas vehicles and also applied in principle to compressed Hydrogen gas. A Hydrogen fuelling station for quick refilling has been developed consisting of a pump, a compressor with an intermediate storage tank, as well as a trailer storage tank. The Hydrogen is compressed and stored in a 200 bar standard trailer tank. During the filling process, Hydrogen initially flows directly into the vehicle's tank until equilibrium has been established. To achieve the final 200 bar pressure, gas is taken out of the 250 bar intermediate storage tank (this tank is then refilled with compressed Hydrogen from the trailer storage tank after every refuelling procedure). By using Hydrogen, the vehicles are virtually non-polluting. The reaction chamber used for this project is the conventional internal combustion engine for demonstration purposes. The reaction product of Hydrogen plus Oxygen from air intake is pure water which is then emitted as steam. Minimal amounts of engine lubricating oil residues as well as Nitrogen Oxides are found in the exhaust steam. As soon as fuel cell Hydrogen powered electric cars are on the market, even these pollutants would be eliminated! So there is proof that the infrastructure of Hydrogen supply stations (with Hydrogen ideally derived with electricity from renewable energy) is technically feasable. So lets bring on those pollution free cars!!
Information workshop to help homeowners get off the grid. Saturday, November 20 at
With Bob Budd, Charlie Middleton, and Anton Schoenberger. 9:30 am to 3 pm
$25/person, $40/couple, $10/students under 16. Please pre-register by November 15!! Call Ziggy @ 519-795-7725 or Angie @ 519-743-2392
Ralph Waldo Emerson
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