Abolition of Coal-fired Plants in Ontario, Canada and Globally - NO NUKES!
author: Paradigm Shift Environmental Alliance
 e-mail: PSEA4EARTH@GMAIL.COM
stop global warming and coming genocides - including darfur now!
ontario , canada-wide & global abolition of coal plants - stop the global warming machines! no nukes!
weekly vigil / info picket / rally - ottawa, ontario
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STOP GLOBAL WARMING AND COMING GENOCIDES - INCLUDING DARFUR NOW!
ONTARIO , CANADA-WIDE & GLOBAL ABOLITION OF COAL PLANTS - STOP THE GLOBAL WARMING MACHINES! NO NUKES!
WEEKLY VIGIL / INFO PICKET / RALLY (A CONTINUATION OF WEEKLY VIGILS INITIATED ON EARTH DAY 07 AT TORONTO'S QUEENS PARK LEGISLATURE AND ONTARIO POWER GENERATION HEADQUARTERS)
DATE: TUESDAY October 9, 2007
TIME: 12 Noon - 1PM
PLACE: OTTAWA, UNITED STATES EMBASSY 490 Sussex Drive
(between Byward Market & Parliament Hill)
Paradigm Shift Environmental Alliance - PSEA
Contact Ivona Vujica Coordinator
 psea4earth@gmail.com >
MAJOR VICTORY FOR PEOPLES EVERYWHERE OVER KING COAL
The Saskatchewan, Canada - Battelle Memorial Institute etc. giant (clean) coal mega project has been scrapped because of soaring costs. Originally it was $1 billion and is now projected to be $3.8 billion to produce 450 megawatts, but everyone knows the science and technology is on very unstable grounds. The financial risk is too high. The threat to the eco-system is even higher by the continued maintenance of coal mining and coal-fired plants locally and globally.  http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/LAC.20070907.RSASKPOWER07/TPStory/Business
Plan for $2B "clean" coal plant is quashed
By ASJYLYN LODER, Times Staff Writer
Published October 5, 2007
http://www.sptimes.com/2007/10/05/State/Plan_for_2B_coal_plan.shtml
Tampa Electric shelved plans Thursday for a $2-billion power plant, the third coal plant in Florida since June to derail amid concerns about how to deal with gases believed to cause global warming... "This is the end of coal in Florida as we know it," celebrated Stephen Smith, executive director of the Southern Alliance for Clean Energy, a regional nonprofit that opposed the plant.
Toronto Star goes Nuclear:
a betrayal of the founding principles of the Toronto Star
2 days before Ontario election the venerable "social justice" Toronto Star endorses a pro-nuclear stance. How can this be in line with Atkinson's founding principles that guides Toronto Star? The Toronto Star pushes anti-poverty campaign series yet encourages tens of billions to be spent on nuclear power. How many social programs to be cut or downscaled to pay for this - including on the backs of children?
TheStar.com | comment | Liberals credible on energy policy
EDITORIAL " Liberals credible on energy policy" http://www.thestar.com/article/264182
The dark human-rights pit where our coal comes from, Nova Scotia 2007-10-07 http://thechronicleherald.ca/Opinion/937415.html
ROVING TERRITORIAL VICTORIES OVER KING COAL
Stop coal, stop global warming, says Architect
September 21, 2007
"The only fossil fuel that can fuel global warming is coal. If you stop coal, you stop global warming. End of story," he said. Architecture 2030 is a non-profit that encourages builders, suppliers and architects to move toward making carbon neutral buildings by 2030....
Home Depot has announced it will plant 300,000 trees to offset is carbon dioxide. Unfortunately, those 300,000 trees will have to live 100 years before they offset the fumes from ten days from a coal-fired plant, he said. Replace every incandescent bulb in America with compact fluorescents? The benefits are eradicated by the carbon dioxide from two coal-fired plants over a year, he said.
"The silver bullet is no more coal," he said. http://www.news.com/8301-10784_3-9782715-7.html?tag=nefd.blgs
Mayor's message against coal strikes chord Guitar in hand, Rocky Anderson rails against ills of coal industry The Salt Lake Tribune October 5, 07 http://www.sltrib.com/news/ci_7091464?source=email
"Rocky rolled out his anti-coal message to hundreds of students at East, West and Horizonte high schools Thursday, calling for a moratorium on the construction of new coal-fired power plants and the eventual elimination of all existing one. No other action, he said, will curb carbon dioxide emissions enough to keep global warming from causing devastating droughts, hard-hitting hurricanes and widespread floods in coastal communities. "This is the most urgent challenge facing our planet," Anderson said. The mayor's message comes as part of the National Day of Conversation on Climate - a 65-city event to explore causes and possible solutions to global climate change."
Comment: Time for Kansas to take a stand against coal
By LOREN STANTON The Kansas City Star October 2, 07
http://www.kansascity.com/115/story/300319.html
Jobs, more electric power, economic development. What's not to love about the two new coal plants proposed in western Kansas?
Global warming, carbon dioxide, mercury, and a setback for wind energy development in Kansas. That's what.
Green group targets banks over coal financing Tue Oct 02 17:59:24 UTC 2007
Steve James, Reuters New York http://www.reuters.com/article/email/idUSN0240558320071002
The Rainforest Action Network launched a campaign targeting Citigroup and Bank of America Corp because they finance coal company projects that it charges cause carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions and toxic mercury pollution.
Coal mining, it said, is responsible for thousands of deaths annually, while mountaintop removal mining and strip mining destroy entire ecosystems and communities.
Coal Plant Opposed in Scriba, NY
http://www.wtvh.com/news/local/10219621.html
People in the Oswego County town of Scriba spoke out against a coal manufacturing plant. They say it would ruin the environment. Town leaders say the new coal plant would be built on part of the hundred acres owned by the Novelis aluminum Company on Route 1. It would bring badly needed jobs to the Oswego County community, with a population of about 7,000. But some neighbors say not-so-fast. One woman speaking at the meeting Wednesday night said, "They're asking us to disregard the environment that we live in, give up our health and quality of life and not be concerned about the health of our families."
Protesters raid coal power plant , More than 50 Greenpeace campaigners stage a protest at a coal-fired power station in north Kent, October 8, 07
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/em/fr/-/1/hi/england/kent/7033164.stm
Big Stone II events may signal end of King Coal era
http://www.startribune.com/1069/story/1433694.html
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., cites other states turning away from King Coal
http://www.elynews.com/articles/2007/09/20/news/news04.txt
Nev.: Reid Pushes Military on Wind Farms By BRENDAN RILEY Associated Press Writer, Oct 4, 07
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/ap/fn/5187591.html
CARSON CITY, Nev. -- U.S. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, continuing a clean-energy push, said Wednesday he has asked Defense Secretary Robert Gates to get the military to finally decide whether to support potential wind-farm sites in Nevada.
Reid said Gates now understands the "bureaucratic shuffle" that has led to long delays for wind-farm developers seeking a military sign-off on their plans, and will ask Navy and Air Force secretaries to "see if someone can make a decision."
"Let's have someone make a decision and not give people the run-around for months and months and months," Reid, D-Nev., added during a telephone interview.
A congressional investigation is opening into the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's decision to allow a Utah company to build a coal-fired power plant in what a senior congressman calls a "blatant" willingness to ignore the U.S. Supreme Court and a flagrant unwillingness to curb global warming.
http://www.sltrib.com/news/ci_6956418?source=email
Sundance Summit fires upon coal power. With time running out in the fight to stop global warming, the best weapon leaders have is to halt the construction of coal-fired power plants, experts told 25 mayors at a summit meeting here Monday.
http://www.sltrib.com/news/ci_6859327?source=email
Attorney General Andrew M. Cuomo of New York has opened an investigation of five large energy companies, questioning whether their plans to build coal-fired power plants pose undisclosed financial risks that their investors should know about.
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/16/nyregion/16greenhouse.html?hp
KING COAL ADVANCES ON EUROPE, CHINA, CANADA and AUSTRALIA
Air Force seriously pursuing fuel plant (coal to liquids) By PETER JOHNSON Tribune Staff Writer , Oct 4, 07
http://www.greatfallstribune.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20071004/NEWS01/710040304
The Air Force is seriously considering a partnership in which a potential commercial interest could build a 20,000 to 30,000 barrel a day coal-to-liquid-fuel plant at Malmstrom Air Force Base as early as 2011.
The plant, which would be financed and operated privately, is still in the early planning stages, "with a lot more wickets to pass through before it gets a green light," Assistant Air Force Secretary for Installations, Environment and Logistics William Anderson said Wednesday.
Finance Committee Endorses Rockefeller Coal-to-Liquid Development Proposal By HNN Staff
From Senator Rockefeller's Office , October 6, 07
http://www.huntingtonnews.net/political/071006-staff-politicalrockefeller.html
Washington, DC (HNN) - Late last night, Senator Jay Rockefeller (D-WV) brokered an agreement with members of the Senate Finance Committee to keep the development of coal-to-liquids (CTL) technology advancing in the right direction.
(recent history on coal-to-liquids U.S. legislation)
June 20, 2007, 11:20AM
Senate rejects coal-to-liquids proposal
Air Force had pushed the plan
By DAVID IVANOVICH
Copyright 2007 Houston Chronicle Washington Bureau
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/business/4900909.html
WASHINGTON — The Senate today rejected a measure, pushed by the U.S. Air Force, intended to provide incentives for revival of an 80-year-old technology that could convert coal into aviation fuel.
Germany and South Africa
German scientists first developed a method known as the Fischer-Tropsch process to convert coal into transportation fuels in the 1920s. But for decades this process was deemed cost-prohibitive compared with refining crude oil, except under the most dire circumstances.
Nazi Germany, for instance, used coal to make diesel fuel during World War II.
South Africa did likewise when that country's apartheid policies isolated it from the rest of the world. Indeed, the South African firm Sasol still produces 160,000 barrels a day of fuel using this process, Book said.
Coal world's fastest growing fuel
Investment in conventional energy sources such as coal is essential as coal will still be a major source of electricity in 2050 says Anglo American.
http://www.mineweb.co.za/mineweb/view/mineweb/en/page38?oid=37886&sn=Detail
Author: Tessa Kruger
Posted: Friday , 05 Oct 2007
JOHANNESBURG - Coal - sometimes described as cheap, dirty and a commodity lacking in glamour - is the world's fastest growing fuel.
New coal port to lift exports by $1bn
The Australian, Australia - 27 Sep 2007
The NCIG is made up of BHP Billiton, Centennial Coal , Donaldson Coal, Peabody Energy Australia Coal, Felix Resources and Whitehaven Coal. ...
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,22492379-2702,00.html
Chinese coal producer to make liquid fuel in 2008
Xinhua, China - 16 Sep 2007
Royal Dutch Shell Plc, Europe's second-biggest oil company, and Shenhua Ningxia Coal Group have also agreed to study the feasibility of a plant in China ...
Coal delivery to Europe on the rise
Mining Journal Online, UK
Coal accounts for about a third of European power generation. The fuel for delivery to Amsterdam, Rotterdam or Antwerp
VANCOUVER, British Columbia (Reuters) - Canadian Pacific Railway Ltd ( CP.TO : Quote ) agreed to buy Dakota, Minnesota & Eastern Railroad Corp for at least $1.5 billion, a move that could give CP access to the coal-rich Powder River Basin that the regional U.S. carrier had struggled to reach.
link to ca.today.reuters.com
Senators to Canada: Review process should include Montana scientists
Montana's U.S. senators Wednesday asked Canada to give Montana scientists a voice in assessing potential environmental effects from proposed coal mining and coal-bed methane work in southeastern British Columbia. Industrial development in that part of the province, north of Montana's Glacier National Park, has raised concerns in the state about possible harm to water quality in the transboundary Flathead River system. http://www.havredailynews.com/articles/2007/09/06/local_headlines/world.txt
Global demand lights fire under coal
One of the world's largest metallurgical coal producers is Fording Canadian Coal Trust of Calgary, which this year is expected to sell about 23-million tonnes, most of which comes from its operations in the Elk Valley in Southeast British Columbia.
link to www.canada.com
Partial victory update on Fording Canadian Coal Trust
ONTARIO TEACHERS' PENSION FUND divested its significant interests in Fording Coal, selling its shares to B.C. miner Teck Cominco for $600 million.
* All pension funds need to look very seriously at divesting from corporations which are complicit in a very significant way to global warming. The Ontario Teachers' Pension Fund has set a significant example to other pension funds such as university, civil servant and national pension funds as well as and rightly so sending the message that the future generation - our children matter -
Teck Cominco pays $599.4M to boost stake in Fording Canadian Coal Trust
The Canadian Press
September 24, 2007 - 3:02 p.m.
VANCOUVER - Teck Cominco Ltd. (TSX:TCK.B) is scooping up the Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan's stake in the Fording Canadian Coal Trust (TSX:FDG.UN) for $599.4 million, a slight discount to recent market prices but still near a 15-month high for the trust's units.
http://www.canadianbusiness.com/markets/headline_news/article.jsp?content=b092486A
Update on McGuinty government coal promises -
Liberal Candidate Contradicts McGuinty on Coal Commitment
TORONTO, ONTARIO--(Marketwire - Sept. 27, 2007) - Tony Ruprecht, Liberal candidate in Davenport, has put into question his leader's claims that the McGuinty Liberals would close down Ontario's coal fired power plants by 2014.
Ruprecht instead touts a plan in his campaign materials that would see Ontario's coal fired power plants operating up until the end of 2023. The statement appears in Ruprecht's election campaign materials.
In the last election, Dalton McGuinty promised to shut down all Ontario's coal-fired plants by 2007 'come hell or high water.' He broke that promise.
http://www.marketwire.com/mw/release.do?id=774453
1. Letter to Prime Minister Harper
2. Letter to the U.S. Government
3. Letter to Ontario's Legislature
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1. Letter to Prime Minister Harper
Prime Minister Harper, says recently at APEC- Canada must be a world leader in combating Global Warming. We agree.
Prime Minister, the Kyoto protocol of which Canada is a signatory and is bound to under international law is now also the law of the land in Canada as it was passed unanimously by the House of Commons and the Senate. No one is above the law prime minister Harper.
The only way Canada can keep its Kyoto obligations is by the Canada wide phase-out of coal-fired plants by 2012. It not only reduces our greenhouse gases effectively but it also protects the health and wellbeing of all Canadians young and old. Our economy and prosperity depends on this.
Canada's words / obligations and constitution mean something.
Mr. Harper in a three day meeting (September 10, '07) over 500 NGOs representing 80 countries affirmed that climate change is "potentially the most serious threat to humanity and our environment have ever faced ... including, catastrophic effects on our earth's ecosystem, biodiversity and infrastructure... significant damage to economic, political, cultural and social bases... "
They also affirm that "war is damaging to climate."
link to www.stwr.net
Prime Minister, this is the most momentous civil struggle of our times for the very sanctity and survival of Life on our planet Earth.
We urge you to call for the Abolition of Coal-Fired Plants in Canada, and its Canada-wide phase-out by 2012. Canada can be the world model for the Global Phase-Out of Coal-Fired plants.
* "The average coal-fired plant emits 12% - 18% carbon dioxide (CO2). The typical coal-fired plant also draws about 2.2 billion gallons of water from nearby lakes, rivers and ocean - enough water to support a city of approximately 250.000 people for a year. There are 600 of these plants in the U.S. alone with 154 more to come. When this water is drawn into the power plant up to 21 million fish eggs, fish larvae and juvenile fish are killed. Coal plants also cause smog, soot, acid rain, global warming and toxic air emissions. It generates toxic sludge and ash and releases back into the ecosystem large amounts of heated, contaminated water with highly toxic amounts of chemicals such as mercury arsenic, lead, cadmium and trace amounts of URANIUM." ( Union of Concerned Scientists). Coal burning has been linked to GLOBAL WARMING, CANCER, AUTISM, ASTHMA, ALZHEIMER'S, HEART ATTACKS ...
Sincerely,
NAME
Address or City
Write to:
Prime Minister Stephen Harper pm@pm.gc.ca
Jack Layton, NDP leader Layton.J@parl.gc.ca
Gilles Duceppe, Bloc Quebecois leader Duceppe.G@parl.gc.ca
Dion Stephane, Liberal leader Dion.S@parl.gc.ca
Elizabeth May, Green party leader leader@greenparty.ca
CC to Paradigm Shift Environmental Alliance psea4earth@gmail.com
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2. To the United States government:
Stop building new coal-fired plants.
Senate Legislative Leader Harry Reid says that there is no such thing as clean coal and is strongly opposed to building new coal plants in the U.S. and anywhere else in the world. He says he owes it to his grandchildren. "There's not a coal-fired plant in America that's clean. They're all dirty," Reid told reporters after speaking at a conference on renewable energy. "Unless we do something quickly about global warming, we're in trouble." http://www.lasvegassun.com/sunbin/stories/nevada/2007/aug/18/081810591.html
Al Gore says the same.
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice recently stated concerning global warming, "We must cut the Gordian knot of fossil fuels"
Senator Edwards and legions of others such as Merle Bell of Waterloo, Iowa, Blackhawk County, who says, "The politicians and businessmen want this. The People don't. This kind of proved it today." Merle Bell is referring to the large rally turnout against the proposed $1.3 billion dirty 750 MW LS coal-fired plant.
At the rally Don Shatzer of Community Energy Solutions quoted Abraham Lincoln, "To sin by silence when they should protest makes cowards of people." He added, "I don't see any cowards out here today."
The Abolition of Coal Plants is the most momentous civil struggle of our times. It is about the very sanctity and survival of Life itself. The People expect swift action from politicians and business people on this the most important of local and global issues.
Water and Coal are the defining issues of our times it cannot be more fundamental . Coal and Water are the basics our Life is presently based upon. One represents Life-giving attributes (Water), the other Death, Disease and Destruction (King Coal). Agriculture aside, nothing uses more fresh water than King Coal locally and globally. The choice is clear Life-giving Water or King Coal. We choose the fundamental upon which all civilizations are built: clean air, land and Water - how we treat this triumvirate will translate into how we relate to each other.
The Peoples of the United States are our allies in this - The Coalition for the Living
* "The average coal-fired plant emits 12% - 18% carbon dioxide (CO2). The typical coal-fired plant also draws about 2.2 billion gallons of water from nearby lakes, rivers and ocean -enough water to support a city of approximately 250.000 people for a year. There are 600 of these plants in the U.S. alone with 154 more to come. When this water is drawn into the power plant up to 21 million fish eggs, fish larvae and juvenile fish are killed. Coal plants also cause smog, soot, acid rain, global warming and toxic air emissions. It generates toxic sludge and ash and releases back into the ecosystem large amounts of heated, contaminated water with highly toxic amounts of chemicals such as mercury arsenic, lead, cadmium and trace amounts of URANIUM." (Union of Concerned Scientists). Coal burning has been linked to GLOBAL WARMING, CANCER, AUTISM, ASTHMA, ALZHEIMER'S, HEART ATTACKS ...
Call Senator Harry Reid at 202-224-3542 or 1-866-SEN-REID or fax at 202-736-7343
Write to:
U.S. Embassy in Ottawa: web1@ottawa.usembassy.gov
U.S. president: president@whitehouse.gov
Secretary General of UN Ban Ki-Moon: sg@un.org
Cc PSEA psea4earth@gmail.com
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3. Letter to Queen's Park
We thank all people from Ontario and beyond who sent their advocacy letters.
If you have not had a chance, please write Premier Dalton McGuinty to urge him to close down Ontario Coal Plants OR take a second and email the following sample letter (below) to:
Dalton McGuinty dmcguinty.mpp.co@liberal.ola.org
CC to
John Tory, MPP john.tory@pc.ola.org
Howard Hampton, MPP hhampton-qp@ndp.on.ca
BCC to
Paradigm Shift Environmental Alliance psea4earth@gmail.com
Premier Dalton McGuinty:
Your # 1 Election Promise was to close Ont.'s coal fired power plants by 2007. In fact, your exact words were, "Come hell or highwater, Ontario coal plants will close by 2007."
We are holding you to your promise.
Nanticoke is Canada's # 1 Polluter and Greenhouse Gas Emitter and N. America's largest coal plant. It's killed thousands and made even more ill. Cancer now surpasses heart disease as the # 1 killer. Please keep your promise. The health of all Ontarians demands it.
Also, we are asking you to stop the proposed giant methane plant in the Portlands that is going ahead without a full environmental assessment and is opposed by Mayor David Miller, most local politicians, the Board of Health etc.
*Greenhouse gases up 90% from Ontario coal plants from 1995-2005 (Tor Star, Feb 1/07)
*Closing down Ontario coal stacks amounts to taking all the cars and small trucks off our streets
*McGuinty government says that "the annual costs of coal-fired generation, including health and environmental costs, ... [is] significantly higher than other electricity generation options."
* The Ontario Power Authority is recommending that in 2010, Ontario Power Generation should export 93% of its coal-fired electricity to the U.S. (meaning we get all the toxins, illness and have to account for the greenhouse gases while the US gets our power. McGuinty promised in 2003 to export zero amount of power to the US. from Ontario's coal-fired plants.
* Did Premier McGuinty make his electoral promise to the Peoples of Ontario just to get him elected in 2003? He did. Every time McGuinty made the promise to phase out coal-fired plants, he said it was prudent, necessary and urgent. The Ontario coal-fired plants contain no scrubbers and should close immediately. In effect, what we have is the McGuinty government intentionally making ill and murdering prematurely Ontarians by the heavy toxins spewed by these coal-fired plants.
* "The average coal-fired plant emits 12% - 18% carbon dioxide (CO2). The typical coal-fired plant also draws about 2.2 billion gallons of water from nearby lakes, rivers and ocean - Enough water to support a city of approximately 250.000 people for a year. There are 600 of these plants in the U.S. alone with 154 more to come. When this water is drawn into the power plant up to 21 million fish eggs, fish larvae and juvenile fish are killed. Coal plants also cause smog, soot, acid rain, global warming and toxic air emissions. It generates toxic sludge and ash and releases back into the ecosystem large amounts of heated, contaminated water with highly toxic amounts of chemicals such as mercury arsenic, lead, cadmium and trace amounts of URANIUM." (Union of Concerned Scientists). Coal burning has been linked to GLOBAL WARMING, CANCER, AUTISM, ASTHMA, ALZHEIMER'S, HEART ATTACKS ...
Sincerely,
NAME
ADDRESS OR CITY
---- Paradigm Shift Environmental Alliance (a homeless network of activists, students, academics, Aboriginal etc.) since July 2007 does not do media interviews. We thank all members of the media for their inquiries - - may quote any part of these documents or if they have specific questions can email to PSEA.-
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