Napanee takes the bait
Last night, Greater Napanee Town Council decided to sell its residents’ right to clean air and a safe climate to Ontario Power Generation (OPG).
Town Council endorsed OPG’s plan to build a third massive gas-fired power plant in Napanee in exchange for $4.8 million. Despite many people speaking out against adding yet another source of air pollution to this small community, Council simply rubber stamped OPG’s plans to build a new 450 megawatt (MW) gas plant right beside OPG’s existing Lennox (2,100 MW) and Napanee (900 MW) gas plants.
This makes Napanee a “redline” community: A community where polluting and toxic projects not wanted in more prosperous locations are dumped. That’s what happened with the existing Napanee gas plant which was originally supposed to be located in Oakville. And now with neighbouring communities like Kingston and Loyalist Township saying no to fossil fuel burning, Napanee has once again become the go-to community for more fossil fuel burning.
That publicly-owned OPG thinks it is ethical to use public money to arm twist a community into accepting polluting fossil fuel burning is scandalous.
Napanee is the gas power capital of Ontario. It is not a designation many communities would be eager to embrace in the midst of an ever more alarming climate crisis. But money talks in small communities, and OPG exploited that to finally land an approval for a completely unnecessary gas plant.
We will be watching to see if Halton Hills Council will support OPG’s proposal to build a second large gas plant in their community. If OPG gets its way, the two Halton Hills gas plants will produce as much air pollution as 275,000 cars.
Fossil fuel interests are scrambling to try to sell these climate-damaging projects, and are using every trick they can think of to bring communities onside. Hopefully Halton Hills Council will take a long, hard look at OPG’s proposal to increase asthma attacks in their communtiy – and climate damage everywhere – and decide that enough is enough.
Angela Bischoff, Director
Ontario Clean Air Alliance
192 Spadina Ave. #406
Toronto M5T 2C2
Ontario Clean Air Alliance is dedicated to transitioning Ontario to a 100% renewable energy future
