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Mills burning coal belie climate claims |
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Times Colonist
Published: Thursday, October 04, 2007
Premier Gordon Campbell has committed B.C. to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions by 40 million tonnes by 2020.
Finance Minister Carole Taylor's new public-relations process is asking the citizens how to hit the reduction targets.
There are glaring discrepancies between the headline-grabbing announcements on global citizenship and the mounting body of evidence indicating a climate-killer in action.
The Port Mellon pulp mill of Howe Sound has been burning a 15-per-cent
coal mixture in its power boiler as a 'trial' since May. The Elk Falls
mill of Catalyst Paper in Campbell River had coal burning approved in
their permit in 2006.
Now the other pulp mills are lining up for the same cost-cutting measure.
A
pulp mill can consume as much energy as a city the size of Victoria.
Any promise of green power generation that doesn't include them is a
fairly empty one.
For the Environment Ministry to approve coal
in pulp mills while the premier makes press statements about clean
energy is, at best, disingenuous.
Delores Broten,
Comox.
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