http://www.canada.com/montreal/montrealgazette/editorials/story.asp?id=1C3E1 506-C0B6-452E-99B5-12C90592AA30 EDITORIAL STORY Hydro gas plant makes joke of Kyoto "This single Hydro-Québec project would boost the province's total greenhouse-gas emissions by a staggering 2.6 per cent." HENRY AUBIN The Gazette, Thursday, January 22, 2004 Hydro-Québec plans to begin construction this spring of a massive gas-fired power plant in the Montreal region. Its greenhouse-gas output will be equivalent to that of about 600,000 cars. Most new industrial plants, even the dirtiest, seldom add more than a fraction of one per cent to Quebec's output of these gases which, most scientists believe, contribute to climate change. This single Hydro-Québec project, to be located a stone's throw from the Beauharnois dam near Valleyfield, would boost the province's total greenhouse-gas emissions by a staggering 2.6 per cent. The Charest government's approval of the Suroît plant, as the project is called, raises serious questions about how Quebec intends to square its economic development with the problem of global warming. The first question is whether, as Hydro insists, the Quebec market really needs the 836 megawatts that the plant will generate from natural gas. Without the plant, the crown corporation says the province will face a power deficit in several years. But there are other ways to generate such energy - including wind power, a non-polluting field that Hydro has been slow to develop. Meanwhile, only mild efforts have been made to prevent the province's electricity consumption from growing at an annual rate of 1.2 per cent, far faster than population growth. Just as the food industry has been behind the obesity epidemic by pushing calories on the public, Hydro promotes energy gluttony. Last week's cold snap provides a glimpse of how reversible that trend is. Alow-key suggestion to the public to turn down the home heat and not use dishwashers and washing machines simultaneously, Hydro says, led to province-wide consumption at peak periods fall ing by 500 megawatts. That's the better part of Suroît's output. One wonders what a serious campaign promoting insulation and consumption would achieve. The other question is whether Premier Jean Charest will respect the spirit of the Kyoto Protocol - the international attempt to turn down the global heat - or if, like U.S. President George W. Bush, he will ignore it. Because the protocol can't be valid without Russia's ratification, and because that country has been balking at taking that step, reports circulated in December that the pact was as good as dead. But it's not. Canada's Kyoto negotiator, Darren Goetz, said yesterday he expects ratification by Russia if, as is likely, President Vladimir Putin wins re-election in March. Interestingly, it was in December - at the height of speculation over Kyoto's demise - that Quebec approved the Suroît plant. I don't know if Charest assumed Kyoto was kaput, but he certainly wiped his feet on it. The pact would require Canada to reduce its greenhouse-gas emissions by an economy-jarring 25 per cent or so by 2012. By pushing Quebec in the wrong direction, the Suroît plant would make compliance all the harder. Charest should bear in mind that even if Kyoto does die, some other international pact eventually will replace it. The wise course would be to anticipate this in planning economic infrastructure. All that Quebec is planning for now is open-ended increases in energy production. The Suroît project might just be a sign of things to come: - TransCanada Energy Ltd. of Calgary is seeking Quebec's approval to build a gas-fired power plant in Bécancour, near Trois-Rivières. Hydro wants to buy its 550-megawatt output. The plant would hike the province's emissions by another 1.7 per cent. - Quebec last month gave Hydro the go-ahead to seek private-sector bids to build co-generating plants capable of producing a total of 800 megawatts. Total greenhouse emissions would approach Suroît's. The three schemes would push up the province's emissions by at least six per cent. As of now, Quebec lacks anything approaching a credible strategy to achieve an absolute decline in all emissions, let alone to nullify the increases that the new projects would bring. As a society, we're stumbling in the dark, following Bush's America, which is building gas-fired plants right and left. Construction has yet to begin on any of the Quebec plants. It's not too late to reconsider our course. haubin@thegazette.canwest.com
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