In Ontario, Canada, the three major political parties have agreed to shut down all five of the province’s coal-burning power plants by 2015, the biggest success so far in an anti-coal campaign that is gaining momentum in Canada. Enviros will be particularly glad to get rid of the Nanticoke power plant on the northern shore of Lake Erie, which has earned the distinction of being Canada’s top air polluter, spewing out frightening amounts of sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxide, and mercury, not to mention as much carbon dioxide as 4 million average Canadian drivers. “[Coal is] a 19th-century fuel that has no place in 21st-century Ontario,” said Jack Gibbons of the Ontario Clean Air Alliance. The country could make huge strides toward meeting its Kyoto emission-reduction goals by closing down coal plants and replacing them with natural gas plants or renewable energy — far easier and more effective, activists argue, that convincing millions of Canadians to make significant lifestyle changes.
