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The Missing Facts on Nuclear in Alberta
CAUSE SUPPORTS PEMBINA'S CALL FOR EXPERT PANEL ON RENEWABLES
In a report released yesterday called "Greening the Grid", the Pembina Institute is calling on the Alberta provincial government to immediately "assemble a task force or expert panel to examine the best ways of promoting renewable electricity analogous to those that have already been assembled to look at nuclear energy and CCS." The recommendation calls for the panel to be put in place no later than the end of January 2009. CAUSE strongly encourages the Stelmach government to act on this key recommendation in the best interest of the province’s environment and its economy.
The report goes on to say, "the benefits of investing scarce resources in clean electricity capacity will offer higher long term returns than making future investments in coal and nuclear. A cleaner grid is not only a commendable goal, it is an achievable one."
The report also explains that green electricity produces more jobs than other energy sources: "The report found that for every million dollars invested, an average of 36.3 jobs are created in energy efficiency sector or 12.2 in the renewable energy sector. For every million dollars invested in conventional energy, an average of only 7.3 jobs are created."
"Greening the Grid" concludes that in 20 years it is entirely feasible to be producing more than 20% of our electricity from wind, supplemented by other forms of green electricity such as solar, geothermal, and cogeneration. "Developing a clean electricity future for the province based solely on renewable technologies is technically doable. The environmental and social benefits of such an approach are clear and the economics even look favourable for the cleaner options. What we need more than anything in the province to realize what is possible is leadership."
Elena Schacherl says that "The Pembina Institute is to be commended for this detailed and meticulous look at the exciting and real possibilities of renewable energy. It supports CAUSE’s position that we do not need to be looking at the economically and environmentally risky nuclear option for Alberta when more innovative, cost-effective and greener options are available. Now we only need the provincial government to show some leadership to help make this happen."
For full Pembina report and fact sheet see: http://www.pembina.org/pub/1763
For more information, please contact: nuclearfreeablerta@gmail.com
Cancers in Young Children & Nuclear Plants - "A Significant Relationship" by Heinz Juergen-Peter - the full report
Click here for the report.
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Thank you to Robbin for all his hard work on this and also to all the contributors. If you have a question, or would like to provide some feedback, please send an email to the editor at bigbluemarble@canada.com.