Remember Punch Cards?
Thirty years ago, computer geeks programmed and stored all data with punch cards. Many of those cards were printed in rented facilities on Commander Boulevard, Toronto, a street already famous for setting pollution precedents. As it turns out, the coloured stripe across the top of the cards used to be printed with the solvent, toluene....
Continue reading the post titled Remember Punch Cards?Proposed law to ban organic waste from landfills
Former environment minister Norm Sterling has introduced a private member’s Bill to ban organic waste from landfills. The Bill would amend the Environmental Protection Act. Most private members’ Bills die on the order paper, but some make it through and become law, with the support of the governing party. Mr. Sterling’s Bill received at least...
Continue reading the post titled Proposed law to ban organic waste from landfillsGas from fracking dirtier than coal?
Hydraulic fracturing, in pursuit of shale gas, can cause serious groundwater problems, which are sometimes excused on the ground that the climate needs natural gas to displace coal. It’s therefore shocking to learn that shale gas could have worse GHG emissions than coal, according to a Cornell study published in the May issue of Climatic...
Continue reading the post titled Gas from fracking dirtier than coal?Wind turbines don’t hurt property values
The Municipal Property Assessment Corporation (MPAC) has released a new report, again concluding that wind turbines do not adversely affect the value of nearby properties. “MPAC commissioned this study of the effects of industrial wind turbines (IWT) on the current value of property in proximity to the turbines. Over the last few years, the subject...
Continue reading the post titled Wind turbines don’t hurt property valuesReg. 511/09: did they really mean this?
Some of the previously unannounced Reg. 511/09 amendments to Ontario’s brownfields regulation, 153/04, seem to have unexpected effects. For example, wells for dewatering or for groundwater treatment may now require every property within 250 metres to use potable (not non-potable) cleanup standards. This is how it works:
Continue reading the post titled Reg. 511/09: did they really mean this?Methane catastrophe in California: implications for cap and trade
Southern California is, at this very moment, in the throes of what is potentially the most prolific gas leak to have ever occurred. The disaster–a methane leak at a natural gas storage facility in Porter Ranch, California–has yet to galvanize the kind of media and popular attention that attended the Deepwater Horizon disaster in 2010. However, particularly...
Continue reading the post titled Methane catastrophe in California: implications for cap and tradeFurther wind litigation and the Oak Ridges Moraine: Part I
Another appeal of a Renewable Energy Approval (“REA”) for a wind turbine project has made its way to, and been refused by, the Environmental Review Tribunal (“ERT”). The appeal in SR Opposition Corp v Director, Ministry of the Environment and Climate Change, 2015 CanLII 86926 (ON ERT) concerned the construction and operation of a Class...
Continue reading the post titled Further wind litigation and the Oak Ridges Moraine: Part IFeds publish proposed microbeads ban
The federal government will go ahead with a ban of microbeads in personal hygiene products. We wrote last summer about both the then-Conservative government’s announced intention to institute a ban as well as the problems to Canadian waterways posed by the presence of microbeads in personal care products such as face wash, toothpaste, and soap. The Federal government has now...
Continue reading the post titled Feds publish proposed microbeads banEnergy East pipeline project faces further legal hurdles
Regional concerns over the contentious Energy East project have taken on an interesting twist recently. Quebec is seeking an injunction against the proponent of the proposed Energy East pipeline project, Trans Canada Corporation, forcing the company to submit the project to provincial environmental assessment. The request came shortly in advance of environmental hearings conducted by the Bureau...
Continue reading the post titled Energy East pipeline project faces further legal hurdlesLittle Brown Bat the latest critter to shut down proposed wind farm
The Environmental Review Tribunal (“ERT”) has again demonstrated its willingness to allow appeals of renewable energy approvals (“REA”) for wind project on the basis that it will cause serious and irreversible harm to animal life, plant life or the natural environment. In Hirsh v Director, Ministry of the Environment and Climate Change–a 123-page decision–the ERT allowed...
Continue reading the post titled Little Brown Bat the latest critter to shut down proposed wind farmReceive Blog Posts
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