Ontario government seeks to outlaw coal

TORONTO, June 19 (UPI) -- A proposal to reduce emissions in Ontario may cause coal plants to be shut down.

Premier Dalton McGuinty is seeking to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to 6 percent below 1990 levels by 2012, the Canadian Press reported Monday. To help meet that goal, he announced his administration will pass a law requiring all coal plants in the province to be closed by 2014.

With all of Ontario's coal plants closed, McGuinty will be about halfway to his emissions reduction goal.

"We will close our coal-fired plants down in 2014 without compromising reliability," said McGuinty. "There's only one place in the world right now that's phasing out coal-fired generation. We're doing that right here in Ontario."

Opponents, including environmentalists, said the plan doesn't do anything to address the large problem of emissions from cars and trucks. The coal plan has been mentioned before but never followed through, said New Democrat Peter Tabuns.

"Our plan is much more aggressive than the federal government's plan," said McGuinty.

Quebec and Manitoba have individual plans to meet near-Kyoto emissions reductions goals and Nova Scotia and British Columbia are likely to follow suit with vehicle emissions plans, said Keith Stewart, manager of the climate change program at World Wildlife Fund.

Other opponents, like conservative Laurie Scott, suggested by putting scrubbers on the coal plants they wouldn't have to be shut down and emissions can still be reduced.