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Unless the Ontario government starts to control the province’s main power producer, Ontario Power Generation’s (OPG) emissions of toxic air pollution will increase by 26 percent over the next 12 years, according to a new report by the Ontario Clean Air Alliance (OCAA). Flaws in the way the electricity sector is being deregulated, particularly lax pollution trading rules that are open to abuse, mean that the air we breathe will be contaminated by 26 percent more of OPG’s nerve toxin mercury and six cancer-causing substances, according to the OCAA's Countdown Coal report. By ramping up its heavily polluting coal plants, OPG has already doubled its emissions of these air toxins between 1995 and 1999. The further planned

increases in coal-burning are expected to bring the increase to 153 percent between 1995 and 2012. "The Harris Government is at a crossroads. If the Premier doesn’t act to convert OPG's five coal-fired generating stations to cleaner-burning natural gas, Ontario’s air quality will get even worse in the years to come," says Jack Gibbons, Chair of the OCAA. The Ontario Government is OPG’s sole shareholder. The Ontario Medical Association has called air pollution in Ontario "a public health crisis". The OMA estimates that air pollution kills 1,900 Ontarians a year and costs the province’s economy $9.9 billion a year in healthy care costs, absenteeism, pain and suffering, and loss of life. OPG recently attempted to head off the growing consensus that all its coal-fired plants, with their 30 health- and environment-damaging air pollutants, should be converted to cleaner-burning natural gas. It announced last month it would spend $250 million on a patchwork of cleanup measures in its three coal plants in southern Ontario. Nothing was allotted to cleaning up the two coal plants in Northern Ontario. "If Premier Harris won't phase out OPG’s air-polluting coal-fired power plants, then Prime Minister Chretien should step in and use the powers of the Canadian Environmental Protection Act to protect the health and environment of Ontario from OPG’s pollution," says Gibbons. OPG has been denying the significance of its pollution. In a September 14 news release, for example, it claimed, "OPG is not a major contributor to southern Ontario’s smog." In fact, the utility’s five coal plants, including the largest coal-fired power plant in North America at Nanticoke, emit 14 percent of all the nitrogen oxides (NOx) generated in Ontario. Since 1995, OPG’s smog pollution (NOx) has increased 75 percent. NOx is one of smog’s two major ingredients. OPG’s coal plants also emit 20 percent of all the sulphur dioxide (SO2) generated in Ontario. SO2 forms sulphate particles that are one of the most deadly elements of smog; it is also the major source of acid rain. OPG’s SO2 output is up 90 percent since 1995 and is set to increase by as much as an additional 16 percent over the next 12 years. OPG’s five coal-fired plants also emit 21 percent of all the mercury generated in Ontario. Mercury is a potent nerve toxin. OPG’s emissions of mercury and other cancer-causing substances have doubled since 1995 as the company has burned more and more coal. OPG’s five coal-fired plants emit 19 percent of all the carbon dioxide (CO2) generated in Ontario. CO2 is the major greenhouse gas that is destabilizing the Earth’s climate. OPG’s CO2 emissions are expected to rise 26 percent in the next 12 years, on top of a doubling of greenhouse gas pollution between 1995 and 1999. An earlier study commissioned by the OCAA concluded that OPG could convert 83 percent of its coal capacity to natural gas at a cost to the average household of $1.86 a month.