The minister stated that Ottawa city located in Ontario intends on enforcing emission caps on existing coal-fired power stations of utilities and creating a market-based system to enable them to purchase credits to fulfill those targets.
Prentice said “The approach that we’ve been working towards involves a cap-and-trade system relating to thermal coal, and the requirement of phasing out those facilities as they reach the end of their useful, fully-amortized life. The concept is that, as these facilities are fully amortized and their useful life fully expended, they would not be replaced with coal.”
He stated that coal would be considered as an alternative if it generated near-zero greenhouse gas emissions. The minister added that the new rules are likely to be issued in the latter part of 2009.
The government has established a target of having a 90% emission-free power sector by the year 2025, a target that will need augmented consumption of hydro, nuclear, wind power and other renewables.
The coal-fired power accounts for nearly 18% of nation’s present emissions, and eight of the 10 biggest greenhouse gas emitters in the India are coal-fired power stations. They involve Ontario’s large Nanticoke plant, which the Liberal government has pledged to shut down by the year 2014 in its attempt to be coal-free.
