By MPP Toby Barrett

Speaker, Haldimand-Norfolk is home to the largest coal-fired generating station in North America, the same station that Premier McGuinty has promised – many times over – to close as he shuts down coal-fired generation at Nanticoke.

Locally, we've known the cost of the McGuinty green dream includes the potential demise of – what was – a 630 strong workforce at OPG Nanticoke, up to $3 million in goods and services to the local economy and municipal taxes of 4 million/year.

For years, coal-closure has been promised with no plan in place once the units are idled.

With so much at stake, we watched with interest as the government's recently announced long term energy plan calls for government to 'consider the possible conversion of some of the units at Nanticoke and Lambton to natural gas' as well as, 'continue to explore opportunities for co-firing biomass'. And I am somewhat encouraged by directions indicating that, 'planning and approval work for the natural gas pipeline infrastructure required to Nanticoke will begin soon'.

That said Speaker, given government's track record I wonder if these "considerations" and "explorations" are lights at the end of the tunnel or simply McGuinty's train ready to again run us over.
Both OPG Nanticoke representatives and Power Workers Union members made presentations at my recent Jarvis Energy and our Environment Symposium highlighting the potential for energy production and employment through the "refuelling", or "repowering" of the Nanticoke Generating Station.

Part of the answer to the energy question may well be found in the fields of switchgrass and the other plants that are the subjects of experimentation at the Simcoe Research Centre.

The use of those plants for fuel could provide a market and a source of income for farmers throughout the area of the Green Energy Hub -- the area that includes Brantford, Brant County, Haldimand County, Norfolk County and Six Nations.

For these reasons I'm hopeful the Ontario Government's recently released energy plan is more than another costly missed opportunity. And after close to eight years of missing opportunities to continue the reduction of emissions of Nanticoke, I'm concerned this government may be letting further environmental and economic opportunities slip through its fingers. I'm equally concerned government is ignoring the wealth of local experience, infrastructure – the dedicated work-force – in generating electricity.

As we continue down a path of shunning power at four cents per kWh for power at 80 cents plus, I would recommend government heed warnings from the likes of Lawrence Solomon, "the grave government is digging this time is big enough to bury the province as well as the power sector".
Why not continue reducing the NOx and SOx as well as exploring the feasibility of carbon dioxide capture and sequestration with coal - or for that matter with natural gas, which is also a greenhouse gas?

Again, while both union and management are prepared to put shoulders to wheel to ensure continued energy production and jobs at Nanticoke, the fact is we need direction from the top!
We've been waiting seven years under the cloud of job closures – it's time for the Premier to provide clear direction as to how government will repower Nanticoke.

It's a tranquil setting behind a building on Blueline Road near Simcoe Ontario, well away from the oil sands of Alberta and the petroleum producing countries of the Middle East.

Mixed in with patches of vegetables like asparagus, there are swaths of switchgrass, blue big and small stem grass and Indian Grass. Walking along the paths that separate the various plants Associate Professor Alan McKeown starts to talk about the looming energy crisis.

"People, I think are just starting to realize that the fossil fuels are finite, that the world is running out of them," he says. "So what are we going to do for energy when the fossil fuels run out. Where is our energy going to come from?

"Some say it will come from wind and the sun but what do we do when the sun isn't shining and the wind isn't blowing."

Part of the answer to the energy question may well be found in the fields of switchgrass and the other plants that are the subjects of experimentation at the Simcoe Research Centre. The centre is one year shy of its 50th anniversary and scientists there have a range of fascinating projects underway.
Some of the scientists are looking for ways to help fruits and vegetables grow better and how to better protect them from natural threats. One such experiment involved the placement of a large canopy over a couple of rows of apple trees to see how well the canopy could protect the apples from hail. McKeown is involved in several projects and part of his work is to monitor the growth of plants like switchgrass to determine how and where they grow best. It's important work because they already know that plants have a lot of different uses including as a source of fuel.

"Take the switchgrass for example. It's a hearty, drought-resistant plant with deep roots," McKeown said. "It's 'woody' in nature, that's what makes it burn.
"You grow it, let it die over the winter, collect it in the spring, bale it, shred it and put it into pellets that could be used by hydro generating plants, household heating."
It could also be used as a composite material such as car body parts as well as bio-ethanol and paper.

"There are a multitude of potential uses from this crop and others like it and there's probably a number that we haven't even thought of yet," McKeown said. "When you stop and think about it in terms of our energy requirements in the future, this is a potential source of energy for producing electricity and heating our homes and transportation fuel."

There are also industrial and job applications that could be developed, he said.

Switchgrass is a resilient plant capable of warding off many natural pests and plant diseases. It is drought resistant, is native to North America and grows well throughout Norfolk County.
The material generated by the plants is called biomass and is created when the plant dies. At that point, it can be collected and put to a variety of other uses including fuel.
It is a much cleaner way to generate energy and there are those who say pellets created by switchgrass could be used at the Nanticoke Generating Station, a coal-burning power generator operated by Ontario Power Generation.

"These so-called green energy fuels, the bio-fuels are greener because we're burning carbon that was picked up this season and then burned over the winter and the next season," McKeown said. "Whereas (right now) we're burning oil or coal, we're taking carbon, that was sequestered away millions of years ago and then releasing it to the atmosphere. When we do that we're adding carbon to the atmosphere."

When plant material or biomass is used as a fuel source it is recycling carbon not adding extra carbon to the atmosphere.

That's the concept that people are working with to develop sources of green energy.
Biomass fuel in the form of wood pellets are being tested by Ontario Power Generation (OPG) at it's Atikokan Generating Station in Northern Ontario and results so far have been encouraging.
"I think it's important to realize that there isn't going to be one answer, or one replacement for the fossil fuels," McKeown said. "Solar and wind power are important but we can't rely totally on them.
"We can't be putting all our eggs in one basket. We need a multitude of sources for our energy."
Switchgrass and other plants that could be used for fuel grow well in the fields of Norfolk, Haldimand and Brant. The use of those plants for fuel could provide a market and a source of income for farmers throughout the area of the Green Energy Hub -- the area that includes Brantford, Brant County, Haldimand County, Norfolk County and Six Nations.

So, he is asked, could switchgrass grown in the Green Energy Hub be used to feed the Nanticoke Generating Station to provide a substantial part of the province's energy needs?
"Absolutely," McKeown said. "A whole economy could be built around the use of biomass as fuel.
"But the problem is that right now we have a producer (the farmer) and an end user (Nanticoke Generating Station). What we don't have is all of the people in-between -- the people who can collect it, process it and get it to Nanticoke."

And, he said, it all has to be done in a way that makes sense.

For the economy to work, everyone from the farmer to the end user has to be able to make a profit.
"But you have to realize that there are challenges and issues with every potential source of fuel," he said. "The trick is to find solutions to the problems and come up with something that works.
"And you know we really have to get going on this."

Other countries are ahead of Canada in the development of alternative alternative fuels. There is also a kind of green wave sentiment against the use of fossil fuels and with a diminishing supply, the prices we pay at the gas pump are only going to go higher not lower.

"We don't want to be in a position where we are desperate for fuel," he said. "The time to develop new, renewable sources of fuel is now."

Indian Grass and Big Blue Stem are other examples of tall prairie grass that grows well in Norfolk. Big Blue stem is an upright grass capable of growing to more than 12-feet tall in warmer climates in the southern United States. It hasn't, to the best of McKeown's knowledge, been developed as an agricultural product.

But it is being studied to determine if it has agricultural and biomass production.
It's important to have different sources of biomass because crops will have good and bad growing years. As well, not every crop is adaptable to every type of soil.

"Different species will do better in different environments and we can mix and match to fit the environment in afield or an area," he said.

And, he adds, switchgrass can be used for other purposes as well.

"Oh yeah," he said to his visitor. "Up at the main campus they're making car parts from switchgrass.
"You really should visit them and see it for yourself."

With respect to using switchgrass or other plants for fuel, McKeown said that's already being done.
There are people who are using switchgrass pellets to heat their homes.