NB Power has applied for a 25 year licence to run the Point Lepreau Nuclear Generation Station (PLNGS) until 2047. The current licence is for five years and expires in June this year.
CRED-NB and the Canadian Environmental Law Association (CELA) will be intervening in the upcoming hearing by the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission (CNSC) to review the NB Power application.
The CNSC hearing period is open now. Click HERE to see how to participate.
Geopolitical events are persuading some governments to re-invest in fossil fuel infrastructure. Jim Emberger from the New Brunswick Anti-Shale Gas Alliance (NBASGA, a CRED-NB core group) wrote a letter in response to a commentary in Brunswick news calling for more fossil fuel extraction in Canada. He writes:
Climate change is happening so rapidly that many plants and animals may not be able to adapt or move in time to survive. Crop losses due to climate related weather, and diseases due to invasive species, whose expansion is enabled by warmer conditions, are all on the rise.
None of these trends cares a whit about Ukraine, or Canada’s fossil fuel industry. The laws of physics do not respond to political and economic events, nor can you bargain with them. If we burn more fossil fuels – the climate will warm – period.
Read the letter HERE, on the NBASGA website.
The latest report from the IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) was published on Feb. 28. The Conservation Council of New Brunswick published a story in the NB Media Co-op with a link to the report, HERE.
Do you know what carbon “lock-in” is, and how it keeps us tied to fossil fuel infrastructure in New Brunswick? If not, check out this video by JP Sapinski, professor of environmental studies at Université de Moncton. The story with the video link was published by the NB Media Co-op, HERE.
The video is Sapinski’s a zoom presentation, hosted by the Environment & Society program at St. Thomas University and the RAVEN project at the University of New Brunswick (both CRED-NB core members).
Today CRED-NB submitted a brief to the Standing Committee of the NB Legislature on climate change and environmental stewardship. Our brief notes that we appreciate the Government’s commitment to moving toward a zero-emissions electricity system while creating economic opportunities. However, we outline why the chosen pathway–backing private companies to develop SMRs–is deeply flawed and will fail to meet these expectations, at great cost to New Brunswickers. Read or download the brief HERE.
CRED-NB submitted to the pre-budget consultation for the New Brunswick government. Our submission addressed one of the consultation questions posed: What supports need to be put in place to help businesses minimize the economic disruption the pandemic continues to cause? You can read or download our submission HERE.
Gail Wylie represents the Council of Canadians Fredericton chapter on the CRED-NB core group. This week, Gail prepared and submitted a comprehensive review of the governance of nuclear waste in Canada and its impacts on the environment to the Parliamentary committee on nuclear waste management. You can read it HERE.
MPs and groups oppose hearings to license Canada’s first permanent radioactive waste dump
Members of Parliament and 50 environmental and citizen groups -including CRED-NB – are opposed to the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission (CNSC)’s forthcoming hearings to license Canada’s first permanent “disposal” facility for radioactive waste.
A statement calling for suspension of the hearings is signed by three MPs: Laurel Collins, NDP environment critic; Elizabeth May, Parliamentary Leader of the Green Party of Canada; and Monique Pauzé, environment spokesperson for the Bloc Québécois, as well as groups across Canada, including CRED-NB.
On January 31, the Kebaowek First Nation asked that the hearings be halted until a consultation framework between them and the CNSC is in place. The hearings are for authorization to build a “Near Surface Disposal Facility” for nuclear waste at Chalk River, Ontario, on unceded Algonquin Anishinaabeg lands alongside the Ottawa River.
The proposed facility would be an aboveground mound a kilometre from the Ottawa River, upstream from Ottawa and Montréal. 140 municipalities have opposed the project and fear contamination of drinking water and the watershed.
In 2017, the CNSC received 400 submissions responding to its environmental impact statement, the overwhelming majority of them opposed to the plan.
The Green Budget Coalition (GBC) is 23 leading Canadian environmental organizations working together to present an analysis of the most pressing issues regarding environmental sustainability in Canada. Every year, the GBC makes a consolidated annual set of recommendations to the federal government regarding strategic fiscal and budgetary opportunities.
The report for the federal 2022 budget is HERE. Check out the Recommendation on page 47: Eliminate federal funding and reject calls to rollback accident liability for SMRs, and reallocate investments towards renewable technologies that are proven, socially acceptable and scalable now.
The Pembina Institute published a report in January that will interest anyone looking for information about how to transform our electricity grid using real clean energy (not dirty nuclear or fossil fuels). Check it out HERE.
In this study, they examined the cost of providing reliable electricity in New Brunswick and Nova Scotia using balanced mixes of clean energy technologies and resources (clean energy portfolios) compared against natural gas and nuclear power plants, which are currently proposed as the default replacement for coal. Clean energy portfolios included a mix of commercially available zero-carbon electricity supply and demand management options, including solar, wind, battery storage, energy efficiency, demand flexibility, and imported hydroelectricity. In all cases, they found that clean energy portfolios provide the same services as gas and nuclear power plants at a lower cost per unit of energy over the lifetime of the energy source, even without reliance on imported hydroelectricity