Energy leaders to meet and debate next week

October 5, 2013 · 0 Comments

With changes to Ontario’s long-term energy strategy on the horizon, what happens when you get the leaders of all types of electricity production together in one room to argue about it?

The answer should be forthcoming next Thursday, Oct. 10, following a half-day debate on the topic at Canadian Wind Energy Association’s 29th annual meeting in Toronto.

The debate, says CanWEA’s Ulrike Kucera, will be moderated by energy journalist Tyler Hamilton. Environmental activist Tzeporah Berman will be a keynote speaker at the debate.

The London, ON, born Ms. Berman, 44, was one of the organizers of the 1992-93 logging blockades in B.C., a protest against clearcut logging of sections of the B.C. rainforest.

Wikipedia says she is “a strategic advisor on clean energy, oilsands and pipelines for many environmental, First Nations and philanthropic organizations.

“She has been co-director of Greenpeace International’s Global Climate and Energy Program, Executive Director and Co-founder of PowerUp Canada and Co-founder and Campaign Director of ForestEthics.”

As well, among other things, she was appointed to B.C.’s Green Energy Task Force in 2009 by then-premier Gordon Campbell, and was once described in Readers Digest as “Canada’s Queen of Green.”

The debate will include: Robert Hornung, President, Canadian Wind Energy Association; David Butters, President, Association of Power Producers of Ontario; John Gorman, President, Canadian Solar Industries Association; Dr. Ron Oberth, President, Organization of Canadian Nuclear Industries; Paul Norris, President, Ontario Waterpower Association; and Adam White, President, Association of Major Power Consumers, according to a CanWEA news release.

Meantime, the Energy Review Tribunal hearings into Dufferin Wind Power’s Renewal Energy Approval will be winding down in Toronto with Constitutional arguments about whether or not opponents of the wind farm have a cause for complaint under the Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

At the end of the ERT hearings, the parties are to submit their final arguments in writing to the panel, and then the tribunal has only six months in which to issue its order.

By Wes Keller