Call to Action: Letter template now available

For those of you who do not have the time to compose a personal comment, feel free to use the template below.

Simply copy and paste the text to the EBR site here.

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_____________________________________________________________

[Your name and address]

[Date]

Premier Dalton McGuinty

Rm 281, Legislative Building

Queens Park

Toronto, ON  M7A 1A1

Dear Premier,

Re: EBR Number: 011-0089

Renewable Energy Approval Requirements for Off-shore Wind Facilities – An Overview of the Proposed Approach

My Toronto includes more community based renewable energy, including off-shore wind.  Your Minister of Energy and Infrastructure is proposing to create a blanket ban on all wind developments within 5 kilometres of shore.  This would effectively kill any off-shore development close to Toronto as the lake depth that far from shore makes wind development impractical.

Your leadership in bringing the Green Energy Act through to completion has been truly visionary, for Ontario, Canada and the rest of North America.  The fact that other jurisdictions are now trying to emulate this accomplishment is testament to that fact.

We need to ensure that all wind developments meet stringent environmental guidelines. However, there is little rationale in the proposal to justify such an arbitrary ban.  The current Renewable Energy Approvals (REA) process was set up to identify and mitigate environmental concerns regarding wind power developments. Let the REA do the job it was meant to do.

As you know, Premier, there is overwhelming public support for more renewable energy in Ontario – including off-shore wind power projects.  This proposed ban makes no sense at all.

Denmark has long been a leader in renewable energy.   One of Denmark’s early off-shore projects is a project situated less than 4 kilometres off-shore of its largest city, Copenhagen.  Imagine a Toronto waterfront that rivals the forward thinking that made Copenhagen and Denmark leaders in the field of community-owned wind energy projects.

I urge you, Premier, to require off-shore wind projects to meet requirements set out in the Renewable Energy Approvals (REA) process that include environmental constraints. I also urge you to remove a 5 kilometre ‘blanket ban’ as it makes no environmental or economic sense.

Yours sincerely,

[Your Name]

Cc: Barry Duffey, Ministry of the Environment  barry.duffey@ontario.ca

Gord Miller, Environmental Commissioner gord.miller@eco.on.ca