This announcement represents concrete progress toward meeting the government’s commitment to reduce coal use by another third before the next provincial election in October 2011. It also puts the province in a good position to finish the coal phase out, as promised, no later than 2014.

However, given the large increases in both clean renewable power and cleaner natural gas generation that the province has obtained since 2003, and the potential for the Green Energy Act to make even more clean supply available, the Ontario Clean Air Alliance continues to urge the government to achieve a full phase out of coal – the single largest industrial contributor to climate change in Ontario – sooner rather than later. They believe the government can – and should – eliminate all coal-fired electricity generation before the October 2011 provincial election because every tonne of greenhouse gas eliminated now is much more valuable than a tonne saved five years from now.