Emera Inc.’s record profits could be coming at the expense of local jobs and industry as well as the environment.
The possible connection is spelled out in a set of six reports released this week by the provincial Natural Resources Department ahead of a new natural resources strategy later this year.
The record first-quarter profits for Emera, which were also announced this week, were fuelled in large part by tax breaks on investments made in renewable energy in Nova Scotia.
As Emera’s major business unit and profit driver, Nova Scotia Power has been investing heavily in wind power and it hopes to increase its capital investment through a controversial joint venture with NewPage Port Hawkesbury. The utility is seeking approval for a co-generating plant that would burn biomass to produce electricity for the utility and steam for the Cape Breton paper mill.
The project is supported by government, which regards biomass as a short-term fix for meeting renewable energy targets for electricity and as a potentially long-term source of fuel for other uses, such as heat.
But the steering panel that is advising government on its natural resources strategy pointed out in its report this week that burning biomass is "counterintuitive" if the government really wants to protect the environment.
The steering panel concluded there was "ample evidence that our forests are already under considerable stress." It also questioned whether Nova Scotia could burn biomass at a level that was sustainable and that would "make much of a difference" to the environment.
Instead, the panel urged government to slow down on biomass and treat the proposed project at the Cape Breton paper mill as a test case.
Another of the reports released this week sets the local controversy about biomass in a global setting, warning of unintended consequences for local industry as global and local demand for biomass expands.
The expert panel on biodiversity explained that an increase in demand for biomass exports from Nova Scotia could create a shortage of local wood supply, attract more foreign competition, and draw off workers from other forest industries. "Nova Scotia could face significant impact to rural communities dependent on traditional resident forestry businesses," according to the report.
The panel also warned that an increasing demand for biomass fuel could drive up commodity prices and "stress industries such as sawmills, paper production, and other value-added forest enterprises in Nova Scotia (as) a growing biofuel industry competes for trees with other forest product users."
The steering panel, which thinks management of natural resources should be grounded in science and local ecological knowledge, has called for the creation of a scientific panel and a virtual science institute to advise government and share research.
In the meantime, as the warnings about biomass pile up, so do Emera’s profits.
Rachel Brighton is the publisher of the regional magazine Coastlands and a former business editor and journalist.
2 comments:
It is quite disgusting to have a leadership that would promote the destruction of nature's woodland eco-environment to support the conviences of some stupid human tricks!
Good article. The government talks about "Caution" in its approach to biomass, but building a $200 million dollar plant with a 60 megawatt capacity, with another 70 megawatts in 2020 does not sound the precautionary principle that I have heard about.
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