Green Energy [Archived]

The main objective of Sierra Club Ontario’s Green Energy Campaign is to replace dirty fossil fuels and nuclear power by mobilizing grassroots activists in local communities to advocate for the transition to a clean energy future.

Dangerous, expensive nuclear and highly polluting fossil fuels like oil, gas, and coal must be phased out to prevent irreversible changes in our climate. They need to be steadily and gradually replaced with cleaner and greener sources of energy like renewables, paired with energy conservation practices, to keep global temperature rise well below 2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels, and to more aggressively limit the temperature increase even further to 1.5 degrees Celsius.

To this end we will: 

  • fight the expansion of tar sands, oil shale, deep-water drilling, and other high-carbon, high-risk fuels, and
  • oppose dangerous pipelines, refinery expansions, and other unnecessary oil infrastructure and ensure that existing oil infrastructure operates only with adequate safeguards and protection for workers, the public, and the environment. 

 

These actions take us towards our goals:

1. Green Energy Coalition

As a founding member of the Green Energy Coalition (GEC) in 1989, we have participated and intervened in many Ontario Energy Board proceedings, consultations and related legislative committees regarding energy use in Ontario. GEC advocates for enhanced energy efficiency and the reduction of adverse environmental impacts due to the production, transmission, pipeline distribution and use of energy. 

In 2015, the Ontario Energy Board held a hearing (EB-2015-0029 / EB-2015-0049) to approve Demand Side Management Plans for 6 years for both Union Gas and Enbridge Gas. Union proposed to cancel its large industrial DSM program – a single program that had produced HALF the gas savings generated by all of Union's programs in the prior 2 years. The Sierra Club brought expert evidence that showed the value of those savings both economically and environmentally to the province. In January 2016 the Board ruled that Union's program should be continued.

2. Oppose Dangerous Pipelines

Sierra Club Ontario Chapter has applied to the National Energy Board to participate in both TransCanada’s Energy East pipeline and tanker proposal as well as the Eastern Mainline Project proposed to run adjacent to Lake Ontario beginning near Markham, Ontario and finishing near the community of Iroquois, Ontario.

3. Support a Nuclear-Free Future

We envision an energy efficient world, powered by clean, renewable energy technologies, free from dirty, dangerous, costly nuclear power and its legacy of toxic waste.

We advocate for solar, wind and geothermal power as well as energy efficiency technologies — all cheaper, cleaner, and safer for humans and the environment!

 

For more information, or to inquire about volunteer opportunities, please contact us at ontario@sierraclub.ca

Click here to make a charitable donation towards our Green Energy work.

 

Local Chapter: