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For immediate release Tory Releases Plan to Reduce Greenhouse Gas Emissions TORONTO – This week John Tory, leader of the Opposition, released his climate change plan that would set achievable targets for reducing greenhouse gas emissions and committed to installing scrubbers on coal plants. “We need to take major action, but we don’t ever want to make promises we can’t keep,” said Ernie Hardeman, MPP for Oxford. “We saw Dalton McGuinty do that over and over with the coal plants and as a result years have been wasted because they failed to take steps to reduce the pollution created by the plants.” “We can’t turn the coal plants off until we can replace the power they generate,” said Tory. “It was Dalton McGuinty who stated that dirty air contributed to 1,800 premature deaths and a billion dollars a year in health costs. By that measure, it would be irresponsible not to install clean air technology such as scrubbers, at least at Nanticoke, where they can do the most good. A real leader would have installed that technology four years ago. When we are elected, that’s what we will do.” Tory’s plan to reduce greenhouse gas includes setting a target of reducing emissions by 10% by 2020, the same target as B.C. He also set a long-term goal of a 60% reduction in emissions to 72 megatonnes by 2050. Dalton McGuinty’s government has had almost four years in government but has done next to nothing to reduce greenhouse gasses. Tory believes in leadership by example and his government would move immediately to:
“This plan is ambitious, but it is also realistic and achievable,” said Hardeman. -30-
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