NRSP Email to Environment Minister Laurel Broten

From: Tom Harris [mailto:tom.harris@nrsp.com]
Sent: May 10, 2007 3:49 PM
To: 'minister.moe@ontario.ca'
Subject: FW: MEDIA RELEASE - Bans on incandescent light bulbs and used oil burning may be threatening the environment
Importance: High

Dear Minister Broten,

The following news release was just issued to media across Canada. We certainly look forward to hearing back from you concerning NRSP’s request for information about the process employed by the government in your decision to ban used oil burning in the province.

Sincerely,

Tom Harris, B. Eng., M. Eng. (thermofluids)
Executive Director
Natural Resources Stewardship Project
P.O. Box 23013
Ottawa, Ontario K2A 4E2

Phone: 613-234-4487
Web: www.nrsp.com

From: Tom Harris [mailto:tom.harris@nrsp.com]
Sent: May 10, 2007 2:58 PM
Subject: MEDIA RELEASE - Bans on incandescent light bulbs and used oil burning may be threatening the environment
Importance: High

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Attention: News Editors, Political Reporters, Science and Environment Reporters

MEDIA RELEASE

Is the focus on greenhouse gas emission reduction threatening the environment?

Banning of established technologies such as incandescent light bulbs and used oil burning may be setting the stage for a series of intrusive and unnecessary pre-election ‘green’ regulations

Ottawa , Canada , May 10, 2007 – As explained when the Natural Resources Stewardship Project (NRSP) launched its Science Audit Centre in mid-April, we are concerned that government strategies designed to reduce carbon dioxide (CO₂) emissions are not being subject to appropriate review by independent environmental experts. As a consequence, costly and intrusive regulations may be forced on taxpayers without a balanced consideration of the impact of these decisions on the environment as a whole. This may result in circumstances where, to attain CO₂ reductions, governments are mandating policies that actually increase emission of real pollutants such as mercury, particulates, sulfur dioxide, oxides of nitrogen, etc.

NRSP is investigating a number of circumstances where this may be happening, starting with the following two:

• At the federal level we have just initiated communications with Environment Minister John Baird concerning the overall impact of his decision to ban incandescent light bulbs – our letter to the Minister may be seen here.

• At the provincial level, we are still waiting for a response from Ontario Minister of the Environment Laurel Broten to our April 20 request for a description of the process used by her department in their decision to ban used oil burning in the province. We are particularly concerned about this decision because of her exceptionally strong focus on CO₂ reduction when she announced the ban earlier in the year. Our letter to the Minister may be viewed here. As we wrote to Minister Broten, “While sensible energy conservation and pollution reduction is indeed an important objective, modern climate science findings shed serious doubt on the hypothesis that anthropogenic CO₂ emissions are a significant cause of global climate change. We believe that an undue focus on CO₂ reduction diverts attention from the important task of reducing real pollutants … NRSP believes that any new approach to the handling of used oil must have a net positive impact on reducing environmental damage.”

Like many Canadians, NRSP is concerned that, in an effort to appear ‘green’ and make a contribution to the fashionable but impractical goal of ‘stopping climate change’, governments at all levels are promoting ‘solutions’ that may do more harm than good.

For more information or to set up interviews with NRSP participants, please visit www.nrsp.com or contact:

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