Media release: A group of people from the Tampa Bay area, supported by allies in Nova Scotia, tried to attended the annual meeting of the shareholders of Emera, Inc. to demand that its subsidiaries, Tampa Electric Company (TECO) and Nova Scotia Power, abandon their plans to continue burning coal at its power plants.
Mallory Smith looks at the privatization of NS Power in 1992, a pretty sweet deal for shareholders drawing dividends from a company that has a monopoly over electrical supply in the province.
At present, Nova Scotia Power’s’s sulphur dioxide emissions are capped at 72,000 tonnes a year. NSP revealed to the utility board that the province intends to amend its Air Quality Regulations to allow 90,000 tonnes of emissions for 2021 and 2022. That’s wrong! Energy expert Richard Starr provides the context.
This afternoon some 40 environmentalists, including from Florida and Labrador, rallied at the new convention centre in Halifax to deliver a message of climate justice to Emera shareholders meeting inside.
News release: Some 20 Haligonians rallied at the Emera building on Lower Water Street in Halifax in solidarity with the Muskrat Falls Day of Action at Parliament Hill in Halifax. I added some photos I took.
Nova Scotia is one of Canada’s most emissions-intensive provinces. Peggy Cameron wrote an open letter to Stephen McNeil pleading to change that. “You need to say “no” to highways and pipelines that increase our use of fossil fuels. Then you need to tackle this short list: increase renewables for Nova Scotian use, not export; shut down coal-fired generating plants; incentivize regenerative agricultural practices; stop clear-cutting and pesticide-spraying; promote afforestation and value-added production; establish a province wide integrated transportation network; and create a net-zero-carbon building programme.”
The Muskrat Falls development may be far away in Labrador, but it is very much Nova Scotia’s business. That was the message delivered by speakers at a news conference held outside the Emera / Nova Scotia Power offices on Lower Water Street in downtown Halifax this morning. “What we are seeing is massive destruction and genocide for profit. The crown corporation Nalcor is giving itself the legal authority to commit genocide using water as a vehicle for devastation. Once they drown the landscape, methylmercury poisoning is inevitable. We are talking mass genocide to all vegetation, medicines and all living species. Lives will be lost,” said Michelle Paul.