WHATS HAPPENING ON THE ENERGY FRONT

WHAT IS THE CATHOLIC SCHOOL BOARD UP TO IN GREY-BRUCE HERES HIGHLIGHTS OF THE MEETING.THE ONLY THING I DON'T LIKE THEY SUPPORT KINCARDINE WIND POWER AS YOU WILL READ HERE.
http://www.bgcdsb.org/cms/One.aspx?portalId=5912138&pageId=7633166

BRUCE-GREY CATHOLIC SCHOOLBOARD
http://www.bgcdsb.org/

Bruce Grey Catholic District School Board-Board of Trustees Meeting Highlights February 22, 2011 - Delegations

Energy Efficiency Plans
Cathy Colton presented a report on the Board’s plans and priorities related to improving energy usage.

Part One: outlined the allocation of the Energy Efficient Schools Funding for the 2009/10 and 2010/11 school years which totalled $1,082,786. The funding, received through a Ministry initiative, was used to create environmentally friendly learning spaces, reduce energy use, and reduce greenhouse gas emissions, and included an energy audit of all schools by Callidus Engineering, upgrades to the lighting
in gymnasiums, HVAC systems, boilers, and windows.(I HOPE SHES NOT FOR HIGH TAXES THREW THIS CARBON TAX SCAM IF SHES FOR THIS ENERGY EFFICIENT PLAN).CHURCHES SHOULD NOT BE FOR THIS GODLESS GREEN SCAM TO MAKE US PAY CARBON TAXES FOR THE GOOD OF THE EARTH WORSHIP.

Part Two: Renewable Energy Funding approved for St. Anthony’s School in Kincardine for a solar project. The Ministry will fund $198,900 of the estimated $203,400 cost. With an Annual Generated Income of $8,769, the payback period is projected at 25 years. The project also provides an educational opportunity for the students. Upgrades to the roof and installation of the Solar Power project is to be completed by the end of August.(BUT WHO PAYS THE $203,000 IN ADVANCE,CITIZENS OF KINCARDINE.IF IT TAKES 25 YRS TO GET THE MONEY BACK.HIGH TAXES IN EVERY POSSIBLE WAY THATS HOW.

Part Three: The Ministry has made available a Utility Consumption Database for school boards to help prioritize future capital investments and/or maintenance and renewal plans. While use of this database is optional, the Bruce Grey Catholic DSB has opted to take advantage of this offer Through this data, we will be able to identify schools who are not as efficient as they should be, and this information can help inform decisions about future projects. We will continue to track utility costs using spreadsheets as well.
THIS IS EXACTLY WHAT SMART METERS DO TRACK OUR EVERY MOVE.I DON'T LIKE THIS BEING DONE BY THE CATHOLIC SCHOOL BOARD.THE GOVERNMENT TRACKS US IN EVERY POSSIBLE WAY ALREADY.NOW THE SCHOOL BOARD OF A CHURCH IS POISONING THE MINDS OF CHILDREN IN SCHOOL TO KEEP TRACK OF ALL THE CONSUMPTION.WHICH MEANS THEY KEEP TRACK OF ALL THE SCHOOLS.CHRISTIANS SHOULD BE OUTRAGED AT OUR EVERY MOVE BEING TRACKED THROUGHT SO CALLED SAVE THE EARTH ENERGY VEHICLES.THIS IS WHAT THIS SCHOOL BRAINWASHING OF STUDENTS KEEPING TRACK WILL ULTIMATELY LEAD TO.

REVELATION 13:16-18
16 And he(FALSE POPE) causeth all,(WORLD SOCIALISM) both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark in their right hand, or in their foreheads:(CHIP IMPLANT)
17 And that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name.
18 Here is wisdom. Let him that hath understanding count the number of the beast: for it is the number of a man; and his number is Six hundred threescore and six.(6-6-6) A NUMBER SYSTEM

Part Four: To develop a multi-year energy plan, with the assistance of the School Board Support Branch of the Ministry of Education.

Part Five: To work with an Incentive Program Advisor from the Ministry to help our board to take advantage of the variety of incentives that are available. This has been a free service for our Board and we have been successful on many applications and have received at total of $25,617 in funding through this support.

Authentic Governance through Ethical Leadership
Norm Bethune, Bev Eckensweiler, Bruce MacPherson, and Matt McLean shared highlights from Module 1 of the Ministry Governance training. The primary goal as trustees is to promote student achievement and well being. Student achievement: based on the parable of the talents, as Catholic School Boards, it must be part of our mission to give our students the tools they need to use their talents fully and wisely
Student well-being: our schools must be Christ centred learning environments
Student Faith Formation: as an integral part of the church’s mission to evangelize youth, Catholic schools must develop in our youth a love for God, an appreciation of prayer and character based on Catholic virtues.Board mission and vision: based on moral purpose, shared values and mutual understanding, all of the boards work must be driven by its mission and vision.Stewardship - a call to Christian ministry: we must ensure and safeguard the integrity of the Catholic system, Catholic gospel values must be embedded in policy and procedure, support faith development for staff and board members, employ staff that are committed to the vision, strengthen the homeparish-school partnership, promote public understanding of and support for Catholic education and its vital contribution to the social character of the province.

TO READ THE ENTIRE REPORT-FEB 2011
http://www.bgcdsb.org/cms/One.aspx?portalId=5912138&pageId=7633166

Policy and Administrative Procedures
Amendments to the following Policies were approved by motion:
• BP 3-2 on Duties of Chairperson
• BP 5-25 on Records and Information Management
The following Policy is currently under review:
• BP 5-15 on Trespassing to Board Property
Policies and Procedures under review can be viewed on the board website at www.bgcdsb.org
Next Board of Trustees meeting is March 22, 2011 at 10:00a.m.

Hydro One using this area as testing ground
By Paul Jankowski MAR 6,11 PAUL JANKOWSKI Sun Times staff

The Owen Sound region is the testing ground for Hydro One as it looks to update its electricity distribution system to incorporate everything from smart meters to thousands of new generating systems feeding renewable energy from solar panels, biomass generators and wind turbines into the provincial grid.Hydro One's transmission system is very smart. They can operate it remotely, they can see the whole system right across the province from our grid control centre in Barrie and it's highly automated. The distribution system not so much, Dave Watts, the communications lead for the Hydro One's advanced distribution system project, said in a recent interview.A customer has to call us to let us know the power is out. We can't see the system, we can't remotely operate equipment on the system, we can't monitor the health of the system . . . Our work in the Owen Sound area is a first initial step at (changing) that.That work, to begin later this year, consists of modernizing and automating one of the four transformer stations, two of the 30 distribution stations and 20 or so of the few hundred switches, controllers, reclosers and other devices in the Owen Sound region — an area roughly bounded by Tobermory, Hanover, Lake Huron and Stayner, according to Danièle Gauvin, a spokeswoman for Hydro One.

This work will be largely invisible to customers in the short-term. However, over the longer term, the modernization of the system will result in less frequent power interruptions of shorter duration as the new equipment will sense power interruptions automatically, much better data collection on the health of the system, allowing us to make more efficient maintenance and operating decisions and safely and reliably incorporating small renewable cleaner forms of generation on the distribution system,Gauvin said in an e-mail.This work will be largely invisible to customers in the short-term. However, over the longer term, the modernization of the system will result in less frequent power interruptions of shorter duration as the new equipment will sense power interruptions automatically, much better data collection on the health of the system, allowing us to make more efficient maintenance and operating decisions and safely and reliably incorporating small renewable cleaner forms of generation on the distribution system, Gauvin said in an e-mail.Today, when a switch needs to be opened or closed, a line crew would be sent to do that, Watts said. The notion is to automate some of those devices so they can be monitored remotely and worked remotely.The project won't be first of its kind in the industry, according to Watts. Many of the larger utilities in the province, for example Toronto Hydro, they have this automation now.The key difference is geography. Many utilities like Hydro One have widely dispersed, less dense geographies and traditionally this equipment is not used in those geographies. But given the emerging technologies . . . this becomes absolutely doable,he said.

Utilities in Ontario already have the ability to turn down the central air conditioning units of customers who have signed up for the peaksaver program. There are predictions fridges will soon keep track what's inside them and suggest recipes based on that, warn when milk is going bad according to its best before date and be hooked into the Internet or a smartphone app so it can order supplies. Combined those sorts of things with smart meters, which measure when you're using power and how much, and it raises some serous questions how well customers' privacy is protected on the so-called smart grid.Ann Cavoukian, Ontario's information and privacy commissioner, has warned the smart grid has the potential to erode privacy, as new components will be able to collect far more granular data about electricity consumption in the household — from the time you go to bed, to when you shower, to when you eat, to whether you have an electronic security system.But Hydro One, working with Cavoukian and suppliers GE, IBM and Telvent have come up with the gold standard of protection, the privacy commission said at a recent convention.It has been baked into the system at the design stage, Gauvin said. It just sends the encrypted data of here's how much usage there was in this household at this time. It wouldn't say it was a stove that was on versus something else that was on. It wouldn't say this is Mrs. Smith's meter.

There are two components to smart meters, Watts said. One measures electricity use and one is basically a radio that twice a day wakes up and communicates with the meter next to it and to the next meter, to the next meter, to the next meter in a local area network.That network feeds a regional collector and the regional collector sends the data to Hydro One. We, in turn, provide that data to a central data warehouse . . . They verify all the buckets are filled up, all the hourly intervals, then they send it back to us for billing,he said. What you can view today, if I go up to your meter, a conventional meter, I can get your meter number and your usage. With a smart meter same thing, meter number and usage.

It will take about a year to get the Owen Sound region program up and running. How long it will take to roll it out across Hydro One's whole system — the company has 122,000 kilometres of low voltage lines serving 1.3 million customers in Ontario — Watts couldn't say.I don't have a plan that takes me out that far, he said. You would need to do all the appropriate business cases before you decide to roll it out further.Article ID# 3008216

School needs to be demolished: Board
By Denis Langlois MAAR 4,11

It's time for the historic wing of St. Mary's High School to be demolished, says the head of the area's separate school board.We're at the stage now where we're just waiting on the city so we can move forward, Bruce MacPherson, the Bruce Grey Catholic District School Board's director of education, said Thursday.He confirmed the next step in the board's redevelopment plan for the Owen Sound high school is to knock down the 120-year-old annex.City council voted Monday to delay by another three weeks a decision on the board's latest plan to demolish the building and replace it with a mostly glass entranceway and monument to commemorate the original school.MacPherson said the board has received no provincial money to finance its demolition and monument plan. That money will come out of the board's existing budget.The board has long said the two-storey 1891 portion of St. Mary's High School is cost prohibitive to repair and slowly shifting in the ground.Public access was blocked off in 2009 and its windows boarded up with plywood.

The board had intended to demolish the structure after an addition on the school's opposite end was built. The new wing opened in 2009.Since then, the board's plan to demolish the boarded-up annex has been put on hold by the city.It wasn't until last April that council withdrew its intention to designate the annex under Ontario Heritage Act legislation.In its decision, council said it would work with the school board to find a mutually satisfactory solution to commemorate the school while permitting its demolition.The two sides have failed to reach a compromise since then. The new plan, brought forward at Monday's council meeting, will be debated on March 21. Coun. Jim McManaman introduced a motion to delay council's decision, saying all of council should be present to vote on the significant matter.The board is seeking permission to build a 73-square-metre, mostly glass addition to the school to replace the annex at the school's west end.

The entranceway features of the original school would be reconstructed, after demolition, using materials from the old annex, to create a monument to the old school, according to plans submitted to city hall by the school board.Staff is recommending council approve the plan, but require the board to submit a three-dimensional electronic survey of the historic building's exterior and photographs of the interior for preservation before a demolition permit is issued. It is also recommending that council require the school board to detail how original materials from the demolished annex would be salvaged to create the monument. Staff is also recommending a completion deadline of February 2012 for demolition of the original school and construction of the new entranceway.Article ID# 3006294

OPG's Deep Geologic Repository EIS document to be released in March
Six-month public consultation period to commence after publication
By Troy Patterson, Kincardine News Staff, The Kincardine News
Posted MAR 4,11 - THE SUN TIMES

The Nuclear Waste Management Organization (NWMO) is confident of its public safety and environmental case, heading into the next milestone for Ontario Power Generation's (OPG) proposed Deep Geologic Repository (DGR) for low and intermediate-level nuclear waste.Municipality of Kincardine council was unanimous in it support as the host community, after an update on the project at the March 3 council meeting.

This month (March 2011), NMWO is anticipating the submission of the DGR Environmental Impact Statement (EIS), Preliminary Safety Report and Technical Support Documents to the Joint Review Panel, consisting of technical experts from the federal Ministry of Environment (MOE) and Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission (CNSC).Once submitted, the extensive 10,000-page document, and 60-page summary will be made available to the public for a sixth-month review period.Anything you ever wanted to know about the project is there, said NWMO's Marie Wilson, whose federal organization is providing technical services and regulatory support for DGR owner, operator and licensee, OPG. The profile will be heightened during this time, both regionally and nationally.The proposed repository would be built 680-metres beneath the surface, with a multiple-layer, 200-metre cap of shale and sedimentary, low-permeable limestone above the site to protect the environment from any radioactive decay climbing upwards over thousands of years, said Wilson.What we have are ideal geologic conditions for this repository, said Wilson. The formations are predictable.
OPG and NWMO are committed to communicating with the public in a transparent and open manner, through an all-encompassing public consultation program in the coming months. Once public consultation is complete, a public hearing is scheduled for 2012 before the Joint Review Panel, who will make a recommendation to the federal government.If approved by cabinet, OPG/NWMO will be granted a site preparation and construction license in 2012, with the facility expected to be operational as early as 2018.

In an effort to maintain a public presence and keep the region informed, the NWMO has been promoting the DGR project through multiple forms of media, regional newsletters and attendance at public events.This project won't succeed unless we have strong community support, she said. The DGR will be constructed if it is safety to do so and only with regulatory approval and community support, she said.Wilson said they have a wealth of data to draw from after an intensive four-year geologic investigation at the site. The project has drawn the attention of world-class geologists, engineers and ecological experts, who have helped validate the case though a peer review process, she said.The DGR project will not have any adverse effects on the public or the environment, said Wilson.The series of two panels of repositories will have a capacity to store up to 200,000 cubic metres of low and intermediate-level nuclear waste at the Bruce site, north of Kincardine, about 1km inland from the lake at the Western Waste Management Facility. The body of waste will consist of about 75% low level operational waste (incinerated clothing, maintenance/cleaning supplies), 15% intermediate level operational waste (irradiated tools, reactor components and resin used to clean moderator water), as well as an additional 10% made up of low and intermediate-level refurbishment waste.The material will be collected from all of OPG's 20 reactors, including six of the eight reactors in service that are leased to Bruce Power.As part of their safety case, Wilson stressed there is no risk to local groundwater or Lake Huron, as drinkable water only exists within the first 100 metres below ground and Lake Huron's deepest point at the Bruce site is 200-metres.Our case is very solid about our ability to protect the lake, she said, adding the only traces of water found at level are miniscule and prehistoric, with a salinity eight to 10 times that of ocean water.

She stressed they are seeking a license for only low and intermediate-level nuclear waste, not used nuclear fuel which is a completely separate project for NMWO through Adaptive Phased Management. Used fuel storage is prohibited by the Municipality of Kincardine under a Memorandum of Understanding and would require a public referendum to allow the document to be altered.Council has said it is not interested in used fuel, she said. That will not change.Municipality of Kincardine mayor Larry Kraemer, Deputy Mayor Anne Eadie and councillors praised OPG and the NWMO for turning them from skeptics to believers that this is the right thing to do.At the very first, I wasn't even clear on the difference in waste, said Eadie. You've done an excellent job getting information across to the public.Councillor Mike Leggett questioned what would be done with the hundreds of thousands of tonnes of aggregate extracted from the site. Wilson said they have accounted for the waste rock and have a plan to address the issue.Kraemer, who as mayor in 2002 who toured similar long-term nuclear storage facilities and repositories in Switzerland, France and Sweden, said the OPG DGR safety case has gone beyond the best facilities in the world of similar design to get to this point. He said the closest resemblance to the DGR's design is a facility about 50-metres under the Baltic Sea at a Swedish nuclear facility in Forsmark.

I think the safety case is far stronger here... at well over 2,000-feet, you could stick the CN tower in it and have a couple hundred metres of fill on top, that's how deep it is,said Kraemer. All of what we saw (in Europe) was the best in the world. What we have here will be the best ever built... the geology is as close to perfect as we can get.Kraemer said the public and political representatives from each country were optimistic about the safety of the projects, as well as the economic benefits they bring to communities.Every municipality we visited representatives recommended we go forward, even those who weren't in favour before it was in place, he said.

DGR History/Background

2001: Municipality of Kincardine initiatives discussions to jointly study long-term nuclear waste management options for the Bruce nuclear site.
2002: Memorandum of Understanding signed between OPG and Municipality of Kincardine stating nuclear fuel would not be stored permanently at the Bruce site.
2004: Kincardine council requested DGR as its preferred solution. A hosting agreement was signed with OPG.
2005: OPG submitted a project description to CNSC to initiate regulatory process.
2006: Hearing to determine level of Environmental Assessment (EA).
2007: Federal Minister of Environment supports Panel Environmental Assessment. Joint Review Panel process introduced to address EA and application for site preparation and construction licence.
2009: Final guidelines issued for Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) and Joint Review Panel Agreement.
2011: Planned submission of EIS and Preliminary Safety Report to Joint Review Panel, followed by six-month public consultation period.
For information visit www.opg.com/dgr/ Article ID# 3006630

Senator wants nuclear a major player in nation's energy future
By TROY PATTERSON , KINCARDINE NEWS STAFF MAR 2,11

Canadian Senator David Angus praised Bruce Power and Ontario Power Generation (OPG) in a speech leaning on nuclear power as a mature green alternative to meet Canada's future electricity needs.Angus' speech Preparing for our Energy Future -Towards a Canadian Sustainable Energy Strategy was delivered during the Canadian Nuclear Association's Nuclear Industry Conference and Trade Show last Thursday (Feb. 24).

With over 700 in attendance from 15 countries, the event brought together nuclear industry companies, suppliers, trade organizations and other energy professionals from around the world.Despite the publicity surrounding Atomic Energy of Canada's (AECL) financing and restructuring, the Standing Senate Committee on Energy, the Environment and Natural Resources supports the Crown corporation, its 62-year track record and its future as a relatively cheap form of electricity that Canadians can rely on, Angus said.With upwards of $50 billion invested in the CANDU nuclear technology, which has seen a recent resurgence in interest, he said misspending in the past shouldn't qualify it for disassembly.I can't conceive how this kind of baby could be thrown out with the bath water, said Angus, who has recently been touring Canada's nuclear sites. There's nothing like being there and that's what we're telling the Prime Minister. Canada may be off the rails right now... but with passionate leaders like (Bruce's) Duncan Hawthorne and Tom Mitchell (OPG)... we're so impressed by nuclear.Angus said the committee understands Ontario's commitment to nuclear power, adding it's not spoiled by financial issues that have impacted refurbishment projects.

The committee's goal is to research Canada's future energy needs, balancing out traditional technologies like nuclear, hydro-electric and natural gas, while considering the place for newer technologies like wind and solar power. He said with about 15 groups doing similar studies on Canada's electrical future, there are regional, national, economic and cooperative challenges that will all impact its overall outcome.He compared the Canadian public's uncertainty with nuclear power to that of France or Japan, adding the Canadian public is paranoid that a Chernobyl or Three Mile Island-type nuclear incident is bound to happen here. Angus said France is the opposite, with 93% of its electricity from nuclear plants and a similar level of support for nuclear power in Japan.They don't have our luxuries or alternatives, or the social issues with waste, he said.Considering Ontario's policy to shutdown coal generating plants, Angus said his sources have made it clear the scrubber technologies to significantly cut back carbon emissions are years from becoming financially viable for wide-spread use, making it not realistic.The technology is miles away from being viable, he said.With each province handling its power needs differently, the committee is looking forward to seeing how energy policies are developed across Canada, so they may use their data in their research to determine what should be recommended for Canada's energy future.I think Canada is so well placed to take the lead in so many things, said Angus. We want Canadians to understand what we have and not be reticent about trying new things.Their research is focused on the debate Canadians are having on what do we want in terms of power generation, as the world is expected to increase in population from 6.8 to 9.2 billion over the next 40 years.He said energy conservation can save upwards of 20% of Canada's future electricity needs, but the public and electricity distributors have to be willing to make investments, cut back and do what needs to be done to save electricity regularly.We want the cleanest and cheapest form of energy, but we have to stop the waste,said Angus.Article ID# 2999032

RELATED STORIES INFO ONLY
http://climateprogress.org/2009/01/05/study-cost-risks-new-nuclear-power-plants/
http://climateprogress.org/wp-content/uploads/2009/01/nuclear-costs-2009.pdf
http://climateprogress.org/2008/05/08/is-450-ppm-possible-part-5-old-coals-out-cant-wait-for-new-nukes-so-what-do-we-do-now/
http://www.americanprogressaction.org/issues/2008/nuclear_power_report.html
http://www.time.com/time/printout/0,8816,1869203,00.html
http://climateprogress.org/2008/04/22/is-450-ppm-or-less-politically-possible-part-2-the-solution/
http://climateprogress.org/2008/10/22/an-introduction-to-the-core-climate-solutions/
http://climateprogress.org/2008/11/23/an-open-letter-to-james-hansen-on-the-real-truth-about-stabilizing-at-350-ppm/
http://climateprogress.org/2008/06/02/nukes-part-2-nuclear-bomb/
http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2008/06/02/nuclear_power_price/
http://www.economist.com/node/626438
http://climateprogress.org/2008/05/06/obama-knows-nukes-planet-gore-knows-nothing/