Allan Woods
CanWest News Service

Tuesday, June 27, 2006

OTTAWA - A massive jump in industrial production in Western Canada, including in Alberta’s oilsands, threatens to give rise to a domestic acid rain problem akin to that caused by U.S. polluters in the 1980s, according to federal documents obtained by CanWest News Service.

The documents, prepared for Environment Minister Rona Ambrose, indicate that a sharp increase in sulphur dioxide and nitrogen oxide emissions, which are the main ingredients in acid rain, are expected as ”Canada’s largest and fastest growing GHG (greenhouse gas) emitting sectors” electricity, oil and gas and transportation continue to expand….

Acid rain has largely flown under the political radar since former prime minister Brian Mulroney and his U.S. counterpart George Bush Sr. hammered out the acid rain accord in 1991. The treaty committed the two countries to cutting sulphur dioxide emissions by 40 per cent by 2010, but targeted environmental degradation caused by acid rain in Eastern Canada, from Manitoba to Newfoundland…. ([1] Full Story — off-site)