First Nations fully embracing renewable energy, fuels
My Clean Break column in today’s Toronto Star takes a look at renewable energy and cleaner fuel initiatives under way by First Nations groups across Canada. The projects are as diverse as they are ambitious. In the London, Ontario, area, for example, a company called First Nation Ethanol Development Corp. wants to build a 115-million-litre ethanol production facility on First Nations land, which would be accompanied by a training centre. The idea is to bring more jobs to First Nations communities, increase the demand and price for corn from First Nations farmers, and at the same time help these communities become more self-sufficient in a way that supports their role as environmental stewards.
Other projects include biomass-to-oil initiatives in British Columbia and massive wind-farm projects in Ontario and Quebec. John Douglas, CEO of wind developer Ventus Energy Inc. in Toronto, says many of the First Nations groups he’s worked with are active, eager, and strategic partners. “These are laptop-toting people, and they’re like dealing with IBM — sophisticated, prepared. They have been a tremendous partner to have, and we have to work hard to keep up with them.”
Click here to listen to a shortened version of the column via podcast.
Tyler Hamilton is senior energy reporter and columnist for the Toronto Star, Canada's largest daily newspaper. In addition to this Clean Break blog, Tyler writes a weekly column of the same name that discusses trends, happenings and innovators in the cleantech market. This blog is a personal project started in April 2005. It is not an official blog of the newspaper. Tyler can be reached at tyler@cleanbreak.ca