Cathy Dobson/The Independent

St. Clair Township’s political support for additional natural gas-fired power plants ignores dire consequences to the health of local residents, says a prominent medical researcher and renewable energy advocate.

“The Sarnia area should be urgently phasing out harmful gas-fired electricity to be replaced with renewable energy, not expanding gas,” said Dr. Mili Roy, co-chair of the Canadian Association of Physicians for the Environment (CAPE) and founding co-chair of the Ontario Climate Emergency Campaign.

Local residents should be concerned St. Clair Township already has three gas-fired power plants and has officially endorsed another four, she said.

Politicians at the local level control the kinds of power projects built in their region because municipal approval is required before proposals can be submitted to the Independent Electricity System Operator (IESO).

St. Clair council has voted in favour of every gas-fired plant proposal submitted to it in the last year.

These include one from Invenergy to add a 245-megawatt turbine at its St. Clair Energy Centre on Petrolia line; one from Atura Power for a 500-megawatt gas-fired power plant on the former Lambton Generating Station site; a new 390-megawatt plant from Eastern Power; and most recently a 250-megawatt plant by Vogtech Renewables at the corner of Greenfield and Bickford Lines.

“I’ve no concerns about gas-fired plants,” Mayor Jeff Agar said, responding to Dr. Roy’s comments. “I’m sure you can find fault with anything.

“Gas has always been clean in my mind,” he said. “They shut down the coal plant and that was a big (tax) hit for us. St. Clair lost $2 million a year and it’s been very hard for us to make that up.”

Agar said he anticipates the IESO will respond to the gas plant applications for St. Clair Township within a few months.

“They are never going to approve all of them,” he said. “But getting something approved is going to bring jobs. That’s number one. We have nothing else going on right now.”

While air pollution in Sarnia-Lambton has improved since the coal-fired LGS closed in 2013, more gas-fired plants will increase it again and bring significant health impacts, said Dr. Roy.

Gas-fired plants create carbon pollution that leads to climate change, she said, adding that she considers climate change the “single greatest health crisis that we face today.

“Burning more gas and having more gas-fired plants only makes it worse, so lives are actually on the line.”

Nitrogen dioxide is the main air pollutant that gas plants emit and has a myriad of proven health impacts, Dr. Roy said.

“The more science we do on this, the more stringent guidelines from the World Health Organization have become,” she said. “We’re realizing there is really no completely safe exposure limit to nitrogen dioxide,” she said. “We are more vulnerable than we ever thought.”

Specific health impacts include lung and heart disease, more asthma, brain diseases like stroke and dementia, multiple forms of cancer, and higher pregnancy risks like stillbirths and birth defects, according to Dr. Roy, a practicing physician and assistant profession at the University of Toronto.

“It is known to increase emergency room and hospital admissions and it is linked to premature death,” she said.

Some studies have already shown that parts of Sarnia Lambton have triple the national rate of leukemia, Dr. Roy said. “We know that exposure to pollutants such as nitrogen dioxide is a known risk factor for that particular cancer.”

“So when St. Clair makes a decision on gas plant expansion, this directly influences the health and lives of local residents in the area,” she said.

In the face of growing concerns over health impacts, Dr. Roy urged local residents to push for renewable energy sources like wind, solar and hydro, and reject natural gas.

“Ignoring clean renewable solutions unnecessarily compromises public health and safety,” she said. “That’s so important to bring up if you are meeting with your councillors, MPPs, or MPs.”

Several Ontario municipalities have officially opposed or rejected the expansion of gas-fired power plants, citing health concerns, climate commitments and air quality issues. They include Thorold, Halton Hills, Kingston, Loyalist Township and Shuniah. Others have endorsed a phase-out of gas power including Toronto, Mississauga, and Hamilton.

On the other hand, Mayor Agar has frequently said he’d like to see St. Clair Township become the gas turbine capital of Ontario. Apart from the permanent number of jobs that new gas-fired plants would create, he’s cited the amount of construction they could bring to the region, and his commitment to the area’s economic development.

Dr. Roy was invited to speak to members of the Kiwanis of Sarnia-Lambton Golden K by Allan McKeown, co-chair of Climate Action Sarnia-Lambton.

It’s important for local residents to realize the Ontario government wants to expand electricity capacity and is focused on building more nuclear and natural gas plants, said McKeown. But renewable sources like wind and solar are “cheaper by a long shot” and don’t pollute, he said.

Apart from the health impacts, local residents should consider that 70 per cent of gas burned in Ontario is being fracked in the US , McKeown said, leaving Ontario vulnerable to the whims of the US president.

That means the US directly profits and leaves Ontarians vulnerable to U.S. President Donald Trump’s whims, he said.

According to the latest annual forecast from the Independent Electricity System Operator, which plans for Ontario’s future energy needs, electricity demand is anticipated to grow 65% by 2050.