30 Fairmont
Park Lane S
Lethbridge, AB
T1K 7H7
Phone: (403) 328-1804
Thursday, March 15, 2007
The Editor
The Lethbridge Herald
P.O. Box 670
Lethbridge, AB, T1J 3Z7
Dear Editor,
Congratulations to the Herald for the original nuclear energy articles on March 4. It is interesting that the Pembina Institute helped make the Cosmos Voutsinos point that some interest groups are deliberately misleading the public.
For example, the Pembina Institute makes much of minor greenhouse gas releases. Their information comes from a related Pembina report designed to frighten Ontarians. Nothing is said there, or in their Herald article about the 75 million tonnes of greenhouse gases avoided annually by nuclear electricity just in Ontario.
One could think that Pembina is just uninformed. No way. Their report referred several times to a paper on life cycle emissions from CANDU nuclear plants I co-authored. It covers all releases from the building and operation of the plants. They thus know better. Pembina is clearly emphasizing the negatives and ignoring the positives on this issue and others.
At one time I thought Albertans could count on Pembina Institute for an objective balanced discussion of environmental issues. No more. Pembina has chosen to take an adversarial position relative to the resource development companies, and their environmental analyses must be taken with a large dose of salt.
Yours truly,
Duane Pendergast