Buying Emission Credits Helps Environment

The following release from Ontario Power Generation outlines the advantages of using Infineum's Vektron fuel additives to earn emission credits. For more information on emissions trading request a copy of issue 1 of Insight. For information on Vektron contact your nearest Infineum sales office.

Ontario Power Generation has agreed to purchase 35O tonnes of Nitrogen Oxide (NOx) emission reduction credits from Shell Products Canada Ltd.

OPG is committed to a strategy of improving air quality, having spent more than $1 billion over the past decade to reduce emissions. Innovative approaches, such as emission reduction credit (ERC) trading, are part of that commitment.

Companies earn ERCs by investing in projects that reduce air pollution. Other companies then buy ERCs to help offset the cost of these projects and to meet their own compliance obligations.

ERC trading produces substantial environmental and economic benefits. It fosters projects that economically reduce air pollution, thus easing the burden on consumers of added costs for products or services.

On a global scale, ERC trading is proving an effective tool for meeting air quality commitments, particularly where trans-boundary pollution exists.

The company earning the credits is required to prove that the emission reductions are real, surplus, verifiable and quantifiable. Also, OPG voluntarily retires ten per cent of all credits it creates or purchases as an immediate benefit to the environment. Retired credits cannot be sold or applied against regulated emission limits.

The credits in this transaction were earned through the inclusion of VEKTRON 3589 fuel additive to Shell's gas products. The additive significantly reduces NOx emissions from vehicles. NOx is a major contributor to smog.

Chris Harmony, of the Asthma Society of Canada, endorsed the project saying, "Pollution can be a major problem for people suffering from asthma. The Asthma Society is very supportive of this initiative to lower NOx emissions in Southern Ontario and hopes that this will lead to larger reductions in vehicle emissions."

While OPG is a relatively small contributor to the smog problem in this region, Chief Operating Officer John Fox said buying emission reduction credits is just one of many tools the company is using to reduce emissions affecting southern Ontario.

"Our integrated reduction plan includes using low sulphur coal, low NOx burners, particulate filters and sulphur dioxide scrubbers. As well, we have converted two of the four oil-fuelled units at the Lennox plant near Kingston to also burn natural gas," Fox said.

"The addition of the fuel additive to Shell's gas products will reduce emissions in Southern Ontario. By purchasing these reduction credits we gain flexibility in managing the impacts of our fossil generating stations", he added.

The 350 tonnes of reduction credits is equivalent to the amount of NOx produced by 90,000 cars over a ten-week period.

Ontario Power Generation Inc. is one of the five largest electricity generators on the continent with a current in-service capacity of 26,000 megawatts. The company, formerly part of Ontario Hydro, currently supplies about 85 per cent of Ontario's electricity needs.

For further information:

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Tel: +44 1235 549509; Fax: +44 1235 549511
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