Experts say Fraser Institute report on coal and clean air is “scientifically flawed”
National Observer, February 22, 2017
By Elizabeth McSheffrey
The Ontario government is fiercely disputing the validity of a recent Fraser Institute report claiming that phasing out coal-fired power plants across Ontario yielded only “small improvements” in air quality between Ottawa, Hamilton, and Toronto.
Professor Matthew Johnson of Carleton University’s Energy and Emissions Research Lab, said in an email to the National Observer, “The Fraser Institute report is a fairly simple, high-level analysis of a complex system, where they are attempting to analyze selected data for Ontario in isolation. A better approach might be to ask, how do today’s pollutant concentrations compare with what they would have been had the plants not been closed?” Not considered in the report, he argued, are sulphur oxides (SOx), mercury, greenhouse gas emissions or reported smog days. Changing pollution levels from other non-coal sources, like vehicles, he added, or those wafting in from beyond Ontario were also not adequately distinguished or accounted for.