EPA Proposes Tough Greenhouse-Gas Rules for Big Industries

By SIOBHAN HUGHES and IAN TALLEY
WASHINGTON — The Environmental Protection Agency proposed requiring new power plants, factories and oil refiners to obtain permits to emit so-called greenhouse gases, ratcheting up pressure on Congress to pass comprehensive climate legislation.
The EPA’s proposal would effectively require new, large industrial facilities and existing ones undergoing modification to use the most up-to-date technology to curb carbon-dioxide emissions. The announcement came as environmentally minded Senate Democrats vowed to bring a newly unveiled climate bill to a vote before a major international summit on climate change in December.
Other Democratic lawmakers from states dependent on coal and manufacturing jobs said they couldn’t support the draft proposal, which calls for cutting U.S. emissions somewhat faster than a similar proposal narrowly approved by the House in June.
“The EPA’s ready to work with Congress,” EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson said in announcing the proposal. “But we’re not going to continue with business as usual while we wait for Congress to act.”
Because the federal Clean Air Act limits the EPA’s ability to weigh the costs of new regulations, many businesses worry that new EPA rules might be unduly burdensome. To address such concerns, the EPA’s proposal would effectively exempt small businesses such as restaurants and farms, applying the rules only to facilities that emit 25,000 tons of greenhouse gases or more a year. A threshold of 25,000 tons of carbon dioxide is comparable to the emissions from the annual energy use of about 2,200 homes, according to the Environmental Defense Fund.
“The question is — is this legal?” said Luke Popovich, a spokesman for the National Mining Association. He said his group is skeptical the EPA would be allowed under current law to distinguish between small and large emitters when setting new controls on greenhouse gases.
Under the EPA proposal, which officials said could take effect as early as next year, new power plants and other large emitters could be denied regulatory permits if they didn’t use the most up-to-date technology to curb carbon-dioxide emissions. Similar technology would have to be incorporated into any major upgrades. The EPA is expected to spell out what kinds of controls would qualify in later guidance.
Meanwhile, several key senators said a draft bill designed to fight climate change, announced by Sens. Barbara Boxer (D., Calif.) and John Kerry (D., Mass.), lacked sufficient support to pass the chamber. Sen. John D. Rockefeller IV (D., W.Va.), said the bill’s proposal to cut U.S. emissions 20% beneath 2005 levels by 2020 would be “unrealistic and harmful” for his coal-abundant state. Other lawmakers said the chamber’s focus on health-care legislation was straining their ability to examine the measure.
The climate-change issue also is dividing industry. Nike Inc. said Wednesday it was resigning a seat on the board of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, citing disagreement with the group’s stance against proposed climate-change legislation. But the company said it planned to remain a member of the chamber. A chamber spokesman said its position “reflects the diversity of its membership and the broad business community.”—Stephen Power contributed to this article.
Write to Siobhan Hughes at siobhan.hughes@dowjones.com and Ian Talley at ian.talley@dowjones.com

Google working on “smart” plug-in hybrid charging

Reuters
Wednesday, 30 September 2009

Google is in the early stages of looking at ways to write software that would fully integrate plug-in hybrid vehicles to the power grid, minimize strain on the grid and help utilities manage vehicle charging load.
“We are doing some preliminary work,” said Dan Reicher, Google’s director of Climate Change and Energy Initiatives. “We have begun some work on smart charging of electric vehicles and how you would integrate large number of electric vehicles into the grid successfully.”
“We have done a little bit of work on the software side looking at how you would write a computer code to manage this sort of charging infrastructure,” he said in an interview on the sidelines of an industry conference.
Google, known for its Internet search engine, in 2007 announced a program to test Toyota Prius and Ford Escape gasoline-electric hybrid vehicles that were converted to rechargeable plug-in hybrids that run mostly on electricity.
One of the experimental technologies that was being tested by the Web search giant allowed parked plug-ins to transfer stored energy back to the electric grid, opening a potential back-up source of power for the system in peak hours.
Google has pushed ahead in addressing climate change issues as a philanthropic effort through its Google.org arm.
Reicher said Google has been testing its fleet of plug-in hybrids “pretty intensely” for the last couple of years.
“One of the great things about plug-ins is this great opportunity for the first time to finally have a storage technology,” he said
Reicher said the company is trying to figure out how to manage the impact of having millions of future electric vehicle owners plugging in their vehicles at the same time.
“We got to be careful how we manage these things,” he said. “On a hot day in July when 5 million Californians come home, you don’t want them all plugging in at the same moment.”
Reicher laid out a scenario where power utilities, during a time of high demand, could turn on or off the charging of electric vehicles. The owner of these vehicles, who have agreed to such an arrangement, would get a credit from the utility in turn.
“The grid operators may well be indifferent to either putting 500 megawatts of new generation on or taking 500 megawatts off,” he said. “The beauty of plug-in vehicles is that with the right software behind them, you could manage their charging.”
Apart from plug-in hybrids, Google also is working on other green technologies such as developing its own new mirror technology that could reduce the cost of building solar thermal plants by a quarter or more, and looking at gas turbines that would run on solar power rather than natural gas.
The often-quirky company also said in late 2007 that it would invest in companies and do research of its own to produce affordable renewable energy — at a price less than burning coal — within a few years, casting the move as a philanthropic effort to address climate change.

A matter of trust

Irish PM Brian Cowen has announced there will be not be another referendum if Ireland votes ‘no’ to the Lisbon Treaty tomorrow.

He said: “There won’t be a Lisbon Three — that’s for sure.”

But hang on, that’s exactly what they said last time. Click here to see Dick Roche, Irish Europe Minister, suggesting ahead of the first Irish referendum that it was ‘delusional’ to say there would be a second referendum.

He said:

“There is no plan B and there is absolutely no possibility of this Treaty being subject to a further renegotiation. The idea that we can reject this Treaty and have another Referendum as happened with the Nice Treaty is a dilusion. That cannot and will not happen.”

And yet here we are.

The Irish government likes to pretend that no-one bullied them into voting again on the Lisbon Treaty after it initially gave the ‘wrong’ answer, but given Roche’s unequivocal stance, clearly they did.

Climate on Agenda for Obama’s China Trip

By SHAI OSTER
BEIJING –Climate change will be among the top issues when President Obama visits China in November, a U.S. official said Wednesday.
China and the U.S., the world’s biggest and second biggest emitters of greenhouse gases respectively, have made energy cooperation a keystone of their relationship even though their differences could still derail an international climate change treaty in talks to be held this December in Copenhagen.

Still, the Obama administration is hoping the president’s trip here, just ahead of the Copenhagen talks, will result in some concrete steps on energy and technology cooperation.
“I expect clean energy and climate change issues will be high on the agenda during Obama’s trip,” David Sandalow, U.S. assistant energy secretary, told reporters. “I’m confident that when the two largest energy consumers and producers get together, it will be an important topic of discussion.”
Countries meeting in Copenhagen will try to forge a pact on carbon emission reduction targets. China has rejected calls for it to commit to emission caps, arguing that industrialized countries have a historical responsibility to clean up first.
Mr. Sandalow was in China to attend meetings with Chinese energy officials as well as a U.S.-China forum on electric vehicles. Beijing has made developing electric vehicles a priority as a cleaner alternative to the gas-powered cars its growing middle class is buying in record numbers, and several domestic companies have plunged in with big plans to launch new so-called plug-in cars. At the same time, the U.S. has been pushing electric cars for environmental reasons and to revive Detroit’s embattled car industry.
China has “the potential to be ahead if the United States does not invest heavily in this technology and in this industry. The Chinese are well positioned to be global leaders in the electric vehicle industry,” Mr. Sandalow said. “I believe that we’ve got a lot to learn from each other, and that the world would benefit from us challenging each other in this industry,” he said.
Write to Shai Oster at shai.oster@wsj.com

Insiders predict China could beat US to cap-and-trade launch

Senior executives in the carbon market predict China will announce plans for a national emissions trading scheme at Copenhagen. From BusinessGreen.com, part of the Guardian Environment Network
China could announce the launch of an emissions cap-and-trade scheme as early as the Copenhagen climate talks in December, according to a senior figure in the carbon market currently working closely with the Chinese government.
Speaking at The Carbon Show in London today, Philippe Chauvancy, director at climate exchange BlueNext, said that the announcement last week that it is to develop China’s first standard for voluntary emission reduction projects alongside the government-backed China Beijing Environmental Exchange, could lay the foundations for a voluntary cap-and-trade scheme.
He added that Chinese officials were mostly committed to the idea of a national cap-and-trade scheme and could move quickly over the next few months.
“I believe during Copenhagen you’ll see the Chinese and the Americans making a statement on cap and trade,” he said.
Chauvancy added that he expected the US to have a national cap-and-trade system up and running in the next two years, but that China could yet beat it to the punch. “I really think China might even get there first,” he said. “They have the money, the resources and the will to do it.”
He argued that the widely held perception that China was not taking action on climate change was entirely outdated, insisting that the government was fully committed to tackling the issue.
Other delegates at the show agreed China was better positioned to roll out a carbon trading scheme quickly.
Patrick Birley, chief executive of the European Climate Exchange, pointed out that anti-regulation lobbyists in Washington could significantly hamper current efforts to push through cap-and-trade legislation. “China has the ability to impose caps pretty quickly,” he observed. “Washington politics are almost designed to slow the process and there will be plenty of lobbying against.”
But Mark Kenber, policy director at The Climate Group, said that a powerful counter-lobby was building in the US with growing numbers of businesses in favour of tough action to tackle climate change. “I’d be very surprised if China had a mandatory system in place before the US,” he said. “If you look at the industries in America, they’re really started waking up to the opportunities offered by new markets.”

Greenpeace blocks 2nd Canada oil sands operation

Reuters, Thursday October 1 2009
* Greenpeace blocked conveyors in Suncor mine
* Move aimed at highlighting impact on climate change
* Company expects only minor production impact
* Some protesters arrested away from Suncor site (Adds Greenpeace ends blockade after 10 hours, paragraph 2)
By Scott Haggett and Jeffrey Jones
CALGARY, Alberta, Sept 30 (Reuters) - Environmental activists said on Wednesday they canoed into Suncor Energy Inc’s Alberta oil sands operation, blocking equipment in a second protest action in as many weeks aimed at disrupting crude production.
Greenpeace said 23 of its activists entered Canada’s second-largest oil sands operation, stopping conveyor belts that carry bitumen from the mine to an upgrading plant that processes the tar-like crude into light oil. They ended the blockade after about 10 hours, the group said later in a press release.
The move, part of a long-running campaign against production from what Greenpeace refers to as “tar sands,” is the second this month.
Two weeks ago, protesters chained themselves to equipment at Royal Dutch Shell’s oil sands mine as they sought to highlight what they view as excessive greenhouse gas emissions from the region’s oil production operations.
“We came here to send a message and we want to make sure that message is heard,” said Jessica Wilson, a Greenpeace spokeswoman, who was among the protesters at the Suncor site.
“This is all a push towards (climate talks in) Copenhagen to encourage world leaders to come to a strong climate deal that includes shutting down the tar sands.”
PROTESTERS ARRESTED
Wilson and nine other protesters, including Greenpeace Executive Director Bruce Cox, were arrested by Royal Canadian Mounted Police on Wednesday away from the Suncor site, she said in an e-mail message.
The activists who were in the mine were still on the conveyor late in the day, however.
Suncor officials said production at the 300,000 barrel a day operation, located north of the oil sands hub of Fort McMurray, Alberta, was continuing and the company expected the action to have only a minor impact on its operations.
“We have taken a number of steps to protect the safety of not only the activists but our workers at the site,” said Sneh Seetal, a spokeswoman for Suncor, Canada’s largest energy company. “That includes increasing security, notifying employees and contractors at the site and continuing to extend our offer to discuss oil sands development with Greenpeace and all credible stakeholders.”
Greenpeace’s Wilson said the group’s canoes and kayaks were followed down the Athabasca River by a company motorboat that became stuck on a sandbank, but security had not otherwise interfered with the protesters’ landing.
Two weeks ago, Greenpeace activists chained themselves to a a mining shovel and dump truck at Shell’s nearby mine, a protest timed to coincide with Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s visit with U.S. President Barack Obama in Washington.
Shell temporarily halted production at the mine.
Greenpeace ended that demonstration after about a day, and its activists faced no charges. (Editing by Rob Wilson)

Senators Unveil Draft Climate Bill

By SIOBHAN HUGHES and COREY BOLES
WASHINGTON — Two Senate Democrats Wednesday unveiled climate legislation that aims to drastically cut greenhouse-gas emissions beginning in 2012, starting an effort that threatens to divide the party amid opposition from coal, manufacturing and oil interests.
Senate Environment and Public Works Committee Chairman Barbara Boxer and Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman John Kerry outlined the measure, which would cut emissions from 2005 levels 20% by 2020 and more than 80% by 2050.
“This bill addresses the major challenges of our generation,” Ms. Boxer, of California, told the crowd of environmentalists on the East Lawn of the U.S. Capitol. She said the measure aims to address concerns in some regions that local economies would be harmed, and she said that “clean energy” would help create jobs.
President Barack Obama welcomed the legislative package, saying “we are one step closer to putting America in control of our energy future and making America more energy independent.”
Democrats are hoping to act to combat global warming, which scientists have linked to more intense weather events such as drought in some places and rising sea levels in others. A small minority, including Sen. James Inhofe (R., Okla.), says there is no scientific evidence of such a threat.
Other Republicans took issue with the Boxer-Kerry bill, calling it a new national energy tax. “The last thing American families need right now is to be hit with a new energy tax every time they flip on a light switch, or fill up their car — but that’s exactly what this bill would do,” Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell said in a statement.
In the House, Speaker Nancy Pelosi called the legislation a “strong foundation” to work on, while Republican Leader John Boehner said the measure was a “dangerous proposal.”
Utilities, which account for a big chunk of U.S. greenhouse-gas emissions, sent representatives out in a show of support. Public Service Enterprise Group Inc. Chairman Ralph Izzo showed up and through a statement said that the bill is “an important step in the right direction.”
Associated Press
Sen. Barbara Boxer, seen in July, seeks to return the focus to climate change.
Among the energy sources that the Senate hopes to give an advantage to is natural gas. In an effort to reach Republicans, the goal is also to encourage nuclear power. And, in hopes of safeguarding against surges in costs for emitting carbon dioxide, the bill includes mechanisms to limit emission-allowance prices through a so-called soft collar.
One sign that efforts to reach other lawmakers may be paying off: softening opposition from some quarters. Asked about reports the Senate climate-change bill would reserve 20% to 25% of revenue raised to pay down the federal budget deficit, Senate Budget Chairman Kent Conrad (D., N.D.) said, “I like that a lot, I like that a lot.”
Mr. Conrad wouldn’t say whether that measure would be enough for him to set aside his skepticism over the legislation and support it, but he reiterated, “I would say that I like that piece.”
The timing of climate-change legislation has been thrown into a state of flux by the continuing debate over an attempted overhaul of health-care policy. That effort is likely to take several weeks at the minimum, which could mean lawmakers don’t turn their attention to tackling climate change in earnest until 2010.
Write to Siobhan Hughes at siobhan.hughes@dowjones.com and Corey Boles at corey.boles@dowjones.com

Feds to decide on listing ice seals as threatened

A federal agency must decide within three weeks whether spotted seals, which depend on sea ice off Alaska’s coast, should be listed as a threatened or endangered species.

In addition, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration agreed to decide by Nov. 1, 2010, whether two other ice-dependent seals, ringed seals and bearded seals, should be listed.

A federal judge Friday approved the settlement between NOAA and the Center for Biological Diversity, which had sued to force a decision.

Center spokeswoman Rebecca Noblin said Monday the group was happy the agency had set the dates, since the summer sea ice minimum this year was the third-lowest since satellite measurements began in 1979.

“The quicker we can get protection for these seals, the better,” she said.

NOAA officials in December denied listing ribbon seals (left) as threatened or endangered. They said climate models project annual ice for the seals will continue to form each winter during the critical birthing and molting period. The Center for Biological Diversity has sued to reverse the decision.

John Kurland, acting deputy regional administrator of NOAA, said the agency has been studying spotted, ringed and bearded seals. Spotted seals had a similar distribution and an information overlap with ribbon seals, he said.

Information on the other two types of seals is more complicated, and the extra time will let the agency incorporate information compiled by the state of Alaska, Kurland said.

Ringed, bearded and spotted seals (upper right) use sea ice in different ways for giving birth, rearing pups and resting. All three live in the Bering, Chukchi or Beaufort seas off Alaska’s western and northern coasts. (Image at left below)

The Center for Biological Diversity petitioned to list the seals in May 2008, the same month former Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne declared polar bears threatened because of sea ice loss.

The agency missed the one-year deadline for a decision, and the environmental group sued.

Spotted seals (right) use the edge of sea ice far from predators to give birth and nurse pups. Loss of sea ice and early ice breakup threaten their ability to rear young, according to the listing petition.

Ringed seals (left) are the primary prey of polar bears. They are the only seals that can live in completely ice-covered waters, using stout claws to dig and maintain breathing holes. They excavate snow caves on sea ice to provide insulated shelters for themselves and their pups.

Early breakup of sea ice threatens lairs during critical rearing periods when pups are too young to survive in water, according to the group. Warming also can expose lairs and make pups vulnerable to polar bears and Arctic foxes (right).

Bearded seals (left) give birth and rear pups on drifting pack ice over shallow waters where prey is abundant. The retreat of sea ice away from shallow shelves decreases food availability according to the environmental group.

Federal agencies are required to consider how their regulatory decisions affect listed and threatened species.

Source:
Google News, “Feds to decide on listing ice seals as threatened“, accessed September 30, 2009

Water worries threaten U.S. push for natural gas

Reuters, Thursday October 1 2009
By Jon Hurdle
PAVILLION, Wyoming, Oct 1 (Reuters) - Louis Meeks, a burly 59-year-old alfalfa farmer, fills a metal trough with water from his well and watches an oily sheen form on the surface which gives off a faint odor of paint.
He points to small bubbles that appear in the water, and a thin ring of foam around the edge.
Meeks is convinced that energy companies drilling for natural gas in this central Wyoming farming community have poisoned his water and ruined his health.
A recent report by the Environmental Protection Agency suggests he just might have a case — and that the multi-billion dollar industry may have a problem on its hands. EPA tests found his well contained what it termed 14 “contaminants of concern.”
It tested 39 wells in the Pavillion area this year, and said in August that 11 were contaminated. The agency did not identify the cause but said gas drilling was a possibility.
What’s happened to the water supply in Pavillion could have repercussions for the nation’s energy policies. As a clean-burning fuel with giant reserves in the United States, natural gas is central to plans for reducing U.S. dependence on foreign oil.
But aggressive development is drawing new scrutiny from residents who live near gas fields, even in energy-intensive states such as Wyoming, where one in five jobs are linked to oil and gas which contributed $15 billion the state economy in 2007.
People living near gas drilling facilities in states including Pennsylvania, Colorado, New Mexico and Wyoming have complained that their water has turned cloudy, foul-smelling, or even black as a result of chemicals used in a drilling technique called hydraulic fracturing, or “fracking.”
The industry contends drilling chemicals are heavily diluted and injected safely into gas reservoirs thousands of feet beneath aquifers, so they will never seep into drinking water supplies.
“There has never been a documented case of fracking that’s contaminated wells or groundwater,” said Randy Teeuwen, a spokesman for EnCana Corp, Canada’s second-largest energy company, which operates 248 wells in the Pavillion and nearby Muddy Ridge fields.
“We know they don’t have the science to prove what they say,” Teeuwen said of those who criticize fracking.
HARD TO PROVE SOURCE OF CONTAMINATION
Critics say their kids have got sick, their animals have died, and their water has in some cases become flammable because of methane escaped into aquifers from gas wells.
But they have been unable to prove their case because drilling companies are not required to disclose exactly what chemicals they use, thanks to an exemption to a federal clean water law granted to the oil and gas industry in 2005.
The EPA, in its first tests in response to concerns over gas drilling and water quality, has not positively identified the source of the Pavillion contamination but it did name gas drilling as a possible cause. The agency is continuing its tests and expects to issue a report in spring 2010.
Luke Chavez, an EPA scientist leading the investigation, said he will now seek to determine the quantities of a range of contaminants and their health effects.
“We’re taking a shotgun approach,” he said.
In Pavillion, residents are on edge. Meeks’ neighbor Donnet Baughman said she does not mind companies drilling for gas in her backyard, as long as it doesn’t poison her water.
“We are not against the oil and gas industry at all,” she said during an interview in her living room. “We just want them to do it right.”
Baughman’s water was clean, according to the EPA tests, but she is uneasy with the findings since she has a gas separation tank about 50 yards (metres) from her house, and some of her neighbors, including Meeks, were found to have bad water.
Three wells in the EPA’s sample contained 2-BE, a potentially carcinogenic substance that’s used as a lubricant in drilling, and in some household cleaning products.
GAS LIES WELL BELOW AQUIFERS
Stung by grassroots complaints, and by a bill in Congress that would require disclosure of fracking chemicals, the industry says it is using the latest technology to keep fracking safe.
At the Frenchie Draw drilling rig 60 miles (100 km) east of Pavillion, EnCana workers used automated machinery to join 30-foot (9-metre) lengths of pipe and insert them into a new well, which extends 11,135 feet (3,394 metres) below ground.
The steel pipe can withstand pressure up to 9,800 pounds per square inch. It is encased in concrete to 2,500 feet (762 metres), well below aquifers, said John Schmidt, an EnCana field leader.
The pipes allow EnCana to inject a fracking fluid of water, sand and chemicals at high pressure into the gas-bearing rock.
At specific depths identified by geologists, the pipe is perforated with small holes by controlled explosions. The fracking mixture then breaks up the rock, allowing natural gas to rush to the surface.
About 70 percent of the water mixture remains underground, while the rest is pumped back up and later re-injected into 10,000-foot (3,000-metre) disposal wells, Schmidt said. In 2010, EnCana plans to start treating and reusing the water.
Despite the industry’s precautions, spills of fracking fluids occur.
On Sept. 25, Pennsylvania regulators ordered Cabot Oil & Gas Corp to halt fracking operations in one county after it admitted three recent spills of fracking fluid.
TO STAY OR TO GO?
In Pavillion, Meeks said he suffers pulmonary hypertension and neuropathy in his legs. “They have ruined my life,” he said. “I would like to get out of here.”
He said EnCana stopped supplying him free drinking water this month, after he publicly opposed fracking practices.
“They are trying to punish me,” Meeks said. “I’m a thorn in their side.”
Half a mile from Meeks’ house, across a valley dotted with gas wells, separation tanks and compressor stations, Rhonda Locker, 48, said she stopped drinking her water after it “went bad” in the early 1990s.
She started drinking it again about five years ago after installing a reverse-osmosis filter, but within six months started having seizures, bone pain, and cognitive problems.
Frustrated by not knowing what was causing her illness, she tried again in early September to drink the water, and experienced the same symptoms.
“It’s like you have the flu every day,” Locker said.
Locker, who has two gas wells within 500 feet of her house, said she has been diagnosed with a neurological disorder, which her doctors have failed to pin on any particular cause, but which she blames on a history of drinking the water.
Locker also suspects water contamination is to blame for her 26-year-old daughter’s termination of three pregnancies, and for liver disease in her 24-year-old son.
In a shed outside, Locker’s husband Jeff, a 56-year-old farmer, removed the filter from the reverse-osmosis mechanism that cleans their water sufficiently for bathing, revealing a cylinder turned jet black by the incoming well water. Like many of their neighbors, they drink only bottled water.
The Lockers considered selling up but decided they couldn’t bear to leave their home of 25 years. They fear the value of their home has been undermined by water contamination, a concern echoed by Meeks, who said he had been informed by a realtor that his home is now worthless.
A sense of helplessness is leading some Pavillion residents to consider legal action against EnCana, said John Fenton, 37.
“We are not the kind of people who sue people,” said Fenton, whose water is also contaminated. “For the first time in my life, I’m giving some serious thought to it.”
But many are restrained by the knowledge that energy is the lifeblood of Wyoming, said Deb Thomas of the Powder River Basin Resource Council, an environmental group that has been an outspoken critic of gas drilling.
“It’s the only economy our state has,” she said. “Nobody wants to kill the golden calf.”

International Power buys wind farm

Date: Wednesday 30 Sep 2009
LONDON (ShareCast) - International Power is to buy AIM PowerGen Corporation, one of Canada’s largest independent wind farm developers, from Renewable Energy Generation Limited for an enterprise value of C$189m( £109m), with a total cash consideration of C$119m million (£69m). The AIM portfolio is concentrated in Ontario, with 40MW of wind farms in operation and 40MW under construction (the Harrow project) which is on plan for completion in the first half of 2010. Philip Cox, CEO of International Power, said, “This acquisition adds a high-quality wind portfolio of operational and development assets, with an experienced development team, to our North American business. It represents an excellent opportunity for International Power to establish a platform for future growth in the attractive Canadian renewables sector.”