HALIFAX—Members of international environmental group the Sierra Club took their fight across borders Wednesday as members of the Tampa Bay, FL., chapter gathered outside Nova Scotia energy giant Emera’s annual general meeting.

They were there to demand more decisive action in reducing greenhouse gas emissions and reliance on coal and natural gas.

Kent Bailey, chair of the Tampa Bay chapter of the Sierra Club, was joined by at least a half dozen Floridians who travelled to Halifax to demand Emera and its shareholders walk back on a plan to spend $853 million making changes to a Florida coal plant.

“Of the 10 cities in the world most threatened by climate change, five are in the United States, two are in Florida, and Tampa Bay is one of them — we are at ground zero for climate impacts of every kind,” said Bailey in an interview outside the Halifax Convention Centre Wednesday.

“To act as if it makes no difference, to act as if there is an alternative to doing everything possible to stop carbon pollution immediately, is an insult to both the spirit and the body of our grandchildren.”

Bailey and other members of the Sierra Club are raising concerns about a project spearheaded by Emera subsidiary Tampa Electric, which services over 725,000 customers in the West Central Florida region.

In May 2018, Tampa Electric announced a modernization project for coal-fired power station Big Bend that would see one of the four generator units switched from coal to natural gas and another retired by 2021.

According to a May 2018 press release, the updates to the Big Bend station would result in a “significant change” in the company’s fuel mix, reducing the portion of energy generated from coal by 50 per cent by 2023, while notching the portion generated by natural gas from 67 per cent to 75 per cent in the same timeframe.

In a statement emailed to the Star, Emera representative Dina Seely said they were “pleased to welcome” the Floridian visitors, and noted that the proposed project would reduce greenhouse gas emissions at Big Bend by about 30 per cent.

Tampa Electric is also in the process of adding six million solar panels to its energy mix, increasing the percentage of electricity generated by solar power to seven per cent by 2021.

“Florida has an abundant supply of Natural Gas available and it is a much cleaner option than coal and oil, because it produces fewer emissions,” Seely wrote. “While Government and policy-makers have role to play in making decisions on energy supply, it is our goal to find cleaner and more affordable energy supplies for our customers.”

For both Floridian and Nova Scotian members of the Sierra Club, Emera’s promises fall short of the actions deemed necessary to confront and counteract climate change.

“What we’re starting to see is a bit of doublespeak from Emera about what they’re willing to do to actually tackle climate change,” said Gretchen Fitzgerald, who leads the club’s Halifax chapter.

“Folks from Florida are seeing that they’re going to be investing in a massive natural gas plant in a state that’s known as the sunshine state, whereas if you look up here in Nova Scotia, they’re actually saying that we’re going to continue burning coal until 2042.”

Nova Scotia is home to the most coal-dependent power grid in Canada, with eight coal-fired units across four plants, all owned by Emera subsidiary Nova Scotia Power. According to Nova Scotia Power’s website, coal accounted for 56 per cent of electricity generated in 2015.

Though the company has committed to reducing the amount of coal in its energy mix, planning documents indicate that coal will still play a part in Nova Scotia’s power grid well into 2042. The federal deadline for phasing out coal-fired plants is 2030.

“Coal power is a health issue today in Nova Scotia,” said Stephen Thomas, energy campaign co-ordinator at Halifax’s Ecology Action Centre, during Wednesday’s press conference.

“If we phase out coal by 2030 as we should, Nova Scotia would avoid 89 premature deaths in this province, 8,000 asthma episodes, and 58,000 days of breathing difficulty — right now we are choosing to let those health impacts happen.”

Nova Scotia is exempt from the national coal phase-out deadline thanks to an equivalency agreement with Ottawa, which gives Nova Scotia Power a target of reducing emissions to 4.5 megatonnes by 2030, but does not require the province to wholly eliminate any particular energy sources.

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According to Emera’s emailed statement, Nova Scotia Power has already reduced their emissions by 36 per cent from 2005 levels.

Still, Sierra Club members say the reliance on coal and natural gas will have lasting impacts on communities.

“We know that communities of colour, African Nova Scotians, Indigenous communities and the working poor, have been hit first and worst both by coal burning and by climate change,” said Thomas. “We need a just transition for workers and communities and we need to get to work. Natural gas is not a solution, coal is not a viable option, and we can’t repeat the mistakes that we have made.”

Julia-Simone Rutgers is a Halifax-based journalist and a freelance contributor for Star Halifax. Follow her on Twitter: @jsrutgers

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