2 B.C. power plants could still go ahead

Plans for two controversial coal-burning power plants in the B.C. Interior may not be dead yet, despite the provincial government's throne speech announcement that they can't go ahead unless they produce zero greenhouse gas emissions.

Many residents of Princeton who had opposed a coal-fired plant near their community celebrated Tuesday's news from Victoria, believing it meant the end of the proposal.

But it appears their fight may not be finished, as B.C. Environment Minister Barry Penner saidWednesdaythe plantmay still get to go ahead.

The original plans called for the power plant to burn 50 per cent coal and and 50 per centwood, and Penner said the company is looking atscrapping coal and converting toall wood.

"It's considering going to 100 per cent wood waste, which is considered to be net zero greenhouse gases," he said.

A spokesman for Compliance Energy, the Vancouver company behind the proposal, said Tuesday's announcement wasn't a surprise.

John Tapicssaid that to make theproject work,the company needsto secure about one million cubic metres of wood waste a year.

Tapics said they will spend the next month and a half trying to secure thatwood, andhopes most of it will be pine beetle-killed timber.

Pump emissions into ground

Penner said the second power plant near Tumbler Ridge in northeastern B.C.may also get the green light, because it plans to pump the carbon dioxide emissionsback into the ground.

Penner saidthe plant would be the first of its kind in the world.But Vancouver-based environmentalist David Suzuki isn't convinced, saying too little is known about the process.

Suzuki told CBC News that disposing ofcarbon dioxide waste in this manner could be dangerous, because no one knows the environmental effects.

"So far, all we know is that when you pump carbon dioxide into the ground, it stays down there. We have no idea why it stays down there," he said.

He added more research is needed before going ahead, and companies should proceed cautiously.