The month starts here: let the biomass conversion begin.

• Position: NEWS - Brief article

The Ontario government has given the official green light to begin converting the Atikokan Generating Station from burning coal to biomass.

The Ontario Power Authority has been directed by the government to negotiate an agreement to buy biomass power generated at Atikokan from Ontario Power Generation, the plant's owners.

The conversion will create as many as 200 construction jobs and will support 20 to 25 jobs at an Ontario pellet facility, helping to sustain jobs in the forestry sector.

The plant employs 90 people. The three-year conversion process is designed to meet the McGuinty government's long-standing commitment to be off coal by 2014.

In an Aug. 26 statement, Thunder Bay-Atikokan MPP Bill Mauro said the announcement marks the end of six years of...