Ontario's Legislature passed the landmark Green Energy and Green Economy Act, 2009 on May 14, 2009. The sweeping legislation creates a new stand-alone statute known as the Green Energy Act, and enables amendments to 15 other statutes. These legislative changes include a range of measures designed to foster a culture of conservation and encourage the development of renewable energy projects. These measures will also stimulate the green energy sector in Ontario -- attracting new investment, creating green jobs and providing clean renewable power to Ontario.

Specific benefits include:

• sparking growth in renewable sources of energy such as biogas, biomass, landfill gas, solar, wind and waterpower in Ontario
• creating the potential for greater household savings by introducing new conservation measures across the province
• creating 50,000 direct and indirect jobs in the first three years
• making a positive contribution towards provincial climate change objectives.

The primary goal of the Green Energy Act is to further enable and promote energy conservation and renewable energy development. The major components of the Green Energy Act include:

• the renewable energy Feed-in Tariff (FIT) Program
• the Renewable Energy Facilitation Office (REFO)
• a streamlined environmental approval process
• aggressive new conservation targets.

The Ministry of Energy has information on its website about the Green Energy Act at www.mei.gov.on.ca/en/energy/gea/. The Ministry of the Environment has information about renewable energy approvals at www.ene.gov.on.ca/en/business/green-energy.