Ottawa Mayor Larry O’Brien will announce Ottawa’s participation in the Earth Hour challenge, an international event on March 29 between 8 to 9 p.m. local times. During this one hour, lights will be turned off, as a way to raise awareness for climate change.

Ottawa is being asked for additional support for the existing $1.5 billion dollar ecoEnergy program, which is expected to run out of money by 2009. The program offers a 1-cent-per-kilowatt-hour incentive for those building alternative energy such as green hydro, wind, geothermal, tidal or biomass projects.

CTV Ottawa

Environment Canada is launching its own investigation into a massive spill that dumped nearly one million cubic metres of sewage into the Ottawa River over a period of 15 days in the summer of 2006.

CBC

Ottawa City Council has passed a multibillion-dollar transit plan that will build a downtown tunnel and electric light rail lines that run north-south and east-west directions despite many important unanswered questions including who would pay for it, and how long environmental assessments would take.

The Canadian Press

The federal government has responded harshly to reports Quebec and Ontario will forge an agreement on developing an interprovincial carbon trading system.

Environment Minister John Baird told a national news agency that the agreement could undermine Ottawa’s climate change plan.

Ottawa Sun

The environment will take centre stage this week during a series of events in the city marking Environment Week, June 1 to 7. Environment Week kicks off with the launch of Zerofootprint Ottawa today.

CBC News

The federal government is willing to contribute a third of the cost of upgrading Ottawa’s sewage system so it no longer dumps raw sewage into the Ottawa River during storms, said Environment Minister John Baird.