-- An alliance of environmental groups has called on the provincial government for public input into the apparently ad hoc development of Alberta's electricity export policy, concerned that higher sales abroad will increase pollution, particularly from coal-fired generation.

"We are concerned that a considerable portion of the exports will come from coal-fired plants," the Clean Energy Coalition said Monday in a letter to Premier Ralph Klein.

"Fossil-fuel power generation, especially that using coal, increases the level of air pollution and also impacts land and water," the coalition added.

However, Joanne Rosnau, a spokeswoman for Klein, said the time for discussion of the policy has passed, the bulk of new generation is expected to be cleaner co-generation power and individual power projects will be subject to environmental and regulatory scrutiny.

The letter to Klein was signed by about 10 environmental groups, including coalition members Pembina Institute for Appropriate Development, the Environmental Law Centre, Toxics Watch Society of Alberta and two Alberta chapters of the Sierra Club of Canada.

It comes in response to the announcement in late May by Energy Minister Murray Smith of five guiding principles for the province's electricity export policy.

Those principles include meeting both domestic and export needs and the transmission systems required therefore through competitive, environmentally-conscious and market-driven means that recognize free trade in energy within Canada and North America.

"These principles include ensuring a dependable and competitively priced supply of power to meet Alberta's needs while allowing investors to pursue opportunities in the broader North American energy market," Smith said at the time.

"That's the (export) policy," said Rosnau.

"It's designed to set a broad guideline. Relative to public input, for every power plant that would be approved, it would have to meet environmental standards and that's very explicit in the policy," Rosnau added.

"Part of the approval process for any new power plant is the public input into hearings, so the public would have a role."

How much transmission infrastructure needs to be added for increased exports and who should pay for them are among the subjects of a key hearing now before the independent and quasi-judicial Alberta Energy and Utilities Board, which is expected to report late in the fall.

Although the government in June 2001 launched the Electrical Advisory Committee to advise it on long-term consumer issues in the electricity market, environmentalists believe Alberta's crucial electricity export policy has been developed on an

ad hoc basis.

"There is no formal process taking place as far as export policy is concerned," said Pembina spokeswoman Mary Griffiths, adding the AEUB may be in tight spot given Smith's apparent guidance.

"They're supposed to be completely independent of the government, but it must put them in a difficult situation when we see the principles put out by minister Smith," said Griffiths.

Rosnau disagreed.

"The AEUB is bound by the law and it does take some road direction from government, but again it is very explicit in (Smith's principles) that there is an open and public process which is managed by the AEUB," she said.