T. Boone Pickens' Texas-based renewable energy firm Mesa Power Group said on Thursday that it had initiated a complaint with Canada after "last-minute changes" to Ontario's energy plan that, it claimed, violated NAFTA. Mesa Power was unable to win contracts for wind energy projects in western Ontario in the latest round of feed-in tariff awards, which pay above-market rates for renewable energy. A spokeswoman for Ottawa's Trade Department said that the province would "vigorously defend" the nation's interests if Canada chooses to proceed with the complaint. In June, Japan asked the World Trade Organization to investigate whether a rule that at least 60 percent of equipment used in installations be manufactured in Ontario violated rules by giving local manufacturers an unfair advantage. Ontario's Progressive Conservative Party, which currently leads the ruling Liberal Party by double digits in polls, has promised to scrap the plan if it wins October 6 elections. Mesa Power's filing said that recent awards went to projects that will "take years to complete and will require extensive planning of new, expensive and unnecessarily long transmission lines" over its own projects which, it said, could have been operational by 2012. In addition, the filing mentioned "buy local" requirements and the "preferential" treatment given to Samsung C&T Corp. "This clear favoritism disadvantaged Mesa, as well as other wind developers, and clearly violates the spirit, goals and objectives of the North American Free Trade Agreement," said Cole Robertson, a Mesa Power executive. For the full story, see http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/07/14/us-mesapower-canada-idUSTRE76D65T20110714. For more on the green energy plan, see http://elr.info/International/update/7.11.11.internationalupdate.cfm and http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/07/07/us-energy-ontario-idUSTRE7665S320110707.