The dominant paradigm in Canadian electricity policy for about a century was that public power, with its government-backed borrowing and tax advantages, would deliver lower cost power than regulated or competition-oriented private alternatives. As many supporters and detractors of public power have recognized, the vulnerability of this model was the risk of politicized business decision making. Adam Beck was reported to have remarked that he sought to build a “band of iron” around Ontario Hydro to protect it from politicians. In Ontario, the governance weaknesses of public power were crystallized with the passage of the Green Energy Act in 2009. In New Brunswick, a similar breakdown in governance appears to be underway, with the opposition Conservative leader Mr. Alward, representing a party currently without an electricity policy, issuing declarations on keeping obsolete generators in service.
Posts Tagged ‘Green Energy Act’
Politicized Power Governance Costing New Brunswick Consumers
Thursday, June 24th, 2010Ontario Sustainable Energy Alliance claims to “represent consumer interests”
Friday, June 4th, 2010In a submission dated May 31, 2010 to the OEB providing opinions in support of transmission system expansion, the Ontario Sustainable Energy Alliance (OSEA) claims to “represent the consumer interests that demanded the GEA in the first place”. If you are a consumer who did not demand the Green Energy Act, you might want to inform the OEB that OSEA doesn’t speak for you. The comments of OSEA and those of other interested parties as well as a report from OEB Staff on some of the technical considerations and precedents related to transmission project development planning are available here.
Resisting Green Constitutional Mayhem
Thursday, June 3rd, 2010As even the carpet baggers now exploiting the Green Energy Act subsidies are now publicly warning, the subsidies can’t last. But will McGuinty’s Green Energy Act die a death of a thousand cuts or will it die in a constitutional fireball?
As discussed previously on this blog and in one of my Youtube videos, McGuinty included in his cherished Green Energy Act – engineered to build his legacy – a vicious attack on our most important Parliamentary right, the requirement that our elected representatives must vote in all government spending. How could the Ontario Public Service’s sharp lawyers have allowed this provision, offensive to the Magna Carta Libertatum of 1215, the very foundation of our society, to remain in the legislation?
The story of how this rot started illustrates the vapid core of McGuinty’s imperious energy schemes for Ontario.
The federal government developed a program to subsidize home energy audits. Jealous that his image as the great green crusader might be overshadowed in this area by Prime Minister Harper, McGuinty sent the Ontario Power Authority to negotiate a matching program with Ottawa. The OPA dutifully committed to spend $320 million on home energy audits in 2009 and 2010, paralleling the federal program. Upon their return from Ottawa however, the economic tide had turned. With markets plummeting, unemployment rising, and the Liberal deficit making former NDP Premier Bob Rae look fiscally prudent, Treasury Board drifted off the green-at-all-cost message and turned thumbs down on the $320 million already committed. In a panicked search of an alternative source of funds, the McGuinty team decided to slip a taxation clause into the Green Energy Act. Cowering government lawyers apparently quailed at the prospect of confronting McGuinty’s energetic rottweiler, George Smitherman, although I can’t confirm the details of this element of the story yet. The law passed, barely scratched by the weak Opposition.
Although McGuinty’s original purpose in circumventing the Legislature was to cover the committed home energy audit costs, if the government gets away with its plan, there will be no limit on what slush funds could metastasize from a hidden tax on energy.
McGuinty had planned to dump most of the home energy audit costs onto natural gas bills, until that plan recently hit a reinforced concrete wall.
The Ontario Court of Appeal, in its recent decision in the Toronto Hydro case, reiterated the obligations of the utilities to protect the interests of their consumers. Although one might hope that Ontario’s electric utilities might place a few stones of their own in the path of McGuinty’s taxing juggernaut, none of them are lifting a finger in opposition.
Neither the provincial government’s home audit program’s legal nor its funding gaps interrupted its launch. Ontario homeowners can sign up today with the OPA’s Power Pledge program. Your neighbours as well as schools, hospitals, businesses, and industries will pay the cost of your home energy audit, buried in their power bills. With the OPA’s plan, you can “earn” 20 Air Miles Reward Miles for yourself, and, in addition, “earn” 10 Air Miles Reward Miles for World Wildlife Fund (WWF) Canada. Those Air Miles will help fuel Gerald Butts, former Principal Secretary to Premier McGuinty, and now President and CEO of WWF Canada, a vocal supporter of the Green Energy Act.
Alternatively, Ontarians who value their constitutional rights can contact the Consumer Council of Canada to support their brave and principled constitutional challenge of McGuinty’s ugly, imperial taxation powers. Details of the challenge are here. The Consumer Council of Canada has excellent legal representation but you can help in other ways. Be creative and generous.
Renewable Energy Gold Rush Through the Roof
Sunday, May 16th, 2010The attached analysis surveys the renewable electricity supply projects proposed to the Ontario Power Authority (OPA) under the provincial government’s Feed-In Tariff program, the contracts offered by the OPA as of early May 2010, and the consumer impacts.
Green Energy Act Connection: York University Faculty of Environmental Studies
Saturday, May 15th, 2010The attached note comments on the influence of the York University’s Faculty of Environmental Studies (FES) on driving the Green Energy Act policy agenda in Ontario and some of the standards observed at FES.
Ontario Power Bill Rip-Off: Power Spill and Exports
Monday, April 26th, 2010The McGuinty government is currently signing contracts to buy new power supplies at prices that start at 10.3 cents/kWh and run up into completely silly figures — 13.5 cents, 15 cents, 19 cents, 40 cents, 80 cents. Meanwhile, Ontario is now spilling massive amounts of power at dams and nuclear stations, although the total volumes of spilled production are very difficult to independently estimate. I have been pleading with the IESO for years to track the spilled energy, but there is only anecdotal information available to my knowledge.
McGuinty has committed ratepayers to pay many generators, including Bruce Power and the producers who will be operating under the Feed-In Tariffs introduced under the Green Energy Act, for some types of spilled generation.
In 2008 and 2009, Ontario was an enormous net exporter of power, with net exports in both years equal to more than 7% of the power consumed in the province.
Neighboring utilities and industries are cashing in on Ontario’s surplus – often buying at negative prices. Considering the hourly value of power and the hourly net import/export flows, the prices consumers recovered for the exported power (OPG is doing most of the exporting) was approximately 4.6 cents/kWh in 2008 and 2.9 cents/kWh in 2009.
The volume of surplus power is forecast to rise, driven in part by rising nuclear and green energy generation, both under juicy government contracts. The collapse of load is another factor. Demand has declined since 2005, well before the recession, but it tanked hard in 2009 with year over year demand down by 6.1%.
Many of the new facilities being contracted are short lead time technologies such as wind power. If we need news power supplies some day in the future (and we will due to asset retirements) then it would be rational to be buying the needed power at that time when it is needed. The passage of time would improve the quality of the technologies ultimately installed and would provide additional learning time for Ontario to gain from the experience of other jurisdictions installing various generation options.
The consumer rate impact from the current surplus has been incurred in a fashion that is utterly imprudent and reveals the fundamental irrationality that has taken root at the core of our power system.
Review of “A rational framework for electricity policy” by Dr. Jan Carr
Thursday, April 8th, 2010The attached review considers an article in the Journal of Policy Engagement (April 2010, Volume 2/Number 2) authored by Dr. Jan Carr, a leading electricity sector leader in Canada. The review posits a confluence of factors that created the conditions for the collapse of the historic consensus that the purpose of Ontario’s power system was to serve consumers and fostered the rise of the Green Energy Act.
Praise for OPG’s Decision to Forego Retubing Pickering B
Thursday, February 11th, 2010Attached is a transcript of a brief interview with CH TV February 10, 2010 for the show “Live at 5:30″ hosted by Mark Hebscher and Donna Skelly. In the interview, I praise OPG’s decision to not retube Pickering B. I also question why Samsung does not show up on the Ontario government’s official lobbyist registry.
Samsung Secret Deal with McGuinty Government: News Update
Saturday, November 7th, 2009Renewable energy developers who have been playing by the Ontario government’s irrational but at least codified Green Energy Act Feed-In Tariff rules have reacted vigorously to information first published on this web site about a secret deal initiated on the government side by Smitherman that would allow the international electronics giant Samsung rights of primus noctis. The revolt against Smitherman appears to be lead by Dwight Duncan and Sandra Pupatello. Smitherman was expected to appear at the prominent APPRO conference (November 17/18) but has withdrawn. The best case for the government is for Samsung to withdraw. Although the list of wind industry lobbyists is very long on the Ontario government’s Lobbyists Registration Act web site, there is still no trace of Samsung’s name on the list. Watch for this news showing up in the Toronto Star in the middle of next week.