Federal Environment Minister Jim Prentice announced plans to introduce regulations to phase out older coal-fire plants. How feasible is the policy? Should we demonize coal?
Upcoming TV Appearance - Business News Network June 29 12:30-1
June 29th, 2010Politicized Power Governance Costing New Brunswick Consumers
June 24th, 2010The 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.
Resisting Ontario Power Bill Rip-Off
June 15th, 2010One Ontario taxpayer/ratepayer has had enough of the Ontario power bill rip-off and is taking action. In an unprecedented submission to the Ontario Energy Board filed today, retiree Parker Gallant is demanding that the Ontario Energy Board reverse a recent ruling that allowed the Ontario Sustainable Energy Association (OSEA) to bleed ratepayers for costs incurred advocating for more subsidized transmission service for wind and solar farms. The Ontario Energy Board award in favour of OSEA appeared to accept OSEA’s claim that “We represent the consumer interests“. Gallant counters that OSEA as a front organization for Governments at two levels”, pointing out that OSEA is sucking up taxpayer cash from two Ontario government ministries, two taxpayer-funded Ontario government agencies, and one taxpayer-funded City of Toronto agency. Gallant concludes “OSEA obtained a favourable ruling from the Board in its May 21, 2010 Decision on Cost Eligibility under false and misleading information from OSEA. It is therefore necessary for the Board to reverse the elements of its Decision on Cost Eligibility that allowed OSEA to absorb an even greater quantum of public funds than it has already.“
The same decision of the Ontario Energy Board that allowed OSEA to sextuple dip taxpayers and ratepayers also dinged ratepayers for the costs of promoting the interests of the Association of Power Producers of Ontario (APPRO), the Canadian Wind Energy Association (CanWEA), and the Ontario Waterpower Association (OWA) in the Board’s transmission planning review.
Ontario Energy Minister Duguid: Taxes are Good, the More the Merrier
June 15th, 2010Yesterday, Ontario Energy Minister Brad Duguid told 570 News that the higher electricity taxes are, the more you will save on your bill.
OPA Chairman Party to Power Contract
June 9th, 2010Aecon Group Inc., whose chairman and CEO is also chair of the Ontario Power Authority, John Beck, announced yesterday that it has partnered with Peter Kiewit Sons Co. for a $1.7 billion design build contract awarded by Ontario Power Generation for the construction of the Lower Mattagami Hydroelectric Complex, about 70 km northeast of Kapuskasing. Aecon reports a 20% interest in the construction joint venture that will redevelop four generating stations on the Mattagami River.
Comments on Green Energy Act consumer consequences in Maclean’s Magazine
June 7th, 2010See “Absolute power? Why Ontario’s rush to pour billions into green energy is fraught with risk and could leave consumers on the hook” by Chris Sorensen, Maclean’s Magazine, Saturday, June 5, 2010 here.
Ontario Sustainable Energy Alliance claims to “represent consumer interests”
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
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.
Big Busted Becky
June 3rd, 2010Here is another good piece by Parker Gallant on the FP site drawing attention to the continuing commercial disaster underway with the Beck 3rd tunnel project.
Ontario Wind Power - Useless During May 26-27/’10 Heat Wave
May 27th, 2010Wind farms in Ontario larger than 20 MW operated at an hourly capacity factor as low as 0.18% during the record breaking hot weather of May 26, 2010. The lowest point of production occurred during the hour starting at 10 am (EDST) when load was rising rapidly towards its peak. Although wind output hit a high hourly capacity factor for the day of 21.6%, that production did not occur until the hour starting at 10 pm, while load was falling.
Although production was slightly higher on May 27th, the minimum daily output — only 3.4% capacity factor — again occurred during the key morning ramp period.
This instance helps to illustrate the ignorance of those who claim that wind power can help replace coal-fired generating capacity in Ontario.