(Queen’s Park) Ontario PC Energy Critic John Yakabuski put forward a motion that would require the government to open up the secret $7 billion Samsung deal and disclose the details of the agreement. Despite the McGuinty Liberals talk of accountability and transparency they voted to keep the details of the deal hidden rather than allowing it to be examined for its long-term impact on business and Ontario families who will end up paying for it.
“The Samsung deal was perfectly in keeping with this government’s and this Ministry’s completely irresponsible handling of Ontario’s energy system.” Yakabuski said.
When the McGuinty Liberals announced the Samsung deal last January, even Members of the McGuinty cabinet were infuriated.
“The government surprised the public, the entire energy sector and even their own cabinet by signing this secret deal with Samsung.” Yakabuski said.
Despite the government’s lack of disclosure, the Premier was forced to admit that the deal contained no job guarantees despite a $437 million subsidy.
According to a column by Randall Denley in the Ottawa Citizen of Jan. 24, 2010, the jobs claimed by the McGuinty government in the Samsung deal will cost $300,000 each in public subsidies.
[From: http://windconcernsontario.wordpress.com:80/2010/10/28/mcguinty-liberals-vote-to-keep-samsung-deal-hidden/]
Thursday, October 28, 2010
Sunday, October 24, 2010
From the "What can they be thinking" Department
...or what is their true motives.
Seems the McGuinty Liberals have directed the Ontario Energy Board to require all regulated natural gas and electricity utilities to set aside 0.12% of their revenues for the purpose of subsidizing energy bills of low income Ontarians. This to be recovered from other's energy bills.
You will be paying even more for energy as a social program to transfer wealth from the middle class to the poor in the province hit by the "energy poverty" as they are now experiencing in the UK. A poverty of the government's making.
And this just may be the beginning.
It makes one wonder what the motives are here. Is this government, influenced by eco-freaks deliberately trying to destroy this civilization? It certainly looks that way. The only other option is they are stupid people running the show. I highly doubt those in power right now are that stupid. We have people in political and influential power whose purpose is to dismantle the middle class, capitalism and democracy.
I've tried my best to stay away from politics in this blog because high energy costs affect everyone regardless of your position on the political scale. But it is becoming harder and harder to separate the two. From my extensive experience dealing with people of the political left that they have one united goal -- end capitalism and establish an unelected single world government.
Make no mistake about this. From the founding of the IPCC by Maurice Strong (who has been quite outspoken about killing capitalism at any costs), to the current UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon's desire to implement "global governance", to the eco-nutcases running various NGOs around the world who wish us to return to a hunter/gathering lifestyle (and a correspondingly 99% cull in human numbers). These people are hell bent on labeling everyone living as a threat to the planet, and acting to fix that.
Seems the McGuinty Liberals have directed the Ontario Energy Board to require all regulated natural gas and electricity utilities to set aside 0.12% of their revenues for the purpose of subsidizing energy bills of low income Ontarians. This to be recovered from other's energy bills.
You will be paying even more for energy as a social program to transfer wealth from the middle class to the poor in the province hit by the "energy poverty" as they are now experiencing in the UK. A poverty of the government's making.
And this just may be the beginning.
It makes one wonder what the motives are here. Is this government, influenced by eco-freaks deliberately trying to destroy this civilization? It certainly looks that way. The only other option is they are stupid people running the show. I highly doubt those in power right now are that stupid. We have people in political and influential power whose purpose is to dismantle the middle class, capitalism and democracy.
I've tried my best to stay away from politics in this blog because high energy costs affect everyone regardless of your position on the political scale. But it is becoming harder and harder to separate the two. From my extensive experience dealing with people of the political left that they have one united goal -- end capitalism and establish an unelected single world government.
Make no mistake about this. From the founding of the IPCC by Maurice Strong (who has been quite outspoken about killing capitalism at any costs), to the current UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon's desire to implement "global governance", to the eco-nutcases running various NGOs around the world who wish us to return to a hunter/gathering lifestyle (and a correspondingly 99% cull in human numbers). These people are hell bent on labeling everyone living as a threat to the planet, and acting to fix that.
Friday, October 22, 2010
Energy costs drive inflation rate to 1.9%
http://www.canada.com/business/Energy+costs+drive+inflation+rate/3710646/story.html
OTTAWA — Canada's inflation rate rose in September, driven largely by higher energy costs.
Annual inflation was running at 1.9 per cent last month, according to Statistics Canada's consumer-price index released Friday.
That followed a gain of 1.7 per cent in August, and was in line with economist expectations for September.
Much of the gain came from energy prices, which were 5.6 per cent higher than a year earlier. This included gasoline costs, which were up 3.1 per cent, and electricity, which was 7.7 per cent more expensive.
Overall inflation, on a year-to-year basis, has been on the rise in recent months after going as low as one per cent in June. The Bank of Canada's target inflation rate is two per cent cent. Higher energy prices in comparison to a year earlier have been a major component of inflation for a few months now, with this element seeing a five per cent rise in August.
Core inflation, which strips out volatile items such as energy and certain foods — and even the new harmonized sales taxes in British Columbia and Ontario — was 1.5 per cent last month. Economists expected the core rate to be 1.6 per cent, which it was in August. This measure, which is closely monitored by the central bank for underlying trends, has fallen from as much as 2.1 per cent in February.
Robert Kavcic, economist with BMO Capital Markets, said the "soft" core rate "highlights the fact that plenty of slack remains in the Canadian economy."
He added: "Inflation remains tame in Canada, which will allow the Bank of Canada to stay on hold (on interest rates) well into 2011."
The only major product category to see lower prices in September was clothing and footwear, prices for which were 2.2 per cent less than a year earlier.
Looking at the other main components: food prices were up 2.1 per cent; shelter costs were up 2.5 per cent; household operations, furniture and equipment up 1.4 per cent; transportation costs up 3.1 per cent; health and personal-care items up 2.1 per cent; recreation, education and reading up 0.7 per cent; and alcohol beverages and tobacco products were 2.4 per cent more expensive.
Provincially, Ontario had the highest inflation rate in September at 2.9 per cent. Newfoundland and Labrador was also above average at 2.3 per cent.
The lowest inflation rate was in Manitoba at 0.5 per cent, following by Prince Edward Island at 0.8 per cent and Alberta at 0.9 per cent
On a month-to-month basis, consumer prices rose 0.3 per cent in September on a seasonally adjusted basis, compared to a 0.1 per cent gain in August.
Annual inflation by province in September
Newfoundland and Labrador 2.3%
Prince Edward Island 0.8%
Nova Scotia 1.8%
New Brunswick 1.6%
Quebec 1.0%
Ontario 2.9%
Manitoba 0.5%
Saskatchewan 1.2%
Alberta 0.9%
British Columbia 1.6%
OTTAWA — Canada's inflation rate rose in September, driven largely by higher energy costs.
Annual inflation was running at 1.9 per cent last month, according to Statistics Canada's consumer-price index released Friday.
That followed a gain of 1.7 per cent in August, and was in line with economist expectations for September.
Much of the gain came from energy prices, which were 5.6 per cent higher than a year earlier. This included gasoline costs, which were up 3.1 per cent, and electricity, which was 7.7 per cent more expensive.
Overall inflation, on a year-to-year basis, has been on the rise in recent months after going as low as one per cent in June. The Bank of Canada's target inflation rate is two per cent cent. Higher energy prices in comparison to a year earlier have been a major component of inflation for a few months now, with this element seeing a five per cent rise in August.
Core inflation, which strips out volatile items such as energy and certain foods — and even the new harmonized sales taxes in British Columbia and Ontario — was 1.5 per cent last month. Economists expected the core rate to be 1.6 per cent, which it was in August. This measure, which is closely monitored by the central bank for underlying trends, has fallen from as much as 2.1 per cent in February.
Robert Kavcic, economist with BMO Capital Markets, said the "soft" core rate "highlights the fact that plenty of slack remains in the Canadian economy."
He added: "Inflation remains tame in Canada, which will allow the Bank of Canada to stay on hold (on interest rates) well into 2011."
The only major product category to see lower prices in September was clothing and footwear, prices for which were 2.2 per cent less than a year earlier.
Looking at the other main components: food prices were up 2.1 per cent; shelter costs were up 2.5 per cent; household operations, furniture and equipment up 1.4 per cent; transportation costs up 3.1 per cent; health and personal-care items up 2.1 per cent; recreation, education and reading up 0.7 per cent; and alcohol beverages and tobacco products were 2.4 per cent more expensive.
Provincially, Ontario had the highest inflation rate in September at 2.9 per cent. Newfoundland and Labrador was also above average at 2.3 per cent.
The lowest inflation rate was in Manitoba at 0.5 per cent, following by Prince Edward Island at 0.8 per cent and Alberta at 0.9 per cent
On a month-to-month basis, consumer prices rose 0.3 per cent in September on a seasonally adjusted basis, compared to a 0.1 per cent gain in August.
Annual inflation by province in September
Newfoundland and Labrador 2.3%
Prince Edward Island 0.8%
Nova Scotia 1.8%
New Brunswick 1.6%
Quebec 1.0%
Ontario 2.9%
Manitoba 0.5%
Saskatchewan 1.2%
Alberta 0.9%
British Columbia 1.6%
Peter Foster: The Solar Robber Barons
Financial Post, 22 October 2010
Some foreign — and even domestic — solar equipment manufacturers are complaining that Ontario’s buy-local policies will cost investment and jobs. It takes some gall to criticize dumb and damaging initiatives when your existence depends on them.
A group of photovoltaic producers — led by Japan’s Mitsubishi Electric Corp. — is complaining that to receive Ontario’s super-premium rates for solar energy, projects must have a 60% local content. This, bleat the solar robber barons, is bad for the economy!
Worldwide, solar companies have been boosted by the policy pandemic of feed-in tariffs, whereby the high costs of uneconomic renewable power are averaged down with much cheaper conventional electricity sources. This is leading to sharp cost increases for consumers.
Takashi Sato, president of Mitsubishi Electric Sales Canada, was reported as saying this week that “We are very encouraged by the FIT [feed-in-tariff] as far as a tariff program is concerned.”
You bet they are! Who wouldn’t want their industry subsidized by having consumers forced to pay multiples of the market price for a portion of their purchases?
“However,” continued Mr. Sato, “the program contains some poison because of the domestic content requirement.”
We beg to differ. The program is pure hemlock all the way through.
Japan has challenged Ontario’s Green Energy Act at the WTO, with the EU and United States cheering it on, but this is sheer hypocrisy, even if the Ontario government’s actions are indefensible (It remains to be seen whether Dalton McGuinty plans to go the Danny Williams route of flouting trade agreements in the knowledge that Ottawa has to pick up the bill).
The U.S. is complaining about China’s renewable industry subsidies, but China has fired back noting that a $60-billion-plus chunk of Mr. Obama’s stimulus package consisted of such subsidies, with “Buy American” clauses attached.
“What America is blaming us for is exactly what they do themselves,” said Mr. Zhang Guobao, vice-chairman of China’s National Development and Reform Commission. “Chinese subsidies to new energy companies are much smaller than those of the U.S. government. If the U.S. government can subsidize companies, then why can’t we?”
Well of course they can. The problem is that such actions are collectively suicidal.
When launching his own campaign of hypocrisy in Ontario, Mitsubishi’s Mr. Sato claimed that the solar industry was set to boom. Au contraire. The solar industry is headed for a crash, and any superficial buoyancy is not due to bright market prospects but to frenzied activity in anticipation of subsidy withdrawal. As usual, Icarus McGuinty appears a little slow on the uptake, still convinced he can bear the Ontario economy Sol-wards on waxy wings.
Spain had a similarly crazy policy that subsidized farmers to plough their orchards under and cover them with solar panels. Supposedly shrewd men of the soil invested to take advantage of a solar tariff of around 44¢ per kilowatt-hour, 10 times that paid to mainstream suppliers (but still way short of Ontario’s top rates of over 70¢).
When he unveiled a solar plant in 2007, Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero declared, “We are a world power in this field, we are capable of exporting our technology and competing across five continents and we are today at the forefront of the renewable-energy industry.”
When Mr. Zapatero took a delegation to Washington a year ago, President Obama (who is to put more solar panels on the White House, just like Jimmy Carter) praised Spain as a model of green-energy-driven economic transformation.
It certainly is: the transformation to ruin.
Typical of such bold moves toward “sustainability,” Spain’s proved utterly unsustainable. Soon Madrid found itself saddled with upward of €126-billion of solar obligations. Investors wound up importing most solar equipment because domestic suppliers couldn’t meet the surge in demand. Studies indicated that each renewable job cost two regular jobs.
Spain, like most countries, has found itself with a surging deficit in the wake of the economic crisis. This in turn has forced it to renege on its commitments to high solar power prices. The response has been outrage from the solar industry, a slump in investment and a sharp drop in the price of solar panels. Critics point out that these government’s policy lurchings have damaged the investment climate more generally.
Anybody with half an economic brain could have seen that the universal policy urge to subsidize green energy was going to lead to both massive oversupply and unsustainable drainage of the public purse. Meanwhile we should remember that the whole green energy thrust is likely based on scientific sand.
As Czech President Vaclav Klaus pointed out in a speech this week to the Global Warming Policy Foundation (which was excerpted on this page yesterday), climate change is far more about political power and rent-seeking than science. The solar fiasco shows that this thrust is not merely dangerous to freedom, as President Klaus indicated, it is also fiscally suicidal.
Back in Ontario, meanwhile, Mr. Sato’s arm-twisting kicker is that unless foreign solar manufacturers get their full section of the subsidy trough, they may have to uproot and head for, well, even more stupid jurisdictions. That means Ontario might not be able to reach its renewable targets! We can only hope so.
Farewell, Mr. Sato. Don’t forget to send a postcard.
Financial Post, 22 October 2010
Some foreign — and even domestic — solar equipment manufacturers are complaining that Ontario’s buy-local policies will cost investment and jobs. It takes some gall to criticize dumb and damaging initiatives when your existence depends on them.
A group of photovoltaic producers — led by Japan’s Mitsubishi Electric Corp. — is complaining that to receive Ontario’s super-premium rates for solar energy, projects must have a 60% local content. This, bleat the solar robber barons, is bad for the economy!
Worldwide, solar companies have been boosted by the policy pandemic of feed-in tariffs, whereby the high costs of uneconomic renewable power are averaged down with much cheaper conventional electricity sources. This is leading to sharp cost increases for consumers.
Takashi Sato, president of Mitsubishi Electric Sales Canada, was reported as saying this week that “We are very encouraged by the FIT [feed-in-tariff] as far as a tariff program is concerned.”
You bet they are! Who wouldn’t want their industry subsidized by having consumers forced to pay multiples of the market price for a portion of their purchases?
“However,” continued Mr. Sato, “the program contains some poison because of the domestic content requirement.”
We beg to differ. The program is pure hemlock all the way through.
Japan has challenged Ontario’s Green Energy Act at the WTO, with the EU and United States cheering it on, but this is sheer hypocrisy, even if the Ontario government’s actions are indefensible (It remains to be seen whether Dalton McGuinty plans to go the Danny Williams route of flouting trade agreements in the knowledge that Ottawa has to pick up the bill).
The U.S. is complaining about China’s renewable industry subsidies, but China has fired back noting that a $60-billion-plus chunk of Mr. Obama’s stimulus package consisted of such subsidies, with “Buy American” clauses attached.
“What America is blaming us for is exactly what they do themselves,” said Mr. Zhang Guobao, vice-chairman of China’s National Development and Reform Commission. “Chinese subsidies to new energy companies are much smaller than those of the U.S. government. If the U.S. government can subsidize companies, then why can’t we?”
Well of course they can. The problem is that such actions are collectively suicidal.
When launching his own campaign of hypocrisy in Ontario, Mitsubishi’s Mr. Sato claimed that the solar industry was set to boom. Au contraire. The solar industry is headed for a crash, and any superficial buoyancy is not due to bright market prospects but to frenzied activity in anticipation of subsidy withdrawal. As usual, Icarus McGuinty appears a little slow on the uptake, still convinced he can bear the Ontario economy Sol-wards on waxy wings.
Spain had a similarly crazy policy that subsidized farmers to plough their orchards under and cover them with solar panels. Supposedly shrewd men of the soil invested to take advantage of a solar tariff of around 44¢ per kilowatt-hour, 10 times that paid to mainstream suppliers (but still way short of Ontario’s top rates of over 70¢).
When he unveiled a solar plant in 2007, Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero declared, “We are a world power in this field, we are capable of exporting our technology and competing across five continents and we are today at the forefront of the renewable-energy industry.”
When Mr. Zapatero took a delegation to Washington a year ago, President Obama (who is to put more solar panels on the White House, just like Jimmy Carter) praised Spain as a model of green-energy-driven economic transformation.
It certainly is: the transformation to ruin.
Typical of such bold moves toward “sustainability,” Spain’s proved utterly unsustainable. Soon Madrid found itself saddled with upward of €126-billion of solar obligations. Investors wound up importing most solar equipment because domestic suppliers couldn’t meet the surge in demand. Studies indicated that each renewable job cost two regular jobs.
Spain, like most countries, has found itself with a surging deficit in the wake of the economic crisis. This in turn has forced it to renege on its commitments to high solar power prices. The response has been outrage from the solar industry, a slump in investment and a sharp drop in the price of solar panels. Critics point out that these government’s policy lurchings have damaged the investment climate more generally.
Anybody with half an economic brain could have seen that the universal policy urge to subsidize green energy was going to lead to both massive oversupply and unsustainable drainage of the public purse. Meanwhile we should remember that the whole green energy thrust is likely based on scientific sand.
As Czech President Vaclav Klaus pointed out in a speech this week to the Global Warming Policy Foundation (which was excerpted on this page yesterday), climate change is far more about political power and rent-seeking than science. The solar fiasco shows that this thrust is not merely dangerous to freedom, as President Klaus indicated, it is also fiscally suicidal.
Back in Ontario, meanwhile, Mr. Sato’s arm-twisting kicker is that unless foreign solar manufacturers get their full section of the subsidy trough, they may have to uproot and head for, well, even more stupid jurisdictions. That means Ontario might not be able to reach its renewable targets! We can only hope so.
Farewell, Mr. Sato. Don’t forget to send a postcard.
Financial Post, 22 October 2010
Thursday, October 21, 2010
Ontario’s Power Trip: Who’s got the plan?
One of a series: Ontario claims to have a long-term energy plan. So far, there’s no sign of it
Parker Gallant
In a surprise announcement earlier this month, the Ontario government pulled the plug on a new 900-megawatt gas generation plant in the Toronto suburb of Oakville. Since the contract to build the $1.3-billion plant had already been signed with TransCanada Corp., the provincial government is on the hook for undisclosed but likely substantial penalties. But there’s an even bigger surprise in the gas plant backdown. In announcing the reversal, Energy Minister Brad Duguid said the province was killing the plant because it no longer needed the power. “As we’re putting together an update to our Long-Term Energy Plan,” he said, “it has become clear we no longer need this plant in Oakville.”
The real surprise here is the reference to a “Long-Term Energy Plan.” No long-term plan exists, at least in any public sense. What does exist is a seven-year planning saga that has left a Keystone Kops trail of procedural mash-ups and a power policy shambles.
Few believe that the gas plant decision was anything more than a move to save the Liberals a couple of seats in the Oakville area, where a local protest movement brought in celebrity U.S. environmental icon Erin Brockovich to oppose the $1.3-billion project.
Mr. Duguid, pretending otherwise, makes it sound as if some orderly and rational process had determined precisely how much electricity Ontario will need in the future. But the history of long-term electricity planning under Dalton McGuinty’s Liberal government and various energy ministers, including George Smitherman, now a candidate for mayor of Toronto, suggests anything but order and rationality.
The 900-megawatt plant Ontario now says it no longer requires was ordered only 12 months earlier based on a “directive” issued by Mr. Smitherman. In August 2008, Mr. Smitherman used his ministerial power to instruct the Ontario Power Authority to “move expeditiously” on the new Oakville power plant. “It would be prudent to finish this procurement process by the end of June 2009.” The OPA, which executes government policy in electricity, moved quickly and signed a deal with TransCanada in September 2009.
The Oakville reversal is the tail end of seven years of a bungled decision-making process grounded in runaway green activitism and rampant ad hoc-ery.The Liberals took over the electricity industry in 2003 with a high-profile claim that the province lacked a long-term plan. So it appointed the Ontario Power Authority in 2004 and assigned it the task: Create and submit a 20-year Integrated Power System Plan (IPSP) every three years.
To prepare for the 20-year IPSP, the government would establish a long-term outlook of how much electricity the province would need. Working with the OPA, the government would also determine what kinds of energy sources would be used to fulfill the expected demand. This was known as the “Supply-Mix Directive.”
Part of the objective was to fulfill a McGuinty election promise to shut down 6,500 megawatts of coal capacity, increase the use of renewables and create programs producing 6,300 megawatts of conservation. The mix directive also told the OPA how much of a share of the total market should be allocated to nuclear, gas, hydro, etc.
Armed with the long-term Supply-Mix Directive from the government, the OPA then produced a formal public document known as the IPSP — the Integrated Power Supply Plan.
In 2007, former OPA chairman Jan Carr met the three-year mandate and produced the first IPSP, a sprawling document that set out a 20-year strategy. Under the government-established process, that first IPSP was sent to the Ontario Energy Board for regulatory review in 2007. So far, so good.
But then the OEB started the IPSP review process amid requests from dozens of different parties who wished to intervene in the approval process.Tens of thousands of pages were filed by the OPA and interveners. The document list associated with the IPSP rose to include hundreds of filings on the OEB’s website. The public hearings went on for a year or more.
Then came another directive from Mr. Smitherman. In September 2008 — a month after he had ordered the Oakville plant — Mr. Smitherman ordered the OPA to prepare a new 20-year plan. Circumstances and policy had changed, he said, and it was time to “revisit” the 2007 IPSP that was then under review by the provincial regulator.
Today, almost four years after the first IPSP was produced in 2007, no plan exists. The first plan was never approved by the regulator. That first IPSP, moreover, has now somewhat mysteriously disappeared from its public perch on the regulator’s website. After three years of preparatory effort and four years dragging through regulatory review — thereby wasting 30% of the planning period — Ontario’s first IPSP appears to have vanished from the public record. During most of those years, the government ignored the contents of the IPSP and on an ad hoc basis dictated electricity development, making a mockery of the alleged regulatory system.
As a result, we have the minister of energy claiming to have a new long-term energy plan that nobody has seen to replace the old long-term energy plan that has never been approved and is also now not to be seen by anybody.
So who’s got the new 20-year plan for Ontario’s electricity needs? Where is it? What does it say? Does it exist?
Even more confusing was Mr. Duguid’s claim to have reached supply-and-demand conclusions regarding the Oakville plant based on an update to the Long-Term Energy Plan that he said last month would not be ready for several months. The IPSP, he said, would not be completed until 2011 — after the province had collected the results from an online survey of Ontario residents, conducted on the ministerial website. The survey, loaded with leading questions that favour government policy, is still underway. Given the way it’s being conducted, the final survey is guaranteed to endorse the government’s plans, which in turn are based on ministerial directives which in turn are based on … what?
This is planning run backwards: Issue the directives, then work up a long-term plan that fits around the directives.
And these directives have been substantial. While the official 20-year plan stumbled through the regulatory process on its way to nowhere, energy ministers have micromanaged the Ontario electricity system, from the signing of billion-dollar contracts down to the location of transmission lines.In September 2008, shortly after ordering up the Oakville gas plant, Mr. Smitherman told the OPA to scrap the 2007 IPSP and start working on a new one. Mr. Smitherman seemed to have a long-term plan in his head. He issued instructions to the OPA based on a long list of green energy objectives — more renewables, transmission lines to northern Ontario, biomass to replace coal, the deployment of smart meters and consultations with First Nations as partners in generation and transmission.
He also ordered a new 20-year plan: “In furtherance of this Directive, the OPA shall provide an amended and revised IPSP. It is expected that the revised IPSP would be provided to the OEB by the OPA no later than six months from the date hereof.” That’s the same IPSP that will now not be ready at least until early next year.
Without a new plan in place, Mr. Smitherman nonetheless produced scores of other directives, including one in December 2008 telling the OPA to procure advertising. Then, still without a long- term plan, Mr. Smitherman brought in Ontario’s big policy transformation, the Green Energy Act, giving even greater power to the energy minister and the Cabinet. In September 2009 — within days of the Oakville plant contract signing — he fired off another blockbuster directive to the OPA: ”I direct you to develop a feed-in tariff (FIT) program that is designed to procure energy from a wide range of renewable energy sources.”
The FIT, a key element of the Green Energy Act, is the basis for scores of deals that, among other things, pay retail giants like IKEA 71.3¢ for a kilowatt-hour of solar power. The 71.3¢ IKEA deal was announced the same day the Oakville plant, whose power costs would be maybe 10¢ a kilowatt hour, was killed.
If any one politician is responsible for Ontario’s electricity costs doubling over the next five years, Mr. Smitherman is the top candidate.The current Minister, Brad Duguid, took up the Smitherman role within days of taking over the portfolio. In April 2010, he issued the Samsung windmill and solar directive to the OPA.
The government, he said, has “entered into a green energy investment agreement with Samsung C&T Corporation and Korea Electric Power Corporation.” The Samsung consortium, the Minister said, has agreed to develop 2,500 megawatts of wind and solar renewable generation projects. The OPA, he said, is directed to negotiate “one or more power-purchase agreements as appropriate … with the Korean Consortium.”
The cost of the Samsung deal, estimated at $7-billion to $10-billion depending on the method of assessment, will be passed on to electricity consumers, as will the massive costs of accommodating wind and solar power.
Last month, Mr. Duguid was still at it. He told the OPA to provide transmission for the Samsung wind and solar projects funded by feed-in tariffs and also to set aside another 500 megawatts of transmission capacity elsewhere. The cost of this is unreported, unregulated and unreviewed.
All these directives but still no long-term plan, the very element of policy the Liberals ridiculed when they took office in 2003.
There is no plan — that is, except for the one that will be produced next year long after all the contracts have been signed.
The OPA was originally established to be a temporary agency that would develop a 20-year plan and then disappear. Instead of that it has grown hugely and accomplished little beyond signing lots of 20-year contracts for wind and solar power, follwing scores of directives issued by the government. This is costing the province’s ratepayers and taxpayers billions while making the province an unattractive destiny for business.
This is long term planning Liberal-style: Directives first, plan later.
Parker Gallant is a retired Canadian banker who looked at his Ontario electricity bills and didn’t like what he was seeing.Read more: http://opinion.financialpost.com/2010/10/21/ontarios-power-trip-whos-got-the-plan/#ixzz132zXIxds
Parker Gallant
In a surprise announcement earlier this month, the Ontario government pulled the plug on a new 900-megawatt gas generation plant in the Toronto suburb of Oakville. Since the contract to build the $1.3-billion plant had already been signed with TransCanada Corp., the provincial government is on the hook for undisclosed but likely substantial penalties. But there’s an even bigger surprise in the gas plant backdown. In announcing the reversal, Energy Minister Brad Duguid said the province was killing the plant because it no longer needed the power. “As we’re putting together an update to our Long-Term Energy Plan,” he said, “it has become clear we no longer need this plant in Oakville.”
The real surprise here is the reference to a “Long-Term Energy Plan.” No long-term plan exists, at least in any public sense. What does exist is a seven-year planning saga that has left a Keystone Kops trail of procedural mash-ups and a power policy shambles.
Few believe that the gas plant decision was anything more than a move to save the Liberals a couple of seats in the Oakville area, where a local protest movement brought in celebrity U.S. environmental icon Erin Brockovich to oppose the $1.3-billion project.
Mr. Duguid, pretending otherwise, makes it sound as if some orderly and rational process had determined precisely how much electricity Ontario will need in the future. But the history of long-term electricity planning under Dalton McGuinty’s Liberal government and various energy ministers, including George Smitherman, now a candidate for mayor of Toronto, suggests anything but order and rationality.
The 900-megawatt plant Ontario now says it no longer requires was ordered only 12 months earlier based on a “directive” issued by Mr. Smitherman. In August 2008, Mr. Smitherman used his ministerial power to instruct the Ontario Power Authority to “move expeditiously” on the new Oakville power plant. “It would be prudent to finish this procurement process by the end of June 2009.” The OPA, which executes government policy in electricity, moved quickly and signed a deal with TransCanada in September 2009.
The Oakville reversal is the tail end of seven years of a bungled decision-making process grounded in runaway green activitism and rampant ad hoc-ery.The Liberals took over the electricity industry in 2003 with a high-profile claim that the province lacked a long-term plan. So it appointed the Ontario Power Authority in 2004 and assigned it the task: Create and submit a 20-year Integrated Power System Plan (IPSP) every three years.
To prepare for the 20-year IPSP, the government would establish a long-term outlook of how much electricity the province would need. Working with the OPA, the government would also determine what kinds of energy sources would be used to fulfill the expected demand. This was known as the “Supply-Mix Directive.”
Part of the objective was to fulfill a McGuinty election promise to shut down 6,500 megawatts of coal capacity, increase the use of renewables and create programs producing 6,300 megawatts of conservation. The mix directive also told the OPA how much of a share of the total market should be allocated to nuclear, gas, hydro, etc.
Armed with the long-term Supply-Mix Directive from the government, the OPA then produced a formal public document known as the IPSP — the Integrated Power Supply Plan.
In 2007, former OPA chairman Jan Carr met the three-year mandate and produced the first IPSP, a sprawling document that set out a 20-year strategy. Under the government-established process, that first IPSP was sent to the Ontario Energy Board for regulatory review in 2007. So far, so good.
But then the OEB started the IPSP review process amid requests from dozens of different parties who wished to intervene in the approval process.Tens of thousands of pages were filed by the OPA and interveners. The document list associated with the IPSP rose to include hundreds of filings on the OEB’s website. The public hearings went on for a year or more.
Then came another directive from Mr. Smitherman. In September 2008 — a month after he had ordered the Oakville plant — Mr. Smitherman ordered the OPA to prepare a new 20-year plan. Circumstances and policy had changed, he said, and it was time to “revisit” the 2007 IPSP that was then under review by the provincial regulator.
Today, almost four years after the first IPSP was produced in 2007, no plan exists. The first plan was never approved by the regulator. That first IPSP, moreover, has now somewhat mysteriously disappeared from its public perch on the regulator’s website. After three years of preparatory effort and four years dragging through regulatory review — thereby wasting 30% of the planning period — Ontario’s first IPSP appears to have vanished from the public record. During most of those years, the government ignored the contents of the IPSP and on an ad hoc basis dictated electricity development, making a mockery of the alleged regulatory system.
As a result, we have the minister of energy claiming to have a new long-term energy plan that nobody has seen to replace the old long-term energy plan that has never been approved and is also now not to be seen by anybody.
So who’s got the new 20-year plan for Ontario’s electricity needs? Where is it? What does it say? Does it exist?
Even more confusing was Mr. Duguid’s claim to have reached supply-and-demand conclusions regarding the Oakville plant based on an update to the Long-Term Energy Plan that he said last month would not be ready for several months. The IPSP, he said, would not be completed until 2011 — after the province had collected the results from an online survey of Ontario residents, conducted on the ministerial website. The survey, loaded with leading questions that favour government policy, is still underway. Given the way it’s being conducted, the final survey is guaranteed to endorse the government’s plans, which in turn are based on ministerial directives which in turn are based on … what?
This is planning run backwards: Issue the directives, then work up a long-term plan that fits around the directives.
And these directives have been substantial. While the official 20-year plan stumbled through the regulatory process on its way to nowhere, energy ministers have micromanaged the Ontario electricity system, from the signing of billion-dollar contracts down to the location of transmission lines.In September 2008, shortly after ordering up the Oakville gas plant, Mr. Smitherman told the OPA to scrap the 2007 IPSP and start working on a new one. Mr. Smitherman seemed to have a long-term plan in his head. He issued instructions to the OPA based on a long list of green energy objectives — more renewables, transmission lines to northern Ontario, biomass to replace coal, the deployment of smart meters and consultations with First Nations as partners in generation and transmission.
He also ordered a new 20-year plan: “In furtherance of this Directive, the OPA shall provide an amended and revised IPSP. It is expected that the revised IPSP would be provided to the OEB by the OPA no later than six months from the date hereof.” That’s the same IPSP that will now not be ready at least until early next year.
Without a new plan in place, Mr. Smitherman nonetheless produced scores of other directives, including one in December 2008 telling the OPA to procure advertising. Then, still without a long- term plan, Mr. Smitherman brought in Ontario’s big policy transformation, the Green Energy Act, giving even greater power to the energy minister and the Cabinet. In September 2009 — within days of the Oakville plant contract signing — he fired off another blockbuster directive to the OPA: ”I direct you to develop a feed-in tariff (FIT) program that is designed to procure energy from a wide range of renewable energy sources.”
The FIT, a key element of the Green Energy Act, is the basis for scores of deals that, among other things, pay retail giants like IKEA 71.3¢ for a kilowatt-hour of solar power. The 71.3¢ IKEA deal was announced the same day the Oakville plant, whose power costs would be maybe 10¢ a kilowatt hour, was killed.
If any one politician is responsible for Ontario’s electricity costs doubling over the next five years, Mr. Smitherman is the top candidate.The current Minister, Brad Duguid, took up the Smitherman role within days of taking over the portfolio. In April 2010, he issued the Samsung windmill and solar directive to the OPA.
The government, he said, has “entered into a green energy investment agreement with Samsung C&T Corporation and Korea Electric Power Corporation.” The Samsung consortium, the Minister said, has agreed to develop 2,500 megawatts of wind and solar renewable generation projects. The OPA, he said, is directed to negotiate “one or more power-purchase agreements as appropriate … with the Korean Consortium.”
The cost of the Samsung deal, estimated at $7-billion to $10-billion depending on the method of assessment, will be passed on to electricity consumers, as will the massive costs of accommodating wind and solar power.
Last month, Mr. Duguid was still at it. He told the OPA to provide transmission for the Samsung wind and solar projects funded by feed-in tariffs and also to set aside another 500 megawatts of transmission capacity elsewhere. The cost of this is unreported, unregulated and unreviewed.
All these directives but still no long-term plan, the very element of policy the Liberals ridiculed when they took office in 2003.
There is no plan — that is, except for the one that will be produced next year long after all the contracts have been signed.
The OPA was originally established to be a temporary agency that would develop a 20-year plan and then disappear. Instead of that it has grown hugely and accomplished little beyond signing lots of 20-year contracts for wind and solar power, follwing scores of directives issued by the government. This is costing the province’s ratepayers and taxpayers billions while making the province an unattractive destiny for business.
This is long term planning Liberal-style: Directives first, plan later.
Parker Gallant is a retired Canadian banker who looked at his Ontario electricity bills and didn’t like what he was seeing.Read more: http://opinion.financialpost.com/2010/10/21/ontarios-power-trip-whos-got-the-plan/#ixzz132zXIxds
Monday, October 18, 2010
LIBERAL NEW POLICY WILL BE A FREEZE ON RATES
Until after the election. That's what came out of the Liberal Policy meeting held in London on the weekend. They are planing to introduce freezes on the following:
- Eco-fees
- TTC fees (the TTC is asking for a major increase)
- Electricity rates.
When asked how long these freezes will be in effect, the answer was "Until after the election."
Hence this is an election ploy not a party policy.
DONT BE FOOLED AGAIN, NO NO!!
Friday, October 15, 2010
ALL WIND OUTPUT GOING TO THE US
That is correct. I've proven it:
http://ontariowindperformance.wordpress.com/2010/10/16/chapter-4-11-4-then-where-is-wind-all-going/
$800 million in your hydrobills went to power Ohio.
The ramifications of this is enormous. The eco-nut cases want Ontario to go green. McGuinty is claiming wind and solar will make Ontario number one in green power. Except not one megawatt is being used here. It's all either sent to the US for free, or they are paying the US to take if off our hands.
I first checked to see if coal was being throttled back when the wind blows. Nope, I saw no evidence of this in the data. Then I checked to see if natural gas was being fired up when the wind was not blowing. That's the claim that they need more NG plants. Again, I saw no evidence at all that NG was being powered up when the wind is not blowing. I then checked hydro and "other" sources. No correlation at all when the wind spikes in output.
There was only one place left to look for where wind power was being sent. And that was to compare it to the difference in the Total Demand and Ontario Demand. This difference is exported to the US. And there is was. Spike for spike. Every time wind spiked up, so did the exported power. There is no mistake in this. The correlation between wind and the export is 95%.
Expect this revelation to go ballistic.
I suspect the Liberals know this. It may have even been a reason for Smitherman to bail the Liberal ship. The ramifications of this are huge. This should cost Duguid his portfolio. He needs to resign over this. And the Liberals need to be thrown out of office for it.
Oh, and no more wind development, the Samsung deal needs to be ripped up as it was based on a fraud. No more solar FIT approvals. Thus charade must stop now!
http://ontariowindperformance.wordpress.com/2010/10/16/chapter-4-11-4-then-where-is-wind-all-going/
$800 million in your hydrobills went to power Ohio.
The ramifications of this is enormous. The eco-nut cases want Ontario to go green. McGuinty is claiming wind and solar will make Ontario number one in green power. Except not one megawatt is being used here. It's all either sent to the US for free, or they are paying the US to take if off our hands.
I first checked to see if coal was being throttled back when the wind blows. Nope, I saw no evidence of this in the data. Then I checked to see if natural gas was being fired up when the wind was not blowing. That's the claim that they need more NG plants. Again, I saw no evidence at all that NG was being powered up when the wind is not blowing. I then checked hydro and "other" sources. No correlation at all when the wind spikes in output.
There was only one place left to look for where wind power was being sent. And that was to compare it to the difference in the Total Demand and Ontario Demand. This difference is exported to the US. And there is was. Spike for spike. Every time wind spiked up, so did the exported power. There is no mistake in this. The correlation between wind and the export is 95%.
Expect this revelation to go ballistic.
I suspect the Liberals know this. It may have even been a reason for Smitherman to bail the Liberal ship. The ramifications of this are huge. This should cost Duguid his portfolio. He needs to resign over this. And the Liberals need to be thrown out of office for it.
Oh, and no more wind development, the Samsung deal needs to be ripped up as it was based on a fraud. No more solar FIT approvals. Thus charade must stop now!
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