STILL A POLITICAL FOOTBALL

The reinvention of Conservative Leader Tim Hudak started early this week when  he announced, with much fanfare, one of the key planks in his party’s summer  platform to reinvigorate Ontario’s economy.

Why not, he said, sell off parts of Hydro One and the OPG to public-sector  pension plans? Wouldn’t getting rid of that nasty albatross help keep  electricity prices in check?

While Hudak felt he was having a lightning bolt moment, it was more like déjà  vu all over again for veteran members of the legislature.

Surely the leader wasn’t attempting to bring back a privatization plan  floated by Mike Harris in 2001; a plan that caused electricity prices to soar  before being quashed by newly minted premier Ernie Eves just seven months  later?

If this was all Hudak had to offer after letting victory slip through his  fingers in the last election, the Conservatives were officially on the fast  track to nowhere.

But that’s exactly what he was doing, and both the Liberals and NDP were  quick to remind him the idea of selling off hydro was just as much of a  non-starter today as it was a decade ago.

Providing electricity is, and always will be, an essential service in this  province. While it can’t be given over to the private sector, it can’t continue  to operate without accountability. It can’t be a political football.

People are snickering at Hudak because his just-released white paper on hydro  is a waste of time. Everyone knows it won’t fly, and trying to turn back the  clock was just plain dumb. But McGuinty and company shouldn’t be so smug.

This government has no reasonable solution either, and for the overburdened  ratepayers of Ontario, that’s a crime.

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The video, which comes to us from NASA, is an amazing 26-second animation depicting how temperatures around the globe have warmed since 1880. That year is what scientists call the beginning of the “modern record.” You’ll note an acceleration of those temperatures in the late 1970s as greenhouse gas emissions from energy production increased worldwide and clean air laws reduced emissions of pollutants that had a cooling effect on the climate, and thus were masking some of the global warming signal. The data comes from NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies in New York, which monitors global surface temperatures. As NASA notes, “in this animation, reds indicate temperatures higher than the average during a baseline period of 1951-1980, while blues indicate lower temperatures than the baseline average.”

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Electricity ratepayers in Ontario will not lose the 10 per cent rebates the Liberal government introduced to offset soaring hydro bills, according to the premier.

One of the recommendations from economist Don Drummond to help the province get out of deficit was ending the energy rebates introduced last year.

Dalton McGuinty says there’s a huge cost associated with rebuilding Ontario’s aging power grid and the government wants to provide some assistance.

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MISSISSAUGA, ON, Jan. 27, 2012 /CNW/ – This heating season we are seeing natural gas prices at 10-year lows. Due to a combination of several factors; including over production and warm weather this winter season, a decline in natural gas demand has left it cheap and readily available. With less demand and high availability, the cost of natural gas has decreased. It is during these periods where a fixed-rate price plan becomes advantageous, before corrective action is taken to start driving prices back up. The decrease in prices has resulted in drilling companies announcing cut-backs in production; at least until natural gas pricing rebounds, to allow for higher output to be more cost-effective. These actions typically contribute to the increase in natural gas prices. As natural gas drilling is reduced, the less available it will become – putting pressure on pricing once again.

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The same events that have rocked the financial world are also presenting opportunities for us to exert some control over the cost of living.

Natural gas prices are a good example. They’ve hit 10-year lows recently thanks mainly to a combination of new production coming on stream, a warm winter and a decline in demand related to global economic weakness. Unless you think we’re headed toward a lengthy recession that will keep the price of commodities low indefinitely, now’s a good time to lock in a natural gas price for the next five years at a very attractive rate.

One of the most disturbing things about the past few years is how vulnerable we’ve all become to financial events that are far removed from our everyday existence. The developments themselves are shocking, but so is the feeling of having no control over our lives.

Compare lock-in rates for natural gas on the Energyshop website or by Googling “natural gas contracts.” Prices vary by a surprising degree, which raises the question of whether there’s any risk in going with the lowest-cost firm.

“There’s no risk in signing up with the lowest cost provider, even if you haven’t heard of them,” Mr. MacLellan said. He argues that if your supplier goes bankrupt, its contracts would be bought by a competitor.

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…There is no point in blaming politicians for Canada’s spectacular failure to meet its Kyoto obligations to reduce greenhouse gas emissions (GGE).

They were simply carrying out the mandate we gave them.

Notwithstanding economically illiterate attempts to pretend otherwise, higher consumer prices for GHG-emitting goods and services are an essential component of any serious attempt to reduce emissions. Counting on people to reduce GGE emissions out of the goodness of their hearts was the strategy of the Chrétien-Martin Liberal governments, and adopting this policy made Canada’s Kyoto failure inevitable long before Stephen Harper’s Conservatives came to power.

It doesn’t matter what Canadians tell pollsters about how much they are concerned with climate change; what matters is the choices we make. And whenever we have been offered the choice of accepting personal inconvenience in order to reduce greenhouse gas emissions or of making sure that fossil fuels are cheap and plentiful, we have consistently and overwhelmingly chosen the latter.

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Ontario Auditor General Jim McCarter told us last week that electricity rates have been rising without sufficient oversight. Warning that they will rise still higher, he blamed the McGuinty government and noted that government legislation and directives have overridden powers assigned to the Ontario Energy Board (OEB).

Electricity consumers have been paying a fixed debt retirement charge (DRC) on hydro bills since 1999. The finance minister is required to determine from time to time the residual stranded debt and make that determination public.

The auditor points out that the residual stranded debt originally was $7.8 billon and that, over a period of 10 years, $8 billion was collected. However, no public report has been made and the DRC is still being collected.

The [other] area of the auditor’s report was on the role of the OEB and the decline of its authority to control electricity rates. The auditor notes that in recent years the rates for unregulated sources of power have been higher than regulated sources, and that they account for about 65 per cent of the price paid by the average consumer, meaning that only $35 of every $100 paid for electricity can be regulated. The unregulated sources are primarily supplies under power contracts signed by the OPA under government direction.

The OEB says the public expects the board to regulate the industry. This, however, is a misconception because the government has taken away its authority to regulate.

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…Ontario Auditor General Jim McCarter’s report, released Monday, is dangerous for the Liberals because it indirectly undermines their judgment. The report begs the question: Did the province rush into renewable energy investment without adequately taking measure of the likelihood for success?

…It appears the Liberals passed the Green Energy Act, which heavily subsidies green power projects, without a clear idea of its prospects for success.

McCarter noted that no economic analysis was done to determine whether the province’s $437-million deal (since lowered to $110 million) with Korean firm Samsung–which promises subsidies on power prices and guaranteed access to the energy grid in return for $7 billion in investments–is “economically prudent.”

Green energy initiatives will cost Ontarians $220 million a year.

Energy rates are expected to increase by 7.9% annually over the next five years, with more than half of that attributed to green energy initiatives.

Ontarians are getting angry with rising costs. McCarter notes that in March 2009, the Ontario Power Authority suggested the province offer a lower feed-in-tariff price for ground-mounted solar projects that could save $2.6 billion over 20 years.

McCarter says Ontarians’ power bills have increased an average of 26% from 2008-2010 and they’ll keep going up as more renewable energy projects start up. The province is leaning on its 10% clean energy benefit.

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…In one of the most scathing indictments of government mismanagement we have ever witnessed, Ontario Auditor-General Jim McCarter reported Monday that Mr. McGuinty’s green dream has rapidly become an $8-billion nightmare for Ontario taxpayers and electricity users. Almost no new net power will be generated by all the green-energy projects hastily funded since the bill was passed, but the average residential consumer will see more than $400 a year added to his power bill for a decade to pay for all the bad contracts with and subsidies to eco-friendly power suppliers.

Over the past year, the McGuinty Liberals have been forced to conduct a series of embarrassing climbdowns from their grand promises about the benefits that would flow from the switch from carbon fuels to renewables.

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Haste makes waste.

Premier Dalton McGuinty’s Liberals’ fast tracking of green energy projects will cost electricity ratepayers more money in the long run, says Auditor General Jim McCarter.

In his 460-page annual report to the Legislature released Monday, McCarter castigated policies that were a cornerstone of McGuinty’s re-election in the Oct. 6 vote, including Grit claims of 50,000 green jobs being created.

The auditor general found billions of dollars in solar and wind projects were approved without appropriate oversight, including and regulatory and planning procedures.

“While this helped these projects get off the ground quickly, their high cost will add significantly to ratepayers’ electricity bills in the future,” McCarter told reporters Monday.

He urged the government and its agency, the Ontario Power Authority, to conduct a “cost-benefit assessment of the progress made to date” in order to “strike an appropriated balance between the promotion of green energy and the price of electricity in Ontario.”