Newfoundland’s Muskrat Falls Megaproject Fails Test of Intergenerational Ethics

The government of Newfoundland and Labrador is hell-bent on committing the province to build the Muskrat Falls generating station on the Churchill River in Labrador and a transmission system interconnecting Labrador to the island of Newfoundland and Nova Scotia. At a forecast capital cost that works out to over $9,700 for every man, woman and …

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Commentary on Ontario’s FIT Contracts Announced Feb. 24/2010

The Ontario government announced here that it has entered into 40 new Feed-In Tariff contracts to procure another 872 MW of renewable power, primarily from wind and solar generators.  The generators know that McGuinty’s green energy days are numbered. The generators are racing to get their contracts in place before the government changes its …

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Ontario Power Agencies Failing Consumers: Examining the IESO

Institutional reform is needed in Ontario’s electricity sector so that key public agencies can properly perform their duties serving consumers while balancing the needs of producers. This essay argues that the Ontario Independent Electricity System Operator (IESO) belongs on the list of key agencies whose inappropriately cozy relationship with government is harming consumers.

Renege on Green Contracts? Irresponsible!

In a recent National Post column, Lawrence Solomon of Energy Probe advocates a range of policy responses to existing renewable power purchase contracts entered into by the Ontario government, contracts Solomon considers to be odiously costly. Robert Mugabe, president for life of Zimbabwe, would understand Solomon’s proposals ““ outright confiscation, targeted and punitive taxation, and …

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Global Green Power Bubble Bursting

Germany is joining Spain and the Czech Republic in hitting the brakes on cost-no-object green power hysteria. The economic transformation and employment growth the Ontario government has targeted with its Green Energy Act is based largely on speculation that other jurisdictions will continue to subsidize green power and allow access to their markets by Ontario-produced …

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Green Poverty: Gordon Miller’s Energy Vision

Gordon Miller, the Environmental Commissioner of Ontario, is blackening his office, shilling for the McGuinty government’s now dying Green Energy Act. On July 21st, Miller issued a press release decrying the government’s decision to reduce rates paid to ground-mounted solar developers. Having not participated in the review process underpinning the Ontario Power Authority (OPA) decisions …

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Protecting Ontario Ratepayers from Solar Fraud

Notwithstanding the McGuinty government’s recent retrenchment on one of the government’s more egregiously profligate solar power subsidy schemes, the remaining solar Feed-In Tariff (FIT) program rewards solar producers with prices so much higher than any measure of the value of electricity produced that the program remains vulnerable to fraud. With many thousands of installations and …

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Solar Gold Rush?

Crashing prices for solar PV panels create the prospect for a solar PV gold rush when Ontario’s Feed-In Tariff (FIT) opens for applications from developers October 1st. Some reports indicate that the price of PV systems has crashed by 32%-42% so far this year. (ref: http://www.renewableenergyworld.com/rea/news/article/2009/09/module-pricing-rational-or-just-plain-nuts?cmpid=WNL-Friday-September25-2009) Factors contributing to the fall in prices include burgeoning …

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