Here are the top 10 posts on this website for 2016 rated by pageviews, as well as the top 10 tweets from my @tomadamsenergy Twitter account rated by impressions. Traffic reports from earlier years are filed under the “About Tom Adams” category tab on the right of your screen (for desktop browsers).

The top post on TAE this year is my review of the Windstream NAFTA litigation published on the eve of the tribunal hearing. One of the themes there is to document the similarities between the Windstream case and the gas scandal that lead to Premier McGuinty’s exit from politics and criminal charges now pending against his chief of staff and deputy chief of staff.

#2 is a guest post authored by Toronto Hydro retirees Paul Kahnert and Dave Grant documenting their unsuccessful efforts to get any of the public authorities with oversight of Toronto Hydro or oversight of agencies responsible to monitor Toronto Hydro to investigate the criminality and waste at that utility.

#3 is another report on the WindStream NAFTA litigation, this time reporting from the tribunal hearing chambers, with particular attention to the role of former Energy Minister George Smitherman in attacking the interests of Canadian and Ontario taxpayers.

#4 was my letter to Ontario Environmental Commissioner Dianne Saxe asking her to document her junk claims about catastrophic global warming, power rates, smog, power reliability in Ontario, and electricity sector debt. Saxe never responded.

#5 was my always-popular annual update on how much it cost Toronto Hydro customers to retain the services of the almost-always-untruthful CEO Anthony Haines.

#6 was documentation on another carelessly wasteful infrastructure project by Toronto Hydro under its mostly bogus “aging infrastructure renewal” program, in this case replacing nearly new utility poles.

#7 was a guest post by former renewable power developer and now provincial politician Jon Kieran expanding on themes on how to control Ontario cancerous power costs that he first launched as an OpEd in the National Post. Jon has published three guest posts on this website, and I hope he will present more here in future. Wynne’s subsequent decisions to “suspend” LRP2 and curtail LRP 1 followed Kieran’s work documenting how they harm consumers. Jon is currently seeking the Ontario PC nomination in the riding of Don Valley West, now held by Premier Kathleen Wynne. I have contributed financially to support Kieran’s nomination run and encourage you to check out his campaign website here.

#8 was a report on various regulatory moves designed to thwart self-generation of power on a significant scale by small to medium-sized businesses (while the Ontario government subsidizes large industry to shift to self-generation).

#9 documents my testimony before a legislative committee considering expanding Ontario’s Green Energy and Green Economy Act to give the energy minister powers to order energy users to disclose data to him. My testimony follows on a column I presented in the National Post on the issue as well. That column appeared to spark the interest of then Energy Minister Bob Chiarelli, who reacted to my analysis of his changes to Ontario’s energy laws, saying that my work “disgraces these pages (of the National Post)” with “paranoid hysteria.” Follow-up on my testimony is here.

#10 is a wonderful analysis of trends at the Ontario Energy Board by lawyer Jay Shepherd cross-posted from his site. Shepherd argues forcefully that until the Ontario Energy Board is restored to some reasonable standard of professionalism, distribution customers of Hydro One and Toronto Hydro have little prospect of being charged just and reasonable rates.

Honourable mentions of postings from 2015 that got relatively heavy traffic in 2016 are a family connection between the Wynne cabinet and the solar power industry (a conflict that is still current), an analysis of conflicts of interest at the Ontario Energy Board, and a review of junk power rate analysis issued by the Ontario government’s broadcaster TVO.

Tom Twittering

My most popular Tweets, measured by total impressions, are listed here in descending order with the most popular first. Where my Tweet is replying to another, the original is provided for context.

#1
Tom Adams @tomadamsenergy May 15
Access to affordable, reliable, convenient and abundant fuel has been more liberating for women than men. @cathmckenna
(replying to: Catherine McKenna “@cathmckenna 14 May 2016
DYK: The threat of #climatechange is not gender neutral? Women are more vulnerable to the effects of climate change than men.)

#2
Tom Adams @tomadamsenergy Oct 26
Enjoying your McGuinty/Wynne power bill? Bring your bill tonight 2 energy poverty townhall in Scarb. secure.ontariopc.com/PartyEvents/13″¦ @JYakabuskiMPP

#3
Tom Adams @tomadamsenergy May 15
Public policy choices affecting the future of fossil fuels cannot be rationally considered if risks are divorced from benefits. @cathmckenna
(replying to: Catherine McKenna “@cathmckenna 14 May 2016
DYK: The threat of #climatechange is not gender neutral? Women are more vulnerable to the effects of climate change than men.)

#4
Tom Adams @tomadamsenergy Oct 22
In Ontario, electric cars are a screw-your-neighbour kind of status symbol, like solar panels on your roof. @sunlorrie
(replying to: Lorrie Goldstein “@sunlorrie 22 Oct 2016
My Sunday Sun column: Trudeau Liberals to join Wynne Liberals in helping rich people buy electric cars http://www.torontosun.com/2016/10/22/trudeau-liberals-set-to-join-wynne-liberals-in-helping-rich-people-buy-electric-cars “¦ #onpoli)

#5
Tom Adams @tomadamsenergy Dec 10
Biggest Wynne cap-and-trade spending item? Power rates subsidies. New boondoggle to mask old and growing boondoggle. @sunlorrie
Replying to: Lorrie Goldstein “@sunlorrie 9 Dec 2016
To be fair Ontario’s out of control electricity prices have nothing to do with its looming cap-and-trade plan. They are separate screw-ups.)

#6
Tom Adams @tomadamsenergy Jul 1
Particularly in rural Ontario, soaring power rates are threatening to drive poor people from their homes. Rates… fb.me/8beuicDUh

#7
Tom Adams @tomadamsenergy Oct 21
Breakthrough: Wynne gov’t signs power deal with Quebec, official estimate of bill savings = 0.048% cbc.ca/1.3815203

#8
Tom Adams @tomadamsenergy Apr 21
How the madness of Muskrat Falls might finally be fixed natpo.st/1TlPKgv via @fpcomment #nlpoli
(In hindsight, my optimism has been proven completely wrong.)

#9
Tom Adams @tomadamsenergy Oct 25
Protests, delays, cost over-runs, existential questions of viability hang over Muskrat Falls project in NL cbc.ca/1.3819827 #nlpoli

#10
Tom Adams @tomadamsenergy Jan 30
ON power consumer will pay $3.1B for conservation programs (2015-2020). Ever wonder where some of that $$$$$$ goes?
ieso.ca/Documents/cons”¦