Archive of posts tagged conservation

Ontario’s Environmental Commissioner Pushes the Conservation Con

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rx online In March 1993, one of the defining moments in Maurice Strong’s leadership period for Ontario Hydro occurred — Strong announced the shut down the utility’s energy conservation programs. He justified his initiative noting that conservation programs during the prevailing surplus of generating capacity would harm consumers already hurting from recent rate increases. At …

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Open Letter to Dr. Dianne Saxe, Environmental Commissioner of Ontario

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Dr. Dianne Saxe Environmental Commissioner of Ontario Email: [email protected] Dear Dr. Saxe, On Wednesday last week, you and I were guests on the radio show “Fight Back with Libby Znaimer” on the AM radio station CFZM Toronto. A podcast of that interview is available here.

Conservation Con Benefactors: Part 1

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Professor McKitrick and I document the economic absurdity of Ontario’s multi billion dollar conservation programs and absence of oversight contrasted against official Ontario’s claims justifying the expenditures here. I have appended to this post the full text of Minister Chiarelli’s response to our report and also linked to the original here. The Minister would have …

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Demand-side Mismanagement: How Conservation Became Waste

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Here is a study I had a chance to co-author with Univerity of Guelph Professor of Economics Dr. Ross McKitrick. The study examines the value proposition behind the billions of dollars of public money that have been expended on energy conservation programs over the last more than 25 years in Ontario.

Crock of Conservation

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Premier Kathleen Wynne’s mandate letter to Energy Minister Bob Chiarelli, released September 25th, acknowledges that her government intends to keep raising electricity rates but says her government will solve this problem for consumers with something she calls “Conservation First”. Getting more value from each kilowatt-hour is a fine idea, but dropping power demand is worsening …

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Conservation Can Be Rewarding

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By Tom Adams and Adam Break When Premier McGuinty first announced in 2004 that he was committed to promoting a “culture of conservation“, who could have imagined that the government would create a rewards program in which conservation program participants could redeem points for plane tickets to destinations like the Caribbean? The story of how …

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Conservation Con Costs Ontario Households $100/yr

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Ontario consumers are getting bombarded with “free” conservation coupons, conservation fliers, Air Miles “reward miles” for conservation program participation, TV & radio spots telling you to save energy, conservation web sites, subsidized energy audits, and bounties on old fridges. All this is backed up by mountains of regulatory filings and government reports prepared by expensive …

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Gas Busters Part 5: Ding dong, the Wicked Witch is Dead, Electricity Moratorium Now

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The leader of Ontario’s minority government has resigned in a controversy over electricity. But even as he walks away, the mess he created is getting worse by the day. All major electricity projects in Ontario that can be delayed without severe penalty must be frozen immediately. Moratorium now. Public concern about the gas plant issue …

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