Green Power: Blowing In The Wind

Saskatchewan’s Wide Open Wallet delivers another hit to taxpayers.

News Release: SASKPOWER AND ATCO POWER JOINT VENTURE WILL NOT PROCEED
After detailed discussions regarding the project, SaskPower International and ATCO Power have announced their joint venture to build 150 megawatts of wind generation in Saskatchewan will not proceed.
SaskPower remains committed to pursuing wind generation as part of the Green Power Portfolio and will now review options related to the project.
[…]
SaskPower International Inc. is a wholly owned subsidiary of SaskPower and is the corporation’s development arm. SaskPower operates three coal-fired power stations, seven hydroelectric stations, four natural gas stations, and nine wind turbines (Cypress Wind Power Facility) with aggregate generating capacity of more than 3,000 MW, and has 449 MW of contracted capacity (Meridian Cogeneration Station, Cory Cogeneration Station and SunBridge Wind Power Project).

SaskPower is a Saskatchewan government corporation, actually – one of around 70 such government-owned entities. (ATCO is Alberta based.)
The news isn’t good for SaskTel (another wholly owned subsidiary of the Saskatchewan government), either.

[…]for SaskTel, letting you talk on the phone from your computer — free of long distance charges or for mere pennies per minute – – won’t be as cheap for them as it will be for everyone else, if the CRTC has its way.
[…]
Currently the CRTC regulates telephone service but the Internet is largely unregulated. The problem, from SaskTel’s perspective, is the CRTC is leaning toward calling the technology a phone service and regulating it as such — at least for the existing phone companies.
“Certainly, we look at it as an Internet service,” said John Meldrum, SaskTel’s vice- president for regulatory affairs, in an interview from Ottawa. “We think the CRTC is looking backward, not forward.”
The regulations would force the incumbent companies to adhere to similar pricing restrictions based on costs as they do for landline service. They would also force telephone companies to re-file any price changes to the CRTC, and allow them to offer promotions, like free trials, or bundle options.
SaskTel feels it is unfair to force incumbent providers to adhere to these regulations when all other potential VoIP providers will be able to operate free of regulation.
“They’d cause competitive harm to the incumbent so new competition can flourish,” Meldrum said of the CRTC’s position.
Cable service providers, like Rogers, Shaw and Regina’s Access Communications, feel regulation will help them compete.

Those ‘good old’ days when it was illegal for private citizens to own their own phone in the province of Saskatchewan seem so quaint and far away.