Most folks leave things they don’t understand alone—they don’t try and turn the house upside down hoping it all comes out right. But that isn’t how McGuinty rolls—at least on this file.
Instead he is placing billions of your tax dollars and your children’s tax dollars on a bet that a mix of unproven wind, solar and other exotic means of electricity generation will one day put a meaningful dent into Ontario’s supply of energy. It is a high-stakes gamble—with about the same odds as winning the lottery.
Nevertheless, McGuinty last week announced his government was offering contracts for 184 renewable energy contracts. By some estimates this converts into an $8 billion investment. This is on top of billions more spent through at least four other outlandishly rich contracts designed to attract investors.
Whom has the province attracted? Well, they include such corporate luminaries as 2225054 Ontario Limited and 6718710 Canada Corporation. Others such as Zep Wind Farm LP signify that these outfits are organized as limited partnerships which means the investors who anted up the money to make the FIT application were able to write off at least part of their investment on their personal taxes. So as a taxpayer you are an enabler of this bit of speculation.
Most of these companies didn’t exist five years ago. Many likely formed just to apply for the FIT contracts. This is the cast of characters to whom McGuinty has decided to hitch Ontario’s energy future.
h/t Manotick
The snake oil salesman just does not give up. The voter in Ontario is reaping what they sowed.
And how many will have Inside “Connections”, E-Health anyone?
I got my latest Hydro One invoice, Still trying to figure out the Debt Retirement, Who’s ?
With the implimation of the HST in July watch the screaming to increase & Nothing will be done, The Minister this wk said increase’s will be minimal, Well currently there is No PST so how is a 8% Tax Grab to Hydro Minimal? And add to that the Introduction of the peak times use.
But will Ontario Voters rise up No bitch & chew & re-elect them.
The unmentioned horror in this article is the legislated requirement for wind or solar – when operating, to be the first choice of the generation folks – they have to shut down hydro or gas so the gold plated energy can be used in total. Some 20 year solar contracts guarantee 82.5 cents per kwh. Hydro is less than 4 cents per kwh.
We have coal for sale.
In 2006 a small part of our portfolio was invested in windpower. I was unhappy about this and surprised as out FA is/has been quite cautious and reasonable.
She explained. Because of the huge write-off provision(read taxpayer subsidy) the WP investment should be lucrative.
She said we have to keep it for only two years before dumping it. When the two years was up, guess what? It was not easy to unload. Had to wait almost another year(memory?) while it was “repackaged” (McGuinty logo?)to make it more appealing.
Anyhow, still was somewhat worthwhile. And that was back when renewables had some merit – before CRU and before Gore was openly mocked. Today I would not touch WP with a ten foot pole and our FA knows that !!
“Most of these companies didn’t exist five years ago. Many likely formed just to apply for the FIT contracts. This is the cast of characters to whom McGuinty has decided to hitch Ontario’s energy future.”
So, why not initiate a full investigation into these companies and find out if there are any conflicts, BEFORE they get started! Where’s Magnum PI when we need him?
Because as sure as it’s it’s too cold for volcanoes in Iceland,someone,somewhere, when you least expect it, is in this up to his neck,and in a conflict of interest.
So save us all the time,money and speculation, and check into this right now.
You know what the Liberals always say when they’re trying to pass intrusive legislation,”if you’re honest,you have nothing to fear”.
I don’t believe all the people involved in this scam ARE honest,and the taxpayers have MUCH to fear.
Watch the mission statements, many of the provincial utilities dropped providing cost effective/low cost electricity to their customers and then added in sustainable energy. Usually the ever-changing logos, mission statements, visions and goals are just mindless drivel conjured up by HR depts. Unfortunately, it looks like sustainability (meaning unreliable and ridiculously expensive)will be the one time they actually turn words into action. Customers need to go actively protest what the government is doing before all the money is spent and taxpayers are left with nothing but empty pockets and skyrocketing power bills.
and what is strange is that this job generating, clean green energy technology is not good enough for the third world – as this link explains.
http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/industry_sectors/natural_resources/article7092651.ece
Ontario Hydro (Hydro One) just got approval for a 11% rate hike on regular supply. Electric cars? Who for? There will be nobody available who can buy, plug them in, drive to a job. McGuinty has committed Ontario to a failed economic future – no manufacturing, no green energy “economy” (because one doesn’t exist), no info techology industry, which is a heavy a hydro user as any. Ontario can’t meet its hydro needs now without buying, won’t be able to sell what it produces in the future. Ontario will soon find out how COLD it really gets in Canada.
It reminds me of a time in a certain part of a province by the sea when aluminum windows appeared on the scene. The earliest “upper Canadian” company did so well they built a small local assembly plant for their stuff. When the politically connected/patronage connected locals saw this they quickly zipped down the road to capital city and returned with provincial loan guarantees to get them into the business. A few years of breakneck expansion, then overcapacity, then bankruptcy for everyone.
A cynical seer might forecast shiploads of donated Ontario made “Canadian Green Power Aid” heading for Africa, the Caribbean, Cental and South America in the not too distant future. Or perhaps the recycling and scrap separation centres of India.
McGuinty’s new found friendly companies remind me of ENRON in the US.
Does everyone remember Enron the “carbon trading” developer?
That company, it turned out was managed by scoundrels and eventually convicted felons.
How far on is Ontario with carbon trading?
Dalton is in over his head, only a miracle will save Ontarians in these whimsical energy deals.
It’s happening in BC too.
My latest Hydro bill for two months was $175 of usage.
Final bill was for $208. That was a carbon tax, GST, PST, Rate Riders, and a levy. So, I’m paying nearly 20% taxes on my Hydro usage, to a crown corporation, AKA -GOVERNMENT- !
This includes a stepping rate after so many kwh of power. Of course, if you are anything more than 1200 sq ft, with empty nesters, you are into the higher rate.
All this AFTER I installed a heat pump this past winter, still glad I did it, for the overall comfort level, and lack of cool areas, but, the government penalizes me for this move, all the while sucking money into that vortex of ‘green’ projects……
Can we get a real rightwing government in BC, not one that rules from the left, but campaigns from the right?
The money that McSquinty is pi$$ing away on wind and solar, would buy a nuke plant or two, which we know will work.
Brianr: The debt retirement is to pay for the nuclear facilities that were built some time ago, with borrowed money of course, but at that time not reflected in our hydro bills. We should insist on always paying the real cost of electricity.
I think it’s outrageous to be subsidizing the wind power projects to the tune of 44.3 cents per kwh. What a scam! There’s an outfit trying to put a wind farm near Thunder Bay, but fortunately having a lot of opposition.
In Manitoba we have a whole bunch of giant stinkin’ fans yet:
The document shows that in 2008 — the most recent data available — Manitoba’s emissions climbed to an all-time high of 21.9 megatonnes (Mt). That’s an increase of 0.9% over the previous year and roughly 25% above the Kyoto target of 6% below 1990 levels, which the province has pledged in law to reach by 2012.
Manitoba now needs to drop annual emissions by 4.4 Mt to reach its Kyoto goal, an effort equivalent to taking 841,300 vehicles off the road. There are only 734,929 vehicles in the province, according to Manitoba Public Insurance.
http://www.winnipegsun.com/news/manitoba/2010/04/16/13620961.html
Here’s the FIT price schedule:
http://fit.powerauthority.on.ca/Storage/99/10863_FIT_Pricing_Schedule_for_website.pdf
While those (including McGuinty) think solar energy is feasible and even affordable, everyone else will sign their cheques for utilities in a brown-out.
gordinkneehill,
The real problem is an unrealistic campaign promise made a few years back. Dolton promised to eliminate all coal.
Too bad the taxpayers of Ontario will be paying for this promise for years to come.
I’ve been going over my Hydro-One (Ontario Hydro)
invoices….
“Nominally” the cost of electricity is 5.8 cents/kw—-calculated after a 1.092 “adjustment for:
” When electricity is delivered over a power line, it is normal for a small amount of power to be consumed or lost as heat. Equipment such as wire amd transformers, consumes power before it gets to your home or business. The adjustment factor accounts for these losses.”
I don’t live large…
from my December invoice….
Electricity……………….$17.92
Delivery………………….$37.23
Regulatory charges………….$2.26
Debt retirement Charge………$1.98
GST……………………….$2.97
TOTAL…………………….$62.36
The taxes and other BS…….$44.44 or 71.26363%
considering the “adjustment factor” this works out to $0.2203533/kw.
Apparently if my usage was higher the base price would be higher yet.
I recall Dad telling about some folk who in 1930 built a new house, wired for electricity. The power lines came down the road but they didn’t connect….and got charged for “service”. Those without wiring were not…..
This certainly makes heating with wood, without forced air, cooking etc on the wood stove advantageous.
I have found using preheated water in the coffee perc vastly reduces the time (hence electricity cost) by perhaps 75%.
Using water heated on the stove lowers the power bill for laundry—-and makes showers uneconomic.
I shudder to envisage the price of electricity when these rainbows and unicorns impact the pricing.
Elections have consequences.
Ontario Hydro rates will go up another 8% May 1st. On July 1st we get to pay another 8% HST and all thanks to the man Ontario loves so much they gave him two Majority governments, the second one after he broke every promise he made the first time around.
‘This is the cast of characters to whom McGuinty has decided to hitch Ontario’s energy future.’
“Samsung??????? [bribe?..kickback?]
Idiot McGinty opens back door to China.
Samsung, like HP is a problem.
How much manufacturing in Canada?..None?
HP collected Million$ from Govt. of Canada, yet computers were never delivered. Remember that scam during the Gomery inquiry?
HP manufactures in China also. Jobs for North Americans…eh?
Liz J, they say there is one born every day and obviously Ontario had its’ share. That is not to say that “Progressive” Conservative John Tory would have been much better.
Interesting that I was just watching PBS out of Detroit. They are advertising the latest NOVA show. It’s called “Green-the big energy gamble”. From the 30 second blurb, it looks like it’s a losing proposition.
This Green Energy Act is the icing on the cake for me and the McGuinty fascist government.
I cannot buy weed killer in the province anymore.
I cannot drink one beer and drive for fear I will be adjudged impaired.
I will not be treated at an out-of-town hospital if it’s not within my local health network.
The price of my prescription drugs are government controlled.
My municipality can no longer determine land use within it’s boundaries if the McGuinty Government decides to install wind/solar energy facilities.
We in Ontario are progressively being put under the control of a bunch of dogmatic fascists from Toronto.
I won’t even address the forthcoming 8% tax increase on virtually all goods and services.
Say goodbye to Ontario, the Province that used to be “Canada’s economic engine”. It’s well on it’s way to being part of the rust-belt.
Sasquatch makes a good point….
Quote]
When electricity is delivered over a power line, it is normal for a small amount of power to be consumed or lost as heat. Equipment such as wire amd transformers, consumes power before it gets to your home or business. The adjustment factor accounts for these losses.”
[Quote/]
Stepping up and down losses are not all that small..so, think about this re Wind Farms.
You can not put a hydro dam on your garage roof.
You CAN put two or three wind-gens on your garage roof.
No step-up losses, no towers, no line losses and storm risk, no step-down losses.
Wind farms are devices where governments can have access to your wallet. Outlaw wind farms in Canada.
Wind farms in Texas are T. Bone Pickins route to American tax payer money through subsidies. Profits on the juice ain’t much.
Skip.
Contrary to what you said, Ontario presently has a huge surplus of energy. Both Lambton and Nanticoke coal-fired generating plants could shut down tomorrow with no appreciable difference noted.
Why, you ask? Well, because McGuinty has driven
a large portion of industrial production out of the province with his environmental edicts, and other micromanage-driven policies. He has thrown all his marbles at the auto industry to the exclusion of every other manufacturer. Ontario is no longer considered a good place to do business.
The State of California needs another Sucker to buy its used Windmills.. MN bought some, why not Ontario….Folks in MN are real slow, imagine California selling something that “worked”. If Ontario wants to cast off its business population, what better way than Brownouts
MOVE WEST FOLKS…CALGARY FOR CAPITAL OF CANADA
TG. In Ontario you cannot put a wind generator on your roof. McGuinty says it must be at least 500 metres from any dwelling.
As for solar panels, am I going to chop down my neighbours trees to have access to sunlight??
Ontario is well & truly F*kked sideways.
An entire generation of taxpayer subsidies flowing into the pockets of numbered companies.
Maybe this story should be Fified . . . after all the potential is very high for Liberal insiders to be lining up to fleece the taxpayers so it is a perfect, made to order story for Bobby & his pals.
They do investigate this kinda potential corruption, don’t they? I mean, if a zero down mortgage is worthy of an investigation, certainly tens of billions of dollars in taxpayers money.
C’mon Bobby, Fife yourself.
About 5 years ago, I was approached by someone with a homemade business card, who wanted me to put together composite maps for his wind farm project. I can’t remember if it was a numbered company, or just the guy’s name, but I was skeptical of his credentials. The mapping would have cost me a few thousand dollars to buy aerial photos, so I declined the offer.
A couple of local contractors, who’d bought into the guy’s story, laughed at me. They accused me of being too small to handle a big time project. Some of them spent weeks, doing scouting work, and one biologist put together an environmental plan. To this day, not one windmill has been erected, and none of the guys who laughed at me have been paid one dime. I guess I get the last laugh.
McGuinty is a liar, and a fool. Why is anyone surprised? It’s been obvious for YEARS. Only people who are bigger fools then him are the people who voted for him. I hope they choke to death on their hydo bills.
Chretien used the federal Human Resources Dept (HRC) to dole out almost a billion dollars to Liberal friendly firms, with NOT one receipt to prove value for money invested.
Jane Stewart ran that show for Chretien and kept her mouth shut as to who got most of the money, she was rewarded (by McGuinty) for her Liberal(mafia) style of loyalty with a plum appointment to over see the Caledonia Indian uprising for 700.00 a day for more than six months, to-date..nothing has been settled or solved.
Welcome to the new system of Liberal party financing, the only thing left for McGuinty, is to find his own Jane Stewart, someone who can be trusted to NEVER spill the beans.
Someone who will (quietly/secretly) make sure Liberal connected firms get their share of Ontarians tax dollars, to be distributed back to the Liberal party.
Ps…
Myself..?
I’m setting up a numbered company, I’m going to become one of the thousands of little fall through the cracks taxpayer subsidized small companys, needing cash to get my green vision implimented.
I’ll only be asking/needing about a hundred grand, I’m counting on the thieves running the FIT program, to be true liberals and NOT ask for any proof of what I’m claiming my company will do.
That should be…(HRDC)
Will in A: Is that why the progressives are always changing the names of government services? So we forget who did what and when?
From down here in Sunny Texas, TB Pickens gave up on his wind projects when he realized he can’t profit from capital that is only generating energy 40% of the time.
I don’t oppose alternate energy if one picks the right technology, site and other factors. In a remote location it can be cheaper if one factors in the captial charges of running the grid to the location. But way too often as the Spanish have found out, the projections don’t match the reality.
JohnMc- I thought Pickens had a plan to distribute NG for backup generators, thereby making money 100% of the time.
JohnMc,
I lived in Corpus Christi for a while.
Where, roughly, are you in Texas?
Suggest you NOT visit South Brownsvill.
Ciudad Juarez in the west is terrible, but Brownsville and Pt Isabel are getting it too.
Check the El Paso Times comments… There are Mexican helicopters running 100 miles into S. Texas.
topix.net/forum/state/tx/TPR1JG21CGT40Q2DT
dp
[….JohnMc- I thought Pickens had a plan to distribute NG for backup generators, thereby making money 100% of the time.]
Word is Pickens put it on hold until somebody else built the transmission lines….
Somebody said his garage was full of windmill components…..and he was trying to flog them….
I’m sorta dubious—-I know it’s TEXAS but unless his garage was big enough to take a 747….
McGuinty is like the carnival hucksters of my youth, people who would sell a carburetor gadget promising 50 Mpg for a couple of dollars. Our neighbour often bought these items, and wondered why they diddn’t work. A lot of Ont. voters are like my neighbour. They believe you can produce all the cheap electricity they require, without using fuel. Wind,or solar radiation will generate the power and be “clean”, and will not cost very much.
His policies are just an invitation to modern shysters, scam artists and European wind power outfits looking for a freash mark. As they used to say McGuinty, not really up to the job.
No good will come of this. Much harm will.
If we could just harness the BS and wind coming from politicians,THEN we would have an endless supply of power.Or figure out how to harness the wind blowing through the idiots ears that keep voting them in.
http://windconcernsontario.files.wordpress.com/2010/04/what-went-wrong-with-ontario-energy-policy2.pdf
This is an exceptional analysis by Keith Stelling of the distortion of the energy market in Ontario and where it is leading the province. Hint- the future does not look bright if we continue with McGuinty’s current energy policy. It is easy to read and worth the time to understand what is happening behind the scenes and how it will affect your future.
atric at April 17, 2010 4:11 PM
Atric,
[Quote]
In Ontario you cannot put a wind generator on your roof. McGuinty says it must be at least 500 metres from any dwelling.
[/Quote]
That sounds like a law to prohibit you from hanging out your wash to dry in the sun. How many properties have 500 meters to spare?
Seems the 500 meter limit law would prevent any win-gen intrusion on Ontario Hydro exclusive billing.
BTW, what toothpaste has McGuinty ruled you MUST use in the province of Ontario?
“BTW, what toothpaste has McGuinty ruled you MUST use in the province of Ontario?”
TG….you’re kidding,right???
MOVE WEST FOLKS…CALGARY FOR CAPITAL OF CANADA
Weeeeellll, not so fast there. I pay $0.15 per kWh (including those “other charges” we seem to get added to our bills) in Calgary right now – ENMAX territory.
Bill 50, recently passed will soon jack my hydro rates sky-high in this provnce too, to “expand transmission capacity” we really don’t need, but large power generating corporations like ATCO and TransAlta, do.
The reason: to expand power export facilities for these companies to the US market in the Pacific Northwest and into California, not to Albertans. Who benefits? Well, Altalink who owns the power lines, a limited partnership with Maquarry Investment Bank of Australia, Translink a US power company and SNC Lavalin, a Quebec based construction conglomerate. They will most likely build the lines as well.
Taxpayers and rate payers will pay for all this expansion and will not reap a penny in those profits unless they buy stock in these companies. We also (and you in the ROC) pay millions into burying these coal-fired power companies CO2 “problem” in the ground as well, while taxing cleaner burning natural gas production right out of the market (Alberta Royalty Review).
You can thank Jim Prentice, Stephen Harper and Ed Stelmach for all this.
Wildrose Alliance plans to ditch CO2 sequestration and recind Bill 50 legislation, should they get elected. Be sure some very powerful people in corporate board rooms and at senior government levels will try to derail any of this boondoggle being halted, by anyone.
Liberal / Tory, same old story. Our governments are screwing their citizens on green issues at all levels, in every Party right across this country. We need a Tea Party revolt right here in Canada.
samsquanch:
The $37 for delivery on your hydro bill is not BS. The electricity charge is the equivalent of an “FOB” bill – that’s the price per kwH at the output link of the hydro plant, which I’m willing to bet is not within a km or two of your home. The electricity charge goes (mostly, right now) to OPG; the delivery charge goes to Hydro One, who maintain all the high voltage lines across the province, and all the step-up and step-down transformer banks needed to make that 750 kV usable in your home. And, outside of major urban centres, like the GTA, Ottawa, London, etc., Hydro One is also responsible for delivery to your home, which means the smaller transformer banks, poles along the rural roads, wires, etc. When there’s a storm that brings down high voltage lines, it’s usually Hydro One crews that are out restoring the power, and, yes, those men and trucks and equipment cost money as well.
I’ve been surveying customers all across Ontario for the last two weeks about their hydro providers, and very few people can even remember the last time power was out for more than a few minutes. Most report no problems with power outages in the last twelve months. And since outages are almost always a delivery problem, as opposed to a generation one, this suggests to me that Hydro One is doing a pretty good job.
Now, on a different topic: the rush to propose projects for FIT funding reminds me very much of the rural cellular lotteries the FCC held in the US a few years back. At the time, the big cellular companies in the US were busy building out their networks in urban areas, and weren’t interested in building networks in remote areas. The FCC, responding to political pressure (hmm.. does that sound familiar?), decided to raffle off cellular licenses in these rural areas. A huge cottage industry sprang up, where teams of lawyers and telecom engineers would put together a generic proposal for any group of investors willing to stump up the fee. The payoff, if you were one of the two entries selected from all the people who’d submitted the same basic “cookie cutter” proposal, was to either build a network along the Interstate that ran through your territory, and charge huge roaming fees ($4-6/minute was not atypical), or sell off your license to one of the big cell firms. Either way, you were guaranteed a huge profit.
These FIT proposals smell much the same. Some guys with a knowledge of law and some EE’s get together, and put together a proposal. They form a limited partnership with investors, who stump up the money in the form of cash and a loan in return for an accelerated tax writeoff in the early years. The lawyers and EE’s form the “General Partners”, and they take a nice chunk of change themselves. The LP’s get a tax write off that is greater than their original cash investment, and if the project does get built, they hope the cash flow is enough to pay their loans. If it doesn’t get built, the cash from the loans goes back to the lenders, and the LP’s are off the hook, but they’ve already banked their tax refunds. Who gets screwed? Ordinary taxpayers, again.
No, this is not a gable it is economic suicide, the bloody things do not work in the real world, gravity and water are consistant, wind is not, moving here from cornwall, Uk we find it fairly windless, the trees in our lot would not last one winter in Cornwall, we were used to winds in MPH that we now see in KPH! and there are bird choppers all over cornwall (check google earth) and when it is cold the winds are usually low, the rotation motors use a lot of power below 10kph just aiming the thing. You still need real generation when there is no wind/sun so equipment costs are double.The only answer is remember at the next election and stop voting for socialists, even if the hide under a liberal flag.