If only there existed a technology to transmit news of this most recent in a long line of green energy failures to our own Saskatchewan energy minister … some sort of long wire with a speaker at each end ?
In one of the most scathing indictments of government mismanagement we have ever witnessed, Ontario Auditor-General Jim McCarter reported Monday that Mr. McGuinty’s green dream has rapidly become an $8-billion nightmare for Ontario taxpayers and electricity users. Almost no new net power will be generated by all the green-energy projects hastily funded since the bill was passed, but the average residential consumer will see more than $400 a year added to his power bill for a decade to pay for all the bad contracts with and subsidies to eco-friendly power suppliers.
Over the past year, the McGuinty Liberals have been forced to conduct a series of embarrassing climbdowns from their grand promises about the benefits that would flow from the switch from carbon fuels to renewables.
[…]
While it’s too late for Ontario to avoid these costly mistakes, other provinces can still learn from them. Other provincial governments may be tempted to consider similar green-energy programs, either for environmental reasons or in the hopes of establishing a productive, lucrative and morally pure industry by the magic of government fiat and wishful thinking. Let Mr. McCarter’s findings be a warning for them: Don’t copy the McGuinty example. It is good for neither the environment nor for consumers.
Two Campbells soup cans and shoelaces…future green communications infrastructure…
Too bad we couldn’t have an election where something like this could be an issue, eh?
How can Mcstiffy possibly miss as the next leader of the Liberal Party with such a glowing list of accomplishments. The Libs must be panting with excitement.
They should have listened. Do you have any specific numbers about power generated vs. used?
If we want to buy bird choppers, why buy new?
There are 14,000 of them abandoned and not being used anymore.
Seems when the subsidy quits blowing they quit turning….
http://www.americanthinker.com/2010/02/wind_energys_ghosts_1.html
The landmark wind turbine at Ontario Place/Exhibition Place on the lake shore in the GTA has produced NO power for months. The Polish manufacturer is Ghandi…no parts.
Don’t look at me, I didn’t vote for him.
MicFlintys stupid energy policy of selling our excess hyrdo to other systems at 50% less than it costed to produce….this is because the green power is not reliable….smart meter data building up as no one is looking at it…and yes they keep saying the consumer will save money…maybe after our bills double there might be a saving if you don’t use it….and most of the smart meters are not all active yet,but you will hear it when they put them all on line…//
I knew this would happen when I first heard McSquinty state his grand plan to please Al Gore and give billions to the Koreans. And I am not all that smart. What does that say for those twits.
Now I cannot ever move back to Ontario. West is best, but coast is the most.
Folks are not giving McGuinty enough credit – I’ll have you know he can screw the Ontario taxpayers on more than just green power; Ontario Liberal government waste and ineptitude are on display here:
http://thebrightlibertarian.blogspot.com/2011/12/auditor-general-vs-government-wolf-vs.html
“Guidelines for ensuring public grants were going to worthy projects were ignored. Financial regulations were violated. Few cost-benefit analyses were performed nor business plans produced. Lower-cost alternatives were ignored, despite warnings from civil servants, and the whole scheme was largely designed by environmentalists and green-industry lobbyists — “stakeholders” in the government’s euphemistic rhetoric. “Normal due diligence for an expenditure of this magnitude had not been followed,” Mr. McCarter concluded.”
Looks like grounds for impeachment,if that device existed in this democracy of ours. What a shame that Canadian politicians can deliberately waste taxpayers money on boondoggles to their friends,and never have to answer for it.
This really should be a scandal but honestly no one in Ontario can claim they didn’t know this was to be expected from McGuinty. Ontario is getting what they voted for and the government they deserve.
@ Stan, thanks for the link, I’ll be using it in a post soon!
And the Ontario PCs are stone stupid. STUPID! S-T-U-P-I-D. Their “leaders” should be left to freeze in unheated classrooms.
“Ontario’s energy policy reads like a plot for a Dilbert cartoon:
The “greens” outside and inside the government very effectively lobbied the government to enact legislation that increased the costs of manufacturing and energy.
The manufacturers then went overseas. What the greens accomplished is merely moving the source of emissions – China is building three coal-fired power plants per month. As a side benefit they crippled the Ontario economy and accelerated the process of the province going broke; there isn’t any manufacturing to replace that which they ran off.
Then the government subsidizes “green” tech companies that can’t compete for all of the above reasons plus more, and then they’re shocked … shocked! when these favored manufacturers go bankrupt.
If the real goal was emissions reduction, the greens failed. If the real goal was ruining the economy for a couple of generations until common sense once again prevails, they succeeded beyond all hope. In so doing they exacerbated any perceived problem since the Asian environmental regulations aren’t what they are in Ontario and we are paying an additional emissions cost by shipping goods half-way around the world — they made things WORSE everywhere.”
Kate, You gotta stop beating around the bush.
Want to know one of the principal villains of the piece? Meet Marion Fraser, former advisor to Min of E and Premier’s Office.
http://ca.linkedin.com/pub/marion-fraser/a/937/43a
She has been the principal policy driver of green energy in Ontario for the past 10 years. Her influence on Dalton McGuinty and George Smitherman cannot be understated. She is the principal reason for the sidelining of the Ontario Power Authority in Ontario power planning.
I live in Manitoba, and I fully expect our NDP premier to go ahead with a similiar plan. They will simply state the data is wrong.
I understand the City of Saskatoon is considering building a wind powered generator at the Saskatoon dump. If this is true it is a fitting place to build it. When it is proved to be a failure they won’t have to haul it anywhere.
It is true….we’re pooched, Ontario is done.
Toronto’s voting block is so large that the rest of us don’t count.
I here there is a promised land in the west…time to load up the wagon and go.
All my immediate family (we are from TO) voted for him (or voted NDP) .The only family I have that wouldn’t have voted that way have moved out of Ontario. Now they have what they deserve. Soon the Ontario voters will get mad and put out the Libs and elect the NDP.
One of the worst aspects of McGuinty the Liar’s green energy program is that Ontario taxpayers have to pay US power companies to take excess power off our hands. Yes, that’s right. McGuinty magic means we subsidize the producers of solar and wind energy and then we subsidize foreign power companies to buy the surplus electricity generated by solar and wind arrays.
That McGuinty is truly a sucking-blowing marvel. He would certainly be a good fit for the federal Liberals.
We’re dealing with this in Saskatoon where the city is trying to build a huge electric generator near a city neighborhood. It’s partly that it’s on the west side and therefore doesn’t matter and partly because anything green gets a yes vote from a lot of people, no matter whom it harms.
The worst thing is that our MLA, Daniel Chartier, has been repeatedly asked to do something about it and refused. Hey it’s green, who cares about the people around it.
“…no one in Ontario can claim they didn’t know this was to be expected from McGuinty…”
Kevin Jaeger at December 7, 2011 8:41 PM
And the Conservatives had the same figures the Aud. Gen’l just released but lacked the balls to come out and say it during the campaign.
Gee … if only someone could have forseen this!