The United Conservative Party Government and its supporters appeared to be flooding the zone, Steve Bannon style, today to recover from the embarrassment of the near collapse of the provincial electrical grid during last weekend’s polar vortex deep-freeze. Alberta Premier Danielle Smith (Photo: Alberta Newsroom/Flickr). There was a stream of
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Alberta Politics: Environment minister in government that won’t approve geothermal projects visits new geothermal project in Germany
Alberta’s environment minister, Rebecca Schulz, is in Germany today, getting set to celebrate the opening of a large geothermal electricity-generating project that uses technology designed by a Calgary company. Alberta Environment Minister Rebecca Schulz (Photo: David J. Climenhaga). At the same time, back home in Wild Rose Country, geothermal projects
Continue readingThe Progressive Economics Forum: Affordable electricity Decarbonization in OECD countries? Part I
After eight extensive posts about the Ontario electricity sector, I am expanding my geographic coverage to look at the electricity sectors in selected OECD countries. My focus will be on the historical and relative performance of each country’s sector with respect to decarbonization and prices. As in the case of
Continue readingThings Are Good: Reducing CO2 Emissions by Targeting the 5% of Power Plants
Electric energy production using non-renewable processes produces an immense amount of carbon, and as a civilization we can’t afford to put more carbon in the atmosphere. Researchers from the University of Colorado Boulder set out to figure out how much pollution do power plants actually produce and what can we
Continue readingThe Progressive Economics Forum: Ontario Electricity VIII: Now also going backwards on climate
There have been a number of important developments in the Ontario electricity sector since my last update when I summarized my arguments in front of the Ontario Legislature against the proposed Provincial Conservative legislation, now enacted, that eliminated the Provincial Liberal rate-based borrowing scheme to subsidize electricity prices and replace
Continue readingScripturient: Time of Use Billing is an Assault
By returning to the money-grabbing time-of-use (TOU) billing, Ontario’s Hydro One continues its unrelenting assault on the province’s seniors, stay-at-home parents, the unemployed, night shift workers, those under lockdown, and every business and industry here. Time-of-use billing has always been nothing more than an egregious money grab by the service
Continue readingThings Are Good: Graphene as a Limitless Power Generator
Graphene has long been heralded as an amazing new material that can change entire industries and revolutionize the economy. Notably this has yet to happen. Yet. At the University of Arkansas a team of physicists found a way to use graphene to generate limitless power based on the movement of
Continue readingThings Are Good: Countries can Greatly Reduce Carbon Emissions by Improving Transmission
In order to avert climate catastrophe we’re going to have to make boring changes to our built infrastructure. Politicians find it hard to argue for these sorts of enhancements because voters don’t get to see a ribbon cutting ceremony; however changes to infrastructure can make a massive difference. In the
Continue readingThings Are Good: Closing Coal Plants Saves Lives
Everyone already knows that burning coal for energy is absolutely horrible for the planet and were still learning just how bad coal power plants really are. The positive news is that once the plants are closed positive changes are quick to be found. A recent study found that shutting down
Continue readingThings Are Good: Wind Power is Now Cheaper than Gas
Renewable energy just kept getting cheaper and cheaper despite ongoing subsides for the oil and gas industries. This is really good to see as people who only care about short term economic energy decisions will have to start to advocate for renewable energy. The decrease in cost for renewable wind
Continue readingThe Progressive Economics Forum: Electrification and Climate I: Scale of the Challenge
Many elements have to come together if Canada is to significantly reduce its greenhouse gas (“GHG”) emissions. There is now a technical consensus that “electrification” – the replacement of fossil fuels with electricity as an energy source – is a necessary condition for decarbonization, and that electrification will require that
Continue readingThings Are Good: Digital Circuit Breakers can Transform Sustainable Electricity
An often overlooked aspect of sustainable energy is the seemingly simple switching of electricity. Physical switches slow down the ability of repairs on power systems and can even hinder the installation of renewable energy sources. A lot of renewable energy systems (solar, wind, tidal, etc.) fluctuate greatly in the power
Continue readingThe Progressive Economics Forum: Ontario Electricity VII – Committee Testimony
The PC Government in Ontario has introduced Bill 87 which would eliminate the rate-based borrowing to subsidize electricity prices and replace it with Government borrowing. Last week’s Provincial Budget estimates that the required borrowing to subsidize electricity prices for 2018/19 was $2.8 billion. It is likely to exceed $3 billion
Continue readingThe Progressive Economics Forum: Ontario Electricity Sector VI – Meet the new boss…
The provincial election of June ended 15 years of Liberal electricity policy in Ontario. Anger over high electricity prices continued to be an election issue, contributing to the Liberals loss of power and official party status (reduced from 55 to 7 seats). The PCs have formed Government with 76 seats,
Continue readingThe Progressive Economics Forum: Ontario Electricity Sector V – What they knew, and when they knew it…
Last month I published a full-length article in the “The Monitor” magazine providing a “how we got here” analysis of the Ontario electricity sector and some options for the next Government. Since then, two things have changed: first on May 31 two investigative journalists, Carolyn Jarvis and Brian Hill, wrote
Continue readingThe Progressive Economics Forum: Ontario’s Electricity Sector IV: Pre-Election Update
My first, second and third posts on the Ontario electricity sector described how policy and administrative decisions by different Liberal Governments gave rise to excess electricity generation with an inflated cost structure, leading to higher electricity prices. In anticipation of June 2018 elections, the Liberal Government recently implemented a costly
Continue readingThe Progressive Economics Forum: Ontario’s Electricity Sector III: Legislative & Finance Update
My January and March posts on the Ontario electricity sector described how decisions by different Ontario governments gave rise to excess electricity generation with an inflated cost structure, leading to higher electricity prices. Here I discuss the latest development, the Liberal Government of Ontario’s proposed financial framework for its “Fair
Continue readingThe Progressive Economics Forum: Ontario’s Electricity Sector II: Political Economy Update
This is a third guest post by Edgardo Sepulveda, who is a Toronto-based expert in telecommunications and regulatory economics. Twitter: @E_R_Sepulveda By Edgardo Sepulveda In my previous post of January 29 I described how decisions by different Ontario governments gave rise to excess electricity generation with an inflated cost
Continue readingThe Progressive Economics Forum: Ontario’s Electricity Sector: Privatization and deregulation
We’re pleased to present this very topical post by Edgardo Sepulveda examining what has caused Ontario’s rising high electricity prices. This is Edgardo’s second guest post as a PEF member, following his, first, which was an analysis of the impact of fiscal policy changes on post-tax income distribution. Edgardo has
Continue readingSusan on the Soapbox: It’s Electricity Week…and the Opposition Won’t Stand for it
After the events of this week it’s unclear who the Opposition is standing for. The NDP government announced it was: settling the PPA dispute over the enforceability of the “Enron clause” with Capital Power, TransCanada and AltaGas, leaving Enmax the sole outlier, compensating Capital Power, TransAlta and ATCO for the
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