Archive for: July 2009
Waiting for NDP policy
Seven weeks after electing Atlantic Canada’s first NDP government, Nova Scotians have seen little if anything in the way of policy initiatives from Dexter and Co. Senior civil servants, however, seem practically giddy with delight at the NDP’s methodical approach to policy.
“They actually read the briefing books,” exclaimed one official, referring to the massive tomes each department prepares detailing the policy issues an incoming minister will face. “They read them, and they ask intelligent questions. They are really into policy.”
NS Power: the unreal threat of $500,000-a-day fines
Lurking behind Nova Scotia Power’s increasingly frantic efforts to find renewable sources of electrical generation is the threat of a crushing $500,000-a-day fine should it fail to meet legislated targets for 2010. That works out to $183 million per year—half again what NSP earned its shareholders in 2008.
For better or for worse, the threat is symbolic, not real.
Under the Electricity Act, a set of regulations known as the Renewable Energy Standards (RES) requires NSP to purchase at least five percent of its 2010 energy supply from renewable sources owned by third parties and built after 2001. The RES requirement increases to 10 percent in 2013, but may include generation from both third party and NSPI facilities. The Climate Change Action Plan, released last January, would have increased this to 25 percent by 2020, but a little noticed NDP campaign promise trumps that provision, moving the 25 percent deadline up to 2015.
RES regulations stipulate “a daily penalty of no more than $500,000″ for failure to comply.
Bill Gates: Canadian immigration laws win Microsoft jobs
According to a New York Times report of a speech by Microsoft chairman Bill Gates in New Delhi last Friday, Canada’s liberal immigration laws have led the software giant to create many jobs here. Moneyquote:
[Gates] was also critical of Congress’s stance on immigration, and said he would like to see immigration exceptions for “smart people.” Canadian laws are more favorable, he said, because they allow immigrants to work if they are offered a high-paying job. Microsoft has created “a lot of jobs in Canada for that reason,” he said.
Less admirably, Gates would like us all to carry government issued ID cards.
Merrick: NSP didn’t expect opposition
Why did Nova Scotia Power come to the Utility and Review Board with what the board called, “an incomplete, poorly documented application?” In an email exchange with contrarian, Consumer Advocate John Merrick offers a couple of theories:
They didn’t expect as much opposition and questioning because they thought it was such a win-win scenario (using a renewable energy source other than coal; helping keep NewPage viable and thus an employer in the province; giving woodlot owners and sawmills a source of revenue) they would be applauded from all corners of the province. Once into the hearing it was too late to change course.
They really were trying to shift some risk from shareholders to ratepayers. We (Consumer Advocate) have been expressing increasing concern that NSPI is looking to shift as much risk as possible to ratepayers and thus turn NSPI and its parent into a more attractive investment. Their evidence on this point was remarkably candid.
The issue of risk is critical. The regulated rate of return NSP receives on its investment includes a premium intended to compensate its shareholders for the risk inherent in ensuring that the company’s expenses are prudent and its service adequate. The purpose of this arrangement is to ensure that company managers have skin in the game, an incentive to negotiate the very best deals.
In the biomass deal, NSP sought the board’s prior blessing for a 25-year contract to purchase electricity from Strait Bio-Gen. NSP has never done that before. Prior approval would have shifted the risk inherent in the 25-year deal from NSP’s shareholders to its customers. At the urging of Merrick and others, the board balked. Wisely.
The arrest of Anne Calder – feedback
Contrarian reader David Smith has doubts about the Anne Calder arrest story:
Too much about this story is starting to look like a setup to me. First, there is the bit about the police not identifying the lawyer, but “sources” naming her. Somebody wanted her identity leaked, and the front-page photo in the Chronicle the next day certainly made sure everyone knew who she was. Then there were the two “tidbits” about her legal career: that one client had a mistrial, and that another client had fired her. How many other trial lawyers in Nova Scotia could have both of those things said about them? I’m willing to bet a fairly high percentage. Again, it looks to me as if this information is being reported in an effort to embarrass and humiliate her. Just to make sure, the Chronicle-Herald repeated those “details” again the next day.
Just who did Anne piss off, anyway?
UARB rejects wood supply worries
In contrarian‘s view, the strongest arguments put forward by environmentalists in the NSP biomass application hearings dealt with wood supply. The UARB gave them short shrift.
Black River Wind Ltd. argued that pressure to supply the proposed plant would encourage NewPage to adopt unsustainable forestry practices.
The Ecology Action Centre praised recent improvements in NewPage’s forest management practices. It argued that a smaller biomass generator, designed to run on wood waste generated by NewPage’s existing forestry operations, could be a useful component of the campaign to wean NSP and its customers off dirty coal, but concluded that a boiler of the size proposed would overtax Eastern Nova Scotia’s wood supply.
The UARB concluded that harvesting practices were beyond its jurisdiction, adding, “The Board assumes that other authorities who have responsibility for the harvesting of the forest will ensure appropriate regulations and guidelines with respect to harvesting biomass are in place.”
UARB: feed-in tariffs require political, not regulatory, decision
The UARB says any decision to implement feed-in tariffs will have to come from government, not the board.
Feed-in tariffs would guarantee pre-set, above-market rates for alternative power producers who want to feed surplus power into the NSP grid at will. It is strongly advocated—surprise, surprise!—by companies like Neal Livingston’s Black River Wind, which have not been able to compete with large commercial wind producers in NSP’s bidding process, but stand to profit from guaranteed access to the grid at above-market prices. Read more »
UARB decision sharply critical of NSP
Given UARB Chairman Peter Gurnham’s frequent criticism of NSP during hearings on the biomass project, it is no surprise that today’s decision aims strong language at the utility.
Written by Gurnham, the decision calls NSP’s application, “incomplete [and] poorly documented.” Gurnham acknowledges the urgency of reducing NSP’s carbon output, but adds, “the progress of this project has likely been delayed because of NSPI’s action.” Read more »
UARB rejects biomass power proposal – updated
It’s back to the drawing board for Nova Scotia Power now that the Nova Scotia Utility and Review Board has refused to grant prior approval for the utility’s plan to generate power by burning wood waste from the NewPage Port Hawkesbury Ltd. mill. Read more »
