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Mining Power Issues

Ontario gets two nuclear-energy options – by Shawn McCarthy (Globe and Mail – June 28, 2013)

The Globe and Mail is Canada’s national newspaper with the second largest broadsheet circulation in the country. It has enormous influence on Canada’s political and business elite.

TORONTO — Two nuclear companies are submitting competing bids to sell Ontario two reactors as the province struggles to decide how best to provide cheap, clean, reliable power over the next 20 years.

Pittsburgh’s Westinghouse Electric Co. LLC and Mississauga-based Candu Energy Inc. are to provide their proposals Friday outlining their designs, prices and the economic benefits that would flow if they won a contract that would top $10-billion. Ontario Power Generation had set a June 30 deadline for the proposals.

Plagued by concerns about high capital costs and safety issues, the nuclear industry faces a tough challenge in persuading the Ontario government to invest in new reactors.

But proponents argue they can beat renewable power on reliability and price and natural gas on economic benefits to the province. They also point out that nuclear power plants emit no greenhouse gases.

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Peat Fuel for Ring of Fire and Aboriginal Communities: Economic and Environmental Benefits – by Stan Sudol (June 27, 2013)

One of the biggest issues with the Ring of Fire development and the surrounding Aboriginal communities is the lack of competitively priced electricity and the enormously high cost – about one billion dollars – of connecting the region to Ontario’s power grid.

Currently, isolated First Nations depend on very expensive diesel fuel that must be supplied by trucks on winter roads or flown in. The proposed mining operations are projected to need about 30 megawatts (MW) of power.

Amazingly, most of the swampy lowlands and many parts of the Canadian Shield throughout northern Ontario contain a source of energy that has been used for centuries in Europe – peat fuel.

This slowly renewing bio-mass energy source – distinct from fossil fuel – is formed from the partial decomposition of plants under very wet and acidic conditions. It is usually made up of two separate layers, the top being lighter in colour, less decomposed and used primarily for horticultural applications while the dark dense lower layers are excellent for fuel. Peatlands can be described as a wet spongy “floating carpet” of land and are often known as bogs, fens, mires, moors, or in Canada, muskeg.

Peat can be processed into fuel-grade material with energy values equivalent to coal but with only ten per cent of the black rock’s sulphur content, virtually no mercury and produces less ash waste and dust emissions. Canada has the world’s largest area of peat lands, estimated to be 41 per cent of the world’s total, half of which is located in northern Ontario.

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Ontario Power Trip: McGuinty’s bigger debacle – by Parker Gallant (National Post – June 27, 2013)

The National Post is Canada’s second largest national paper.

The cost of Ontario’s Green Energy Act, at $1,100 per year per household, dwarfs the cost of cancelled gas plants

Filled with umbrage that his record as steward of Ontario’s electricity market is under parliamentary review, former Liberal Premier Dalton McGuinty more or less passed the buck down to his staff. Appearing before a legislative committee on Tuesday, Mr. McGuinty became irritated and accusatory, saying the search for emails and other documents deleted by underlings is nothing more than a political witch hunt over his decision to cancel two gas-powered generating stations at a cost of at least $585-million.

Mr. McGuinty is actually getting off too easy. The gas plant cash drain is far outweighed by the burden on Ontarians of Mr. McGuinty’s sprawling green energy fiasco. I say we should forget about the gas plants and the $585-million in wasted money. It’s gone. Instead, let’s order up all the emails and documents — through maybe half a dozen energy ministers under the premier’s control — as they reached the policy and economic decisions that created the 2010 Green Energy and Economy Act (GEA). That act will cost Ontarians 10 to 20 cancelled gas plants.

Let us see the emails and communications and meeting notes between bureaucrats and ministers, between Ontario Power Authority and the government, between all of them and the NGOs and industry activists who lobbied, promoted and sold the GEA policy disaster. There’s the $7-billion deal with Samsung, the false data on carbon emissions, the job creation calculations, the colossal giveaways to wind and solar entrepreneurs who formed lobby groups. On it goes.

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McGuinty’s green-energy ‘vision’ begins to fade – by Konrad Yakabuski (Globe and Mail – June 27, 2013)

The Globe and Mail is Canada’s national newspaper with the second largest broadsheet circulation in the country. It has enormous influence on Canada’s political and business elite.

Ontario Energy Minister Bob Chiarelli tried to put a happy face on last week’s rejigging of the province’s massive renewable energy contract with a Samsung-led Korean consortium. Scaling back the original $9.7-billion deal struck in 2010 to $6-billion was supposed to signal Premier Kathleen Wynne’s determination to inject a measure of sanity into the green energy policies she inherited from Dalton McGuinty and his overzealous electricity czar, George Smitherman.

“With this updated agreement, we’ll continue to create good jobs, while maintaining Ontario’s commitment to clean, renewable energy,” Mr. Chiarelli insisted.

He boasted that the downsized 20-year contract, under which Samsung will produce about 1,400 megawatts of wind and solar power instead of 2,500 MW, represents a $24 reduction on the average annual residential electricity bill. Considering that the average Ontario consumer paid more than $1,700 for electricity in 2012, this wouldn’t be much to get excited about, even if it actually resulted in a 1.4 per cent cut on their power bill.

But Ontarians have only begun to pay for the the green energy “vision” of Mr. McGuinty and Mr. Smitherman. Electricity rates are forecast to rise by nearly 50 per cent as the government moves toward its target of adding 10,700 MW of renewable power to the grid.

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Dalton McGuinty was egregious, outlandish, disingenuous and outrageous – by Christie Blatchford (National Post – June 26, 2013)

The National Post is Canada’s second largest national paper.

In the immortal phrase of the fictional lawyer Jackie Chiles of Seinfeld fame, Dalton McGuinty was egregious, outlandish, disingenuous and outrageous.

The former Ontario premier was appearing for a second star turn Tuesday before the all-party legislative committee probing the gas plants fiasco of his government.

(The controversial plants in Oakville and Mississauga were abruptly cancelled, the latter announced as a Liberal party campaign promise, and the costs — at least $585-million is the best estimate — consistently downplayed and lowballed by the government.)

If possible, McGuinty the private citizen is more arrogant, less forthcoming and more hypocritical than the politician McGuinty. He was asked back in the wake of a withering report earlier this month from the province’s Information and Privacy Commissioner, Ann Cavoukian.

Sparked by a complaint from New Democrat MPP Peter Tabuns, who is also the most effective questioner on the committee, the probe revealed that senior political staff in Mr. McGuinty’s office were routinely deleting all emails in what she found was likely an attempt to avoid scrutiny.

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Gas plants controversy: Dalton McGuinty says Liberals made right decision – by Richard J. Brennan (Toronto Star – June 26, 2013)

The Toronto Star has the largest circulation in Canada. The paper has an enormous impact on federal and Ontario politics as well as shaping public opinion.

Information and Privacy Commissioner Ann Cavoukian appeared before a legislative committee probing the government’s decision to cancel power plants in Oakville and Mississauga.

Former premier Dalton McGuinty is unrepentant about the controversial decision to cancel two gas plants, lashing out at his critics for being hyper-partisan and interested only in the demise of the Liberal party.

McGuinty, who appeared Tuesday before a legislative committee probing the cancellations, said he regretted “that it ended up costing as much as it does, but ultimately it is the right decision.”

Despite his sometimes combative defence of his political legacy, McGuinty admitted “we failed as a government” on document retention training. He was referring to Information and Privacy Commission Ann Cavoukian’s finding that top Liberal political staffers destroyed emails and documents contrary to the Archives and Recordkeeping Act.

“I’m calling it the way I see it . . . there is no genuine effort here on the part of the opposition committee members to seek out the truth,” he later told reporters, emphasizing that he’s “not sure Ontarians understand the real complexion” of a committee dominated by the opposition and focused on embarrassing the Liberals.

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Kathleen Wynne backing away from McGuinty’s Ontario Green Energy Act – (National Post – June 24, 2013)

The National Post is Canada’s second largest national paper.

It’s always instructive to see how a government frames an announcement that is backtracking on one of its own initiatives. Conveniently for the Ontario Liberals, they are amassing considerable experience in this regard.

So, when the government on Thursday dropped the news that it was restructuring its 2010 wind-power deal with Samsung, it presented it in terms of extended job commitments and savings to electricity ratepayers. Samsung was guaranteeing jobs until 2016, instead of 2015, and the government was now only committing to buy $6-billion of Samsung’s renewable power at well above market rates, down from $9.7-billion in the original contract. Hooray for savings!

Those extended job commitments, though, are a result of Samsung’s having missed targets in the original contract; it now has more time to meet them. And that reduction in spending? It comes as Samsung, which won the original contract absent a competition, agrees to drop its own investment in the province from $7-billion to $5-billion, with projects expected to generate 1,369 megawatts of energy, down steeply from 2,500 megawatts in the first deal.

Ontario will be paying less, and receiving less. This is probably not the result of a particularly hard-fought negotiation. What’s more notable are the things that the announcement from Energy Minister Bob Chiarelli did not mention, for example the 16,000 jobs that the original contract was said to create when it was announced in 2010.

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Is green energy fading to black in Ontario? – by Martin Regg Cohn (Toronto Star – June 23, 2013)

The Toronto Star has the largest circulation in Canada. The paper has an enormous impact on federal and Ontario politics as well as shaping public opinion.

Queen’s Park has downsized its supersized Samsung renewable energy deal. Once hailed as the miracle cure for Ontario’s ailing industrial sector, it has been cut down to size — by a hefty $2 billion.

Is green energy fading to black? The outlook has certainly dimmed since Dalton McGuinty placed a big bet on a high-cost, high-risk, hybrid strategy that blended energy diversification with industrial incubation in 2010. Our then-premier promised to revive Ontario’s hollowed-out heartland with high-tech wind turbines and solar panels that captured the wind and the sun’s rays — riding the wave of green energy.

Three years later, McGuinty is gone. So too is George Smitherman, the ambitious energy minister who steered the strategy through a skeptical cabinet — and then bailed out. Now, Kathleen Wynne’s government wants to “bend the cost curve.” And cut its losses with damage control. The world has changed since 2010.

Industrial demand for power is down, while electricity prices have soared — stoking ratepayer resistance to expensive energy experiments. Low-cost competition from Chinese solar panels is also undercutting the green energy industry here and abroad.

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High Ontario power rates blamed for deterring investment – CBC News Thunder Bay (June 4, 2013)

http://www.cbc.ca/thunderbay/

Association of Major Power Consumers of Ontario say province’s rate double that of Manitoba, Quebec, Michigan

A growing number of Ontario mayors and manufacturers say the province’s energy prices and infrastructure are bad for business.

According to the Association of Major Power Consumers of Ontario, industrial customers pay approximately $85 per megawatt hour in Ontario when all components of the price of electricity is included. That’s more than double the $40 average paid in neighbouring provinces Manitoba, Quebec and the state of Michigan.

Ian Howcroft, the vice president of the Canadian Manufacturers and Exporters Ontario, said energy is a major factor when companies look to invest or expand in the province. “Companies are looking at all costs. It could be a deal breaker,” Howcroft said of energy rates. “Ontario is a high-cost jurisdiction, especially with the high dollar.

“It could be the straw that broke the investment camel’s back.” Howcroft said energy could account for as much as 30 per cent of a company’s expense, especially in mining and foundries.

“It depends on your sector, but it is a major concern we hear about from our members on an ongoing basis,” Howcroft said. “If we want to be globally competitive we have to address the cost concerns in a variety of areas but particularly in energy.”

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No Wynne on wind – by Lorrie Goldstin (Toronto Sun – June 2, 2013)

http://www.torontosun.com/home

Liberal record of forcing wind turbines on Ontarians is appalling

Premier Kathleen Wynne last week promised to give municipal governments a greater say in the location of industrial wind turbines (IWTs) in their communities, short of being able to veto them.

In other words, she’s promising residents across Ontario battling the imposition of industrial wind factories on their communities any and all assistance, short of help.

Given the Liberals’ appalling history on this issue, skepticism is justified about anything they say. Indeed, the determination of Wynne’s predecessor, Dalton McGuinty, to ram IWTs down the throats of communities across Ontario is one of the most shameful episodes in the Liberals’ 10-year record of government.

People who objected to IWTs were mocked as suffering from NIMBYism (not-in-my-backyard syndrome) by McGuinty. His Green Energy Act took away the rights of local municipalities to any say in the location of these giant, industrial wind factories.

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[Ontario] Green [Energy Act] isn’t all good – Thunder Bay Chronicle-Journal (June 2, 2013)

Thunder Bay Chronicle-Journal is the daily newspaper of Northwestern Ontario.

And those 50,000 jobs? McCarter concluded: “A majority of the jobs will be temporary.”
In other jurisdictions, there was actually an offsetting loss of jobs as a result of the
impact of higher renewable energy electricity prices on business, industry and consumers.

IF legislation is a work in progress, Ontario’s Green Energy Act is increasingly an exercise in futility. Launched in 2009 with great fanfare by then premier Dalton McGuinty, this head-first dive into responsible energy production was to place Ontario on the leading edge of a modern industry bursting with potential.

Ontario would attract wind and solar power developers with lucrative contracts. They would develop all kinds of clean power to replace that from Ontario’s cancelled coal plants, leading the way in Canada’s climate change efforts. Developers would agree to manufacture components in Ontario. There would be 50,000 new jobs by the end of 2012, McGuinty said, and untold economic benefits throughout the province.

Who could argue with that? A good many people, it turns out. The contracts were so rich, the terms had to be changed to appease a public angered at learning it was paying considerably more for power from free sun and wind than from costly conventional sources.

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Lac Seul opposing Big Falls hydro project – Geoff Shields (Wawatay News – May 28, 2013)

 http://wawataynews.ca/

Lac Seul First Nation has decided not to support construction of a hydro-electric power plant at Big Falls on the Trout River, after concerns were raised by a number of local residents over the effects a dam would have on the area’s cultural heritage.

The First Nation’s change in position comes after Lac Seul had originally agreed to partner on the three to four megawatt hydro dam with Horizon Energy, and potentially Grassy Narrows First Nation and Wabauskang First Nation.

Lac Seul Chief Clifford Bull and his council met with officials from the Ministry of Natural Resources (MNR) on May 7 to convey the First Nation’s stance.

“We want to tell the government that perhaps we can do other things with the river system,” Bull told Wawatay following the meeting on May 7. “Perhaps we can make it into a heritage water park. There was always a water highway and it has historical value for us and we want to protect that area. We don’t want the development on it at this point in time.”

Lac Seul’s opposition to the project came after band members living in Red Lake expressed their concerns about the dam’s infringement on their rights. Lac Seul chief and council eventually decided to remove themselves from the project in support of the Red Lake members.

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Still up in the air [Thunder Bay power plant] – by Leith Dunick (tbnewswatch.com – May 23, 2013)

http://www.tbnewswatch.com/

Premier Kathleen Wynne promised Northwestern Ontario will have the energy it needs.

What she didn’t say Thursday during a brief visit to Thunder Bay was how the province would accomplish the feat. Wynne waltzed deftly around several direct questions about the future of the Thunder Bay Power Generating Station, which supporters of its closure suggest will save the province $400 million.

“This is an ongoing discussion. This is not a dead issue by any stretch of the imagination. We’re still working with the community and the Ministry of Energy is very much engaged with this,” Wynne said.

“I stand by that commitment to make sure we have the generating capacity necessary.” Asked about a demand earlier this month by Mayor Keith Hobbs to either re-start the conversion of the plant to natural gas, a plan halted by former energy minister Chris Bentley, or apologize like she did to southern Ontarians over the gas-plant closure scandal, once again Wynne toed the party line.

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Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne apologies – 11 times in one interview – for $585-million gas plant cancellations (Canadian Press – May 15, 2013)

The above program came from TV Ontario’s The Agenda with Steve Paikin

The National Post is Canada’s second largest national paper.

TORONTO — Premier Kathleen Wynne offered an apology Tuesday for the cancellation of two gas plants that will cost taxpayers at least $585 million.

Wynne had previously rebuffed calls for an apology, saying only that she regretted the cost of cancelling the plants, which was more than double what the governing Liberals had claimed. But she finally apologized on TV Ontario’s The Agenda, saying she was “very sorry” for the mistakes the government made.

In fact, the premier said she was sorry 11 times during her interview with host Steve Paikin. “The people of Ontario need to hear that I’m sorry because I am, I am sorry,” she said.

“I’m sorry that we didn’t have a better process up front. I’m sorry that we didn’t site those gas plants better and that’s why a new protocol needs to be in place.”

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An ill wind blows for Quebec taxpayers – by Sophie Cousineau (Globe and Mail – May 15, 2013)

Globe and Mail is Canada’s national newspaper with the second largest broadsheet circulation in the country. It has enormous influence on Canada’s political and business elite.

MONTREAL – Pity Pauline Marois. Her government has been making good on its promise to balance the books. Yet the business community, still unsettled by higher personal income taxes, a new mining regime and proposed changes to the language law, won’t give the Quebec Premier any credit for it, as she recently lamented in front of the Conseil du Patronat du Québec lobby group.

All the while, the left-wing Québec Solidaire party has been ferociously criticizing Ms. Marois and her government’s austerity measures. Listening to its articulate leaders, you could believe that Ms. Marois is a reincarnation of Margaret Thatcher. Attacked left and right, Ms. Marois’ popularity has been sinking to depths rarely seen for an eight-month-old government. Two polls recently conducted by Crop and Léger Marketing indicate that under Philippe Couillard’s new leadership, the Quebec Liberal Party is now well ahead of the Parti Québécois – despite the Liberals’ power-worn brand.

This explains why the PQ has shifted gears into good news mode, in the hopes of seducing its disillusioned supporters. In the past month, ministers have unveiled plans for a new hospital in the Charlevoix region and a number of hospital renovations and extensions across Quebec at an election-campaign pace.

Good news is no news, as some journalists say cynically. But with the new 800 megawatts of wind mill projects that Ms. Marois unveiled Friday in the Gaspé region, good news is bad news.

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