If Renewable Power Costs Are Coming Down...

...Why Does The IPP Industry Still Need 'Security'?

The NDP government of British Columbia appears to be taking tentative steps to dismantle GordCo, Inc's IPP protection racket.

Doug Penner of the Vancouver Sun has the story. Here is his lede:

The NDP government is moving to scrap the province’s legislated requirement that B.C. remain self-sufficient in electricity supply, a centrepiece of the previous government’s green-energy policy.

Government, in its legislative agenda for this session, tabled amendments to the Clean Energy Act, which include stripping out the legislation’s definition of energy self-sufficiency.

Energy and Mines Minister Bruce Ralston characterized it as a public-policy shift away from a measure that the NDP disagreed with when put in place in 2010, which simply gives B.C. Hydro some leeway in preparing its next major demand estimate.

“Eliminating it will enable Hydro, give it a bit more flexibility to purchase clean energy at the most affordable prices from within and without the province,” Ralston said...


As you might imagine the fine folks behind years and years and years (and future mandated/contracted years and years and years) of inflated fixed prices are not happy with this because of 'good faith', 'rules' and 'security' and all that:

...“It just doesn’t make sense to us to take this action now,” said Laureen Whyte, executive director of Clean Energy B.C., the industry group that represents independent power producers. “Essentially, what (the province) is doing is looking to import electricity instead of creating it here, along with the jobs and economic development and taxes that go with that.”

Independent power producers (IPPs) now supply B.C. Hydro with about a quarter of all its electricity under more than 120 long-term contracts with the utility after a decade-and-a-half of growth under the previous government.

“What this means for investors is that they have invested in this jurisdiction, in good faith, by the rules, understanding that there is a future for IPP technology,” Whyte said. “(The amendment has) kind of sent a message back to the investment community that, you know, maybe it’s not a secure place to be investing in as they thought.”...


So.

How much has all that fixed price 'security' for investors from the time of GordCo Inc. cost us (i.e. British Columbians who actually do the paying)?

Well, back in 2010 it was 'only' a couple of hundred million dollars:

...In fiscal 2010, B.C. Hydro spent $568 million to buy 8.9 million gigawatt hours worth of electricity from independent producers at an average price of $63.85 per megawatt hour, according to its annual report. In the same year, the utility spent $311 million to generate some 42.1 million gigawatt hours from its own power dams at an average price of $7.19 per megawatt hour...


But last year, 2019, it had ballooned to almost a billion with a 'B':

...The amount of private power B.C. Hydro buys, by fiscal 2019, ballooned to $1.2 billion for 14.2 million gigawatt hours at an average price of $87.52 per megawatt hour, according to last year’s annual report. In the same year, it spent $332 million to generate 42.2 million gigawatt hours from its own facilities at an average price of $7.87 per megawatt hour...


And, as Norm Farrell has pointed out many, many times, the fix is in for tens of billions down the road:

...Since (Gordon) Campbell’s friend Larry Bell promised to assist private producers, BC Hydro has purchased almost $14 billion in power from IPPs—most at 2x to 4x market price—and is contracted to buy more than $40 billion worth of additional electricity....

****

But, returning to that solid story from the VSun's Mr. Penner,  according to the IPP flackhackery we should all stop worrying about all that securitized price gouging in perpetuity because...

Prices are coming down!

...Costs for all renewable power producers have come down considerably since, Laureen Whyte (of Clean Energy BC) said, so new B.C.-based IPP developments would be equally competitive.

Whyte said the industry has seen new wind-farm developments capable of delivering electricity at $28 per megawatt hour, versus an average cost of $101 per megawatt hour in 2009. She is familiar with solar-power developments with electricity as cheap as $32, versus $323 per megawatt hour a decade ago.

Whyte said her group believes “a lot more work should be done collaboratively” between B.C. Hydro and independent producers as the utility works on its next integrated resource plan.

“We see independent power production as complementary to the energy that B.C. Hydro provides,” she said...


The pretzel logic, above, is truly breathtaking.

Sheesh.


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This Just In......

Laureen Harper Still Co-Leader Of The Conservative Party of Canada!

Which got us to wondering.......

When, exactly, is the Co-Leader going to tell us what it is, exactly, that the Vice-President........errrrr.....Vice-Prime Minister of Canada does every day?




OK?

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Press Poodles Gone Wild

Convergence-A-Go-Go
EvilsOfAccessVille

Inspired by a post by skdadl over at POGGE's place (which is still one of the best sites in the Canadian PoliBloggodome, by the way), a few days ago we wrote a piece about how the media-manipulation jockeys riding Stephen Harper are clearly using a strategy taken directly from the pages of the Rovian/Republican "Book of The Smear".

Which, of course, is to turn the National Press Gallery into poodles by limiting 'exclusive' access to their horse.

Why should we, as Canadians, care?

This, we think, is why:

Now a number of commentators, including even (gasp!) Mr. Don Martin, have made a wee bit of a fuss about all of this.

Which, unfortunately is just not good enough.

Not the 'fuss' part.

But rather the 'wee bit' part.

Because (media manipulation jockey) Ms Sandra Buckler's real evil in limiting access is not to cow (CBC Radio's ) Ms. Petty.

Instead, Buckler is making damned sure that the entire National Press Corps knows and understands that any of them can and will be shut-out if they don't play ball.

Which is why they should ALL make a huge fuss about this right now.

Up to and including going so far as to refuse to grant any exclusive interviews to Mr. Harper.

After all, it's not like the lizard brain is pimping a Ron Popiel pocket fisherman or something.

Because, last time we checked at least, Canada is not yet an infomercial driven shill factory.


Now, those words were written last Friday.

Then, on Saturday, we opened up the Globe and Mail and read the following from National Affairs columnist Jane Taber (no link: it's behind the BellGlobeCTVTSNRDSCHUMMedia subscription wailing wall):

A RESOLUTION FROM THE PMO:
"The Prime Minister's Chief of Staff, Ian Brodie, says: "Only Sandra is authorized to make New Year resolutions at PMO". Mr. Brodie, who has a good sense of humour, is referring to PMO director of communications Sandra Buckler and the continuing tension between the press gallery and the PMO over how press conferences are conducted, who can ask questions, and who can answer them.

Of course, no need to worry about Ms. Taber's 'objectivity' because clearly she has unfettered, unlimited, and unimaginably unfathomable access.

After all, she writes and commentates for one of the biggest media conglomerates this country has ever seen, so her access is safe, right?

Right.

Which very likely explains why Ms. Taber (and/or her bossess) ran a huge picture accompanying her BellGlobeCTVTSNRDSCHUMMedia piece that showed a virile, if wobbling and wide-waisted, Prime Minister Harper playing shinny on an Alberta pond during 'Holiday Week'.

And who took that picture?

Well, apparently it was taken by BellGlobeCTVTSNRDSCHUMMedia's new staff photographer - the apparently award winning shutterbug, Ms Laureen Harper.

*****

But still, that kind of stuff is all in good fun, right?

Because, really, despite all that, the country formerly known as Canuckistan is still safe because we don't have FOX News North and we really are not "an infomercial driven shill factory."

Well, maybe/maybe not.

Why the hesitation?

Well, here's Ms. Taber again, this time apparently speaking in her 'own voice' the very next day, Sunday Dec 30th, 2007:

Taber said Harper's strategy is effective -- as long as he knows when to draw the line.

"I think that Canadians were looking for a decisive leader, but sometimes he can go overboard, sometimes he can be too black and white with stuff," she told CTV.ca. "I think he's got to be careful about that. He can also be petulant about things."

Ya sure....... blabba, blabba, blabba, 'he's sorta bad, but he's actually good, unless he's bad, but, regardless it doesn't really matter because we like deciders"......blabba, blabba, blabba.

Which is inane in the extreme.

But the bubbles between the quotes isn't what is really worrying.

Instead, go back to the bolded bit (ie. she told CTV.ca)

Yes, that's right!

Ms. Taber, who works for BellGlobeCTVTSNRDSCHUMMedia, was actually being interviewed by BellGlobeCTVTSNRDSCHUMMedia.

Wow.

That sure is some great 'News Analysis' we're gettin' there with our Popiel Pocket Fishermen and our Zirconian Diamonds.

So how come my head feels like an empty suitcase, and why are my abs are still flabby?

Sheesh.


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For the record, skadl's post was inspired by the work and art of Alison who, we think, just made a resolution/kinda/sorta (something, by the way that Ms. Taber's new photog refuses to do because, as she apparently says, "Why set yourself up to fail and be depressed?).

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Beyond The Valley Of The Neocons....

AllYourMeannesses'RUs
StraussianSchoolsInABarrelVille

______________________

(Warning: This is an end-of-the-weekend, combinatorial thinking-cap/snarkoleptic post....if you are opening this on Monday morning you may have better things to do and/or read.....)
______________________

Laura has an interesting project going at her place, We Move To Canada, in which she has asked her readers to complete the following sentence:

We don't want another harper government because...

And the responses have been fantastic, numerous and insightful.

In a general sense, one of the things that is most interesting about those responses is how many of them focus on the meanness that is being foisted on us, at us, and/or because of us, particularly as it pertains to our 'worst fears' about things like crime, artists, women, children, family, terrorists and economic armegeddon - not to mention evil, elite 'galas'.

Which begs the question.....

Why?

Why is Mr. Harper using meanness and fear to win us over?

Well to answer that, I think you have to understand at least two things.

First, you must realize that much of what Mr. Harper holds dear in terms of his real, heart-of-his-heart, policy desires stems from his involvement, right from the start, with something called 'The Calgary School' of neoStraussianism which Dave at 'The Galloping Beaver' did an exceptional job of illuminating just before the last election.

Now, one of the central tenets of neoStraussianism, regardless whether it comes from cloistered academic bubbles (yes, it's an academic/professorial construct, albeit shrouded in a veil of theocracy) in fields where rigorous peer review is almost entirely lacking or from think tank-wurlitzered poppycock that is used to justify things like the the Project for a New American Century (PNAC), is:

'The concept of the 'noble lie'.

Now just what the heckfire is that?

Well, just to be clear, it is NOT named for the guy who started all those prizes for scientists and such (as no doubt, a certain, half-bright governor from a southen oil-rich state very likely initially surmised when it was first explained to him in, say, 1997).

Instead, it is the idea that the neoStraussians themselves know what is best for society and as such there are times when they are justified in telling the public white (?) lies so that they can get on with their more noble causes and policy changes, behind closed doors, in secret, away from the prying eyes of both the media (especially those of the non-water carrying kind) and the public.

And we all know where that kind of garbage leads, be it unjustified pre-emptive wars bent on regime change and/or the blooming of bacilli deep within uninspected meatcutters.

Now to the second point, which is:

How do you push these noble lies?

Well, to do that you have to obfuscate, and obfuscate mercilessly.

But don't forget that, because you have already convinced yourself that what you are doing is 'noble' and 'just' and 'right', well..... anything goes.

And to do that you bring in people like Mr. Frank Luntz, a man who can turn black into white and white into black, often by preying on people's worst fears.

As such Mr. Luntz, brought the PNACkians best and biggest lies to the people of the United States, by unabashedly saying things like the following:

"September 11 changed everything. So start with 9/11....Without context of 9/11, you will be blamed for the deficit....The trick is to contextualize the deficit inside of 9/11."

So..... has Mr. Luntz come north to help the Canadian Conservative Reform Alliance Party (ie. NOT the 'Tories') deliver their lies......errrrrr....'messages' of nobility?

You bet he has.

In fact bringing Mr. Luntz north, as Preston Manning did before him, was one of the first things Mr. Harper did after he won last time around:

"Next Saturday (in May 2006) a group of Tories will gather quietly in Kanata, Ont., to 'analyze the strengths and weaknesses of conservative communications in Canada'......

{snip}

Sandra Buckler, the Prime Minister's director of communications......is to participate.

Frank Luntz, a (U.S.) Republican pollster and advisor to Preston Manning when he was Reform Party leader, is the keynote speaker. His topic: "Communicating Conservative Messages".


But here's the thing.

When you have created ideology whose central tenet has at it's core both self-delusion as well delusion of the people because you have made the decision, prior, that what you believe in (ie. extreme disaster-assisted Laissez-Faire Capitalism b/w a Socially Conservative/Theocracy-Based Patriarchy and an Inflexibly Unilateral Foreign Policy) where does it all end?

The delusional part, in the name of fake goodness and the unbearably lightness of being light headed I mean?

Well.

How about ........ here?


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And in case you doubt, or are laughing off my final conclusion, I remind you again that, according to Mr. Harper's website at least, Ms. Laureen Harper, who, apparently, used to very much enjoy elite galas, is still the Co-Leader of the Conservative Party of Canada.



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