We can save Ontario ratepayers billions of dollars by tearing up the green energy contracts that are playing a part in harming our economy, costing us manufacturing jobs and pushing people into poverty.

Energy Policy Ontario

But the environment ministry appears to have abdicated its role as regulator, and relies instead on self-regulation by the multi-billion-dollar wind power industry. What is the reason behind these social, economic and environment costs that so moves the Ontario government to keep pressing ahead with this problematic program? I don’t know. The government is not answering.

Energy Policy Ontario

Representatives of five transmission projects proposed in July in response to the Massachusetts solicitation for 9.45 TWh/year of hydro and Class I renewables (wind, solar or energy storage) tried to explain why their projects should be among those selected in January. Contracts awarded under the MA 83D request for proposals are to be submitted in late April.

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According to ISO New England Inc., a non-profit group focused on transmission systems, between 7,000 and 8,000 MW of generation could be shut down in the next 10 years as state regulators scramble to meet their climate goals. In January, officials confirmed the 2,000-MW Indian Point nuclear facility, located about 77 kilometres north of New York City, would be shut down in 2020.

Energy Policy Canada Quebec New York

According to ISO New England Inc., a non-profit group focused on transmission systems, between 7,000 and 8,000 MW of generation could be shut down in the next 10 years as state regulators scramble to meet their climate goals. In January, officials confirmed the 2,000-MW Indian Point nuclear facility, located about 77 kilometres north of New York City, would be shut down in 2020.

Energy Policy New York Quebec Canada

McCarter found 30,000 of those jobs were in construction, lasting only one to three years, and the government had failed to take into account studies in other jurisdictions showing that for each job created through renewable energy, two to four were lost in other sectors of the economy, because of higher electricity prices.

Energy Policy Ontario

Acchione said the province is wasting the power through a practice called “curtailment.” It means that when the province’s hydro generators produce power consumers don’t need, and it can’t be exported, they have to dump it. ...“The numbers...show that Ontario’s cleanest source of power is literally going down the drain because we’re producing too much of it.”

Energy Policy Ontario

Only in Kathleen Wynne’s Ontario would we still be spending money we don’t have, to build wind farms few people want, to generate electricity we don’t need.

Energy Policy Ontario

He said hydro costs are being driven up by long-term contracts that pay high prices to producers of renewable energy. Many of those contracts were signed with wind energy producers in Southwestern Ontario, home to the province’s largest wind farms and largest number of wind turbines. “I think they should cancel some of these contracts and not just extend them,” said Macartney.

Energy Policy Ontario

Thibeault says the government must move away from setting targets for specific types of energy – such as wind, solar, hydro and nuclear – and should instead focus on implementing a system in which energy producers compete for electricity contracts. "...allocating the precise mix of technology types has largely been arbitrary and led to sub-optimal siting, uncompetitive prices, and heightened community concern.”

Energy Policy Ontario

It’s one dismaying chapter in a much larger story about the profound ineptitude with which Ontario’s energy file — from gas plants to hydro prices to the sale of Hydro One — has been handled.

Energy Policy Ontario

The biggest unreported story in the Ontario media, despite all its talented investigative journalists, is the destruction of rural Ontario by massive wind “farms” and solar projects.

Impact on Landscape Energy Policy Ontario

Environmental groups from Spain, France and the United Kingdom have now joined North American organizations in opposing a plan to build a pilot wind farm in western Lake Erie, near the Ohio shore, along the U.S. side of the border.

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Five years after Ontario pulled the plug on offshore wind installations, including a 130-turbine project in Lake Ontario, a NAFTA tribunal has ordered the province to fork over $25 million in damages plus $3 million in legal costs to Windstream Energy LLC, kicking up gusts of mixed reaction from environmentalists and trade activists. 

Impact on Economy Energy Policy Ontario

Ontario is blowing off plans for more wind and solar power as it feels the heat over high electricity bills less than two years before a provincial election.

Energy Policy Ontario

Blinking in the face of a growing political backlash against rising electricity prices, Ontario is suspending plans for more green energy. The surprise announcement by Ontario’s Liberal government Tuesday — affecting wind, solar, hydro and energy-from-waste projects — is forecast to save the province billions of dollars.

Energy Policy Ontario

Van Geyn said that if the government were to dismantle the Green Energy Act that would help rein in rates. “It’s the whole reason we’re in this mess,” she said of the act.

Energy Policy Ontario

The province signed long-term contracts with a handful of lucky firms, guaranteeing them 13.5 cents per kWh for electricity produced from wind, and even more from solar. Obviously, if the wholesale price is around 2.5 cents, and the wind turbines are guaranteed 13.5 cents, someone has to kick in 11 cents to make up the difference. That’s where the GA comes in. The more the wind blows, and the more turbines get built, the bigger the losses and the higher the GA.

Impact on Economy Energy Policy Ontario

In fact, wind and solar “farms” have become troublesome “gridmonsters”. They are uncontrollable, cruel and unreasonably costly. Gridmonsters have a licence not only to kill, but also to bill. Enabled by Ontario’s Green Energy Act , they drive up electricity prices while ravaging rural neighbourhoods and wildlife.

Taxes & Subsidies Energy Policy Ontario

For those inclined to see the glass half full, Massachusetts has made enormous strides in reducing its carbon emissions. Coal-fired plants, the worst offenders, are dying out across the Commonwealth. Investments in energy efficiency have lowered demand. The solar panels sprouting up along the Massachusetts Turnpike are only the most visible of the new generation of green technologies feeding power into homes and businesses.

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