Alberta's power line legislation will add new costs to power bills

EDMONTON - Controversial legislation that will limit public debate on plans to erect billions of dollars worth of new power lines across Alberta is the latest twist in a saga that reads like a cheap detective novel.

Two years ago, Alberta's energy regulator was accused of spying on opponents of the power lines during public hearings.

As a result, Premier Ed Stelmach was forced to replace the head of the utilities commission. The regulator's head of security was forced to resign and the hearings were scuttled.

Joe Anglin, one of the founders of a grassroots protest movement against the power lines, says Bill 50 is the government's retribution after being embarrassed by the spying scandal.

But Energy Minister Mel Knight rejects this assertion, insisting that the legislation is unrelated to the spying in 2007.

"This is nothing about anything to do with the past," Knight said Wednesday in an interview. "This is about the future."

But Anglin says many Albertans believe the government is taking steps to ensure that people who oppose these massive power line projects have fewer public forums to state their concerns.

"Many people are very concerned about the loss of democracy and democratic rights," he said.

The legislation pushes aside the existing regulatory process and gives the government sweeping new powers to approve multibillion-dollar power line projects without the level of public input required in the past, said Anglin.

"That's why we call this the largest power grab in the history of a democracy," he said Wednesday in an interview. "These people don't know what they're talking about when it comes to electricity."

"They're in the dark, they're guessing that they're doing the right thing."

Alberta made a policy change several years ago that pushed the entire cost of new power lines onto consumers rather than continuing to split the costs equally between consumers and utilities.

This created a public outcry that has grown dramatically as the scope of these costs became clearer.

Anglin's group estimates that the average homeowner's utility bill will eventually increase by $20 per month to pay for the new power lines.

"So that will be the legacy of this legislation and people will remember that," he said. "And it's going to lead to the demise of this government."

Critics say the expensive direct current power lines being proposed are simply not needed now that a long list of multibillion-dollar energy projects have been shelved due to the recession and a sharp reduction in oil prices.

A protest against the bill drew 2,000 people in Edmonton this week and thousands of Albertans have attended town hall meetings to hear Anglin and others speak.

Several other groups have come out against the proposed legislation, including the Fraser Institute, which notes the growth in demand for power in Alberta is subsiding.

The School of Public Policy at the University of Calgary concludes that power lines being proposed are simply "unwarranted."

The Industrial Power Consumers Association of Alberta states that spending at least $8 billion on new power lines will at least triple transmission costs for industry.

A report prepared this month for the Utilities Consumer Advocate also questions the logic behind this massive build.

"The demand forecasts on which the results are based do not reflect the full impact of the economic downturn," says the report prepared by Calgary-based EDC Associates.

"Much of the data and logic presented by the Alberta Electric System Operator is unconvincing and overstates the sense of urgency."

This issue has galvanized political parties of all stripes. On CBC radio this week, NDP Leader Brian Mason sat with Danielle Smith, the new leader of the right-wing Wildrose Alliance and they denounced Bill 50.

"We're being asked to pay billions of dollars to provide for private companies to make a profit by exporting power to the United States," Mason said. "That's something that ordinary Albertans will get no benefit from whatsoever."

But Knight remains undaunted. He says the legislation is needed to ensure that Alberta has sufficient power in the future and that Albertans don't face blackouts.

The province's economy may have suffered a setback with a long list of multibillion-dollar energy projects being shelved, but Knight points out that Alberta's population is still growing at a brisk pace.

"If you take a look at the last year, when we think we were probably in the deepest part of this recession, 50,000 new people came to Alberta," the minister said in an interview.

"We won't see the frantic development that we saw in the last few years," he said. "But it will come back."

The legislation passed final reading late Wednesday.