(October 19, 2011) Parker Gallant responds to Minister Brad Duguid: it’s the government’s claims that are “bogus”.
Parker Gallant
Omitted Costs, Inflated Benefits, a study I co-authored with Glenn Fox for the Bulletin of Science, Technology and Society a week ago, has been discovered by the media and the Ministry of Energy. While we will have to wait until October 20th to hear the cabinet appointments by Premier McGuinty, that didn’t stop the Legislature’s most recent Minister of Energy, Brad Duguid from commenting on the study.
“The mistakes make the conclusions, frankly, bogus,” Duguid said in an interview, saying it´s “full of technical errors and incorrect assumptions.” Duguid offered no concrete evidence of his claims or any facts to back his statements up. He also took aim at its authors, saying “Gallant is known for opposing renewable power.”
Co-incidentally while the media was picking up on the study, the Ontario Energy Board (OEB) put out its semi-annual press release, advising Ontarians that electricity rates were going up. The press release was announcing the rate increase on the “electricity” line of our bills. The OEB said it would increase our “total bill” by 1.8%, failing to state the “electricity” line would increase by an average of 3.2% for time-of-use (TOU) ratepayers on top of the 11.2 % that the same “electricity” line went up on May 1st, 2011.
That “electricity” line has now gone up 41% in just 2 years. Most of us forgot those earlier increases because the government had bribed us with that 10% “Provincial Benefit” which will cost taxpayers north of $1-billion annually for the next five years and increase the Provincial Debt by $5-billion.
Minister Brad Duguid in his Long Term Energy Plan (LTEP) in November 2010 stated, “Over the next five years, however, residential electricity prices are expected to rise by about 7.9% annually (or 46% over five years).“ That LTEP has been converted to the Integrated Power System Plan II by the Ontario Power Authority and submitted to the OEB so it is in the process of becoming the direction that our energy sector will take for the next 20 years. Ratepayers and taxpayers will be severely affected by this submission, which will convert the LTEP into our energy future and verify the projections contained in the Fox/Gallant study.
The Minister’s forecast of annual increases of 7.9% in the LTEP 11 months ago is history and the actual increase in electricity prices of 14.3% since then are almost double his forecast.
So, just whose conclusions are “frankly, bogus”?
Parker Gallant, a retired banker, is a Financial Post columnist and an Energy Probe director.
Energy Probe 
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Parker,
Keep up the good work. We in BC are going down the same green (read EXPENSIVE) path with government mandated purchases of electric from alternative sources at many times the going rate..
It is a typical tactic of politicians to disparage an unfavourable report by attacking the author’s credibility. I would suggest that Parker, Energy Probe or Wind Concerns Ontario issue a press release inviting the officials of the Ontario Ministry of Energy to sit down to identify specifically any shortcomings in the report’s data or methodology. It is best to show that opponents of current Ontario electricity policies welcome transparency, in contrast to the current government..
Typical of the McGuinty government today to offer accusations without explanation or proof, relying on a delusion of authority stemming from a “mandate” of only 1/3 of Ontario voters. Reminds me of Dick Cheney’s assertions of WMD in Iraq, repetitive claims in an authoritarian voice without logic, fact or evidence to back them up.
Kudos to Mr Gallant for using science and facts to reveal that the “green” emperor has no clothes, no matter how much Du-NO-guid or The rest of the Dalton Gang try to cloak themselves in
Nothing short of a Public Inquiry is required now that the election is over and the results show McGuinty has been REJECTED in Rural Ontario. Debates, accusations and “tit for tat” rhetoric in the Mainstream Media is useless. This Green Scam which has taken hold on Ontario needs to be investigated and lawsuits and charges of “gross misconduct” have to be pursued before Ontario becomes a literal “Ghost Town” for Industry. For a political party to be able to destroy a whole Province’s financial stability by “selling it off” to private investors like the Wind Companies smacks of “treason!”