Energy Probe

Parker Gallant: OPG’s creative accounting

(September 1, 2011) Ontario Power Generation recently released its 2^nd Quarter results. On the surface all seems well with OPG — it announced an after tax (Payments in Lieu of taxes) profit for the quarter of $114 million for the 6 months ended June 30, 2011 versus $40 million for the comparable quarter in 2010.

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Parker Gallant: Turning OEFC’s “Stranded Debt” into Political Spin

(August 22, 2011) The Ontario Electricity Financial Corporation (OEFC) generally has its annual report completed by mid to late June or just a couple of months after its March 31^st year-end. The public doesn’t get to see the report until it has been tabled in the Ontario Legislature by the Finance Minister and that process for the past several years can take as much as a full year. This year the first part of the pattern was normal however; the March 31, 2011 annual report has just been released without the aforementioned tabling of the report by the Finance Minister in the Legislature. The Auditor General’s report is dated June 21, 2011 but the Legislature has not sat since June 1, 2011 so we must conclude the report has not been tabled.

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Parker Gallant: Hydro One’s free pass

(August 17, 2011) Hydro One’s financial statements are out, yet despite all of the media attention about the electricity sector in Ontario, the financial results of the publicly owned power utilities attract no attention. Odd, since they are the instruments that the government uses to execute its controversial policies under the Green Energy Act. Continue reading →

Parker Gallant: The wind industry’s spin

(August 2, 2011) In Greek Mythology Aeolus was the “King of Wind” but in Canadian Mythology the King of Wind is CanWEA; a not-for-profit association of 420 members including public and private companies, legal firms, manufacturers, etc. and others who feed off of the largess of taxpayers and ratepayers to ensure they retain their mandated (Ontario’s Green Energy Act) place on the energy podium.

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