(a) The Ontario Green Energy Act provides for a very high level of subsidy to the power producers – that’s the way that feed-in tariffs work.

Here in British Columbia, BC Hydro paid an average of 8.5 cents kWh in its recent Clean Power Call. In Ontario, under the Green Energy Act, the Ontario Power Authority will pay:

44 – 80 cents kWh for solar PV
12-13 cents kWh for run-of-river hydro
10-19.5 cents kWh for biogas power
13.5 – 19 cents for wind power
13 – 13.8 cents kWh for biomass power
10.3 – 11 cents kWh for landfill gas power

(See http://fit.powerauthority.on.ca/Page.asp?PageID=122&ContentID=10543&SiteNodeID=1103&BL_ExpandID=260)

These prices increase by 0.4 to 1.5 cents kWh for Aboriginal and community-owned power. See
http://fit.powerauthority.on.ca/Page.asp?PageID=122&ContentID=10380&SiteNodeID=1103&BL_ExpandID=260

Why do you call the BC Hydro prices “exhorbitant”, while praising the Ontario scheme, when the BC Hydro prices are all much lower than the Ontario prices? It doesn’t make any sense.

The BC Hydro price is a market price, that requires no subsidy. It’s the Ontario prices which are deliberately NOT market prices, which require a subsidy.

(b) The private sector is 100% involved in providing the power, every bit as much as in BC – there’s no difference on that front. Why are the private power producers “self-serving” in BC, but noble heroes in Ontario? It makes no sense.

(c) For the run-of-river power in BC, BC Hydro only pays only 5 cents kWh during the freshet period, April-June, precisely because – as you say – it does not need the power then; this is to minimize the risk that BC Hydro will have to sell the power for less than it pays for it.

If I was the Premier of Ontario, I’d do exactly as they have done – so make no mistake, I’m a great champion for their cause. But here in BC, if we adopted a Feed-in Tariff, the new power generated would primarily be for export, since we are close to having 100% green power already. This is why it is difficult for BC to adopt the Ontario approach. It’s one thing for Ontario rate-payers to subsidize their own province getting more green power.

But would BC residents accept the same, knowing that the power was destined for export?

I’m glad you praise the Ontario scheme, since it is – as you say – meaningful and in many ways radical. But I don’t understand how you can use the Ontario Green Energy Act to attack the BC green energy approach, since they both empower the private sector IPPs, yet Ontario pays up to ten times higher prices – as a subsidy- than BC does.

Let us hope that Ontario’s plan will be assessed with the same enthusiasm that it will garner the criticism of private interests that want access to public resources for private gain.