Energy Probe

Norm Rubin with the Toronto-based energy watchdog group Energy Probe  says he is concerned that NB Power might be forced to go too far in cost-cutting efforts in order to freeze the power rate, postponing such things as required maintenance. "You have to be careful that you don't put too much financial pressure on a utility, especially one that's always been Crown-owned and hasn't been pressed before," he said.

Norm Rubin with Toronto-based energy watchdog group Energy Probe said he was concerned NB Power might be forced to go too far in efforts to cut costs in order to freeze the power rate, postponing such things as maintenance.

"You have to be careful that you don't put too much financial pressure on a utility, especially one that's always been Crown-owned and hasn't been pressed before," he said.

Electricity prices in Ontario are "going up like a rocket," fuelled in part by the Ontario government's Green Energy Act, says a longtime observer of the province's energy scene.

"You are going to get screwed, and it's going to be painful," said Tom Adams, a Toronto-based consultant and a former executive director of Energy Probe.

Norm Rubin, the director of nuclear research at Energy Probe, said it's conceivable that banks were involved as "lenders or facilitators," in that project but said he does not think any were involved as direct investors.

 "Maybe CIBC will join the list of gutsy nuclear cowboys that used to
have money - I hope not, you know, we need banks in Canada," he said.

"I don't expect it to go ahead, but then I was surprised when New Brunswick decided to go ahead," Norm Rubin, director of nuclear research for Energy Probe, said. "I think the message is pretty clear: The next time you get a report from your own utilities board that says it's a loser to invest in something nuclear that has a track record that looks like the underside of a rock, the next time you get that advice, take it."

Expanding wind doesn’t fit with phasing out coal, says Norm Rubin of Energy Probe, a Toronto-based environmental policy organization. If these were pieces in a puzzle, “you couldn’t bang them together with a hammer.”

Norm Rubin of the Toronto-based energy watchdog Energy Probe said he's not surprised by the added delays at Point Lepreau or the decision by Hydro-Quebec.

"People who look at this as a reliable source of power are destined to live in the dark," he said.

That isn’t my headline. It comes from The Atlantic, where Clive Crook its senior editor, yesterday took apart the recent spate of verdicts exonerating the Climategate scientists. For those who don’t know Clive Crook, he’s one of the world’s prominent journalists having been, among other things, a 20-year veteran at The Economist, 11 of them as its deputy editor. Oh, and Crook is also a long-standing believer in the view that climate change represents a threat to humanity.

A panel criticizes the Climategate scientists for being defensive and unhelpful, for withholding data, for providing misleading information, for having been “blinded … to the possibility of merit” in the claims of their critics.

Yesterday’s scorcher scorched wind power’s reputation and its bottom line, too.  A simple analysis shows why no company can make a profit supplying wind power to the electricity system without government subsidies, and why no society can count on wind power when the power is most needed.