Petition for lower, dependable electricity prices through regulation
Low and stable power prices must be a top priority for 2012, seeing as this year begins with Albertans paying the most ever for electricity.
High power rates put the squeeze on family budgets, especially through this post-holiday time. PC power deregulation is failing to protect families from painful hits to the wallet. Power-company CEOs are paid millions in salaries and bonuses while families are pinched. This system doesn’t work.
Alberta power consumers will pay on average 15.2 cents per kilowatt hour in January – an all time record for the monthly rate. The rate is double what Albertans paid in January 2011.
Albertans are suffering dramatic shifts in rates month to month. The Industrial Power Consumers Association measurement of price volatility shows prices are twice as volatile this year compared to Jan 2010. Wildly shifting power prices make it more expensive for wholesalers to buy hedges against future prices, a cost that’s passed on to consumers.
A regulated system would keep prices low and steady so Albertans can budget properly. I commit to Albertans that as premier I would regulate power prices in Alberta so this most essential service is affordable for all.
To pressure the government, we’ve started a petition to re-regulate the electricity market in Alberta.
Petition:
Whereas, Albertans are experiencing the highest cost for electricity in history and continued price volatility;
We, the undersigned residents of Alberta, petition the Legislative Assembly of Alberta to take immediate action to regulate electricity prices, recognizing that electricity is an essential service.
Download a printable version of the petition to share
Check out our Facebook page
Call and tell us your story of power price pains: 780-644-8670
More information:
http://www.calgaryherald.com/sports/Consumers+paying+price+deregulation/5963473/story.html
http://www.edmontonsun.com/2012/01/04/albertans-in-for-a-jolt
Hansard, Dec. 1, 2011
Mr. Mason: Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Since deregulation
electricity rates have continued to rise for the average
Albertan. In December about 70 per cent of residential users in
Alberta will pay 13 and a half cents per kilowatt hour, the highest
monthly rate since 2002. Will the Minister of Energy admit that
deregulation is a failure that allows large corporations to gouge
homeowners and small businesses, and will he undertake to
reregulate power rates in this province in order to protect those
consumers?
Dr. Morton: I know this will come as a surprise, Mr. Speaker, but
no, I will not say yes to the hon. member’s allegations. What I will
say yes to is that when fairly compared, the electricity rates in this
province compare middle of the pack with other nonhydro-based
markets. I’m also happy to repeat – I don’t know; they must never
listen to the answers we give – that unlike Quebec with a $36
billion debt or Ontario with a $62 billion debt, there is a zerodollars
debt in this province for generation.
Mr. Mason: Mr. Speaker, will this minister admit that since
power companies in Alberta are private, there is an equivalent
amount of private debt that is still supported by the ratepayers of
this province through their electricity bills? Will he admit to this
House that he is using a complete red herring in order to confuse
the matter so that he can get out of answering the question of why
the people of Alberta are experiencing extremely high electricity
rates that just keep going up?
Dr. Morton: Mr. Speaker, the red herrings and the confusion are
coming from that side, not this side.
As I repeat yet again – yet again – in Alberta, fairly compared
to nonhydro jurisdictions, the cost of electricity is middle of the
pack.
Mr. Mason: Will the minister admit that power rates in Alberta
are higher than they need to be? Will he admit that the power rates
in this province are too high and that they’re going higher, and
will he admit that deregulation and this government’s singleminded,
ideological bent on privatization and deregulation has
caused this situation and that government is to blame and no one
else?
Dr. Morton: Mr. Speaker, I think it’s quite evident from that
question that the single-minded ideology, the anti free-market
ideology, is on that side of the aisle, not this side.
