Wednesday 27 February 2019

NB Power could face $18M carbon tax bill as Ottawa toughens approach


https://twitter.com/DavidRayAmos/with_replies





Replying to and 49 others
Methinks its Too Bad So Sad that I have been illegally barred from being an intervener within another EUB hearing about NB Power's proposed Rate Hike N'esy Pas?

https://davidraymondamos3.blogspot.com/2019/02/nb-power-could-face-18m-carbon-tax-bill.html






https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/new-brunswick/changes-carbon-tax-nb-power-1.5034166



NB Power could face $18M carbon tax bill as Ottawa toughens approach


207 Comments



David Amos
Content disabled.
David Amos
"Blaine Higgs's Progressive Conservative government announced it was working on a 'made-in-New Brunswick' treatment for large emitters to avoid federal taxes but so far has not revealed a plan"

Methinks that is because Mr Higgs has no plan I bet he praying the PANB continue their support in order for his budget to beat the confidence vote and that Harper 2.0 beats Trudeau the Younger in October N'esy Pas?





David Amos
David Amos
"Blaine Higgs's Progressive Conservative government announced it was working on a 'made-in-New Brunswick' treatment for large emitters to avoid federal taxes but so far has not revealed a plan. "

Need I say HMMMM?



David Amos
David Amos
@David Amos Methinks many folks are wondering how long the PANB will continue their support Mr Higgs N'esy Pas?




David Amos
David Amos
"NB Power, which is already projecting little profit for itself over the next four years without factoring in carbon taxes, says it is waiting for more information before it plans for the expense, including whether the Blaine Higgs government can work out a deal on carbon pricing with Ottawa to avoid or mitigate the increase."

Yea Right






David Amos
David Amos
Methinks with lady luck on our side whatever Jody says today may take the wind out Trudeau's sails and his carbon tax plans will fall by the wayside by next January N'esy Pas?







David Amos
David Amos
Surprise Surprise Surprise

Methinks its Too Bad So Sad that I have been illegally barred from being an intervener within another EUB hearing about NB Power's proposed Rate Hike N'esy Pas?


Jimmy Moore
Jimmy Moore
@David Amos You were banned because all you do David is complain and make trouble, file false legal cases, its to a point you probably aren't even allowed to file cases anymore. As a political candidate i am sorry but you have little to no actual credibility.


David Amos
David Amos
@Jimmy Moore Methinks whereas you think you know so much about me then I should have the right to ask if you voted for Rob Moore while I was arguing his fellow lawyer Peter MacKay in Federal Court in 2015 N'esy Pas?

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/new-brunswick/fundy-royal-riding-profile-1.3274276















Jay Schuster 
Jay Schuster

Trudeau is working on 2008 information which has been refuted yet he still wants to carry on, if he gets in again we are all going to be in trouble.


Jimmy Moore
Jimmy Moore
@Jay Schuster He won't be getting in again at this rate.

David Amos
David Amos
@Jimmy Moore Methinks I should not bet the farm on your opinion N'esy Pas?



David Amos
Content disabled.
David Amos
@Jimmy Moore "He won't be getting in again at this rate."

Methinks you and Mr Higgs are hoping that Harper 2.0 beats Trudeau the Younger in October while I run against their buddy Rob Moore again N'esy Pas?










Jay Schuster 
Anne Bérubé

Continue to vote liberal at the next federal election, you deserve him.


David Amos
David Amos
@Anne Bérubé Of that I have no doubt












Jay Schuster 
M.Ann Morwood

I thought the federals initial claim was that all big polluters would be off the hook for carbon tax up to a certain limit. That included the hydro production plants, manufacturing, etc.

Jimmy Moore
Jimmy Moore
@M.Ann Morwood When has Trudeau actually kept a promise or his word to date?

David Amos
David Amos
@Jimmy Moore Why no ask my political opponent and shadow cabinet member Rob Moore?












Jay Schuster 
Bill Mickey

Sorry NB Power users, Canada must serve a greater master, the UN, before you peons.


Richard Riel
Richard Riel
@Bill Mickey The maritimes should separate from Ottawa and form one government.

Richard Riel
Richard Riel
@Richard Riel One minister and one minister for each provinces and no senators, You will see your taxes go way way down.

David Amos
David Amos
@Richard Riel Methinks I have been giving Minister Holland quite a headache lately with the questionable actions of NB Power and their liberal appointed buddies within EUB against me N'esy Pas?












Greg Vezina 
Greg Vezina

Beware of false green prophet$
http://www.ottawalife.com/article/beware-of-false-green-prophet?set_lang=en

Canada needs honest viable energy and environmental policies based on science and economics, not on political rhetoric, nonscience or nonsense.

Prime Minister Trudeau’s proposed carbon tax is a clear example of this because of the delay in keeping his December 9, 2016, promise to create a matching national clean fuel standard “based on life cycle analysis” billed as “the single biggest element of Canada's national emissions reduction plan”.

There are at least seven major types of pollution caused in the life cycle of the production and utilization of energy: abiotic depletion; acidification; eutrophication; global warming; human toxicity; ozone layer depletion; and terrestrial ecotoxicity.

The Trudeau Liberal government’s proposed carbon tax applies to fossil fuels like coal, oil and bitumen, but exempts other forms of energy including natural gas used for power generation, which is worse over the 20 to 50 year time frame, and likely will so-called renewable fuels such as bio-fuels including those made from food crops, and biomass such as wood.

This applies to other so-called renewable energy sources like wood biomass, shown as not being "carbon neutral" at all, because the immediate harm from releasing the carbon in it and the fifty years or more needed to grow the trees to replace it actually makes it worse.

Taxpayer subsidies, mandatory use laws and exemptions from carbon and life cycle taxes further increase the negative impacts of these pseudoscience based policies.

That’s why the user-pay life cycle clean fuel policy should have been fully formulated and implemented before any other steps were taken.


David Amos
David Amos
@Greg Vezina "Beware of false green prophet$"

Oh So True













Alison Jackson 
Alison Jackson

Whatever happened to critical thinking? Why is it there is always a handful of the same people over and over again who can't seem to be able to grasp the simplest concepts of science.
What's even scarier, is these people vote.


David Amos
David Amos
@Alison Jackson Whatever happened to critical thinking?

Methinks cognitive dissonance is what the Powers That Be promote and rely on. It appears that their success has caused critical thinking and even common sense have gone the way of the Dodo Bird among most of peoplekind N'esy Pas?














Roger Williams 
Roger Williams

If we take NB Power estimates of increases over the next 5 years, it will amount to 19% regular increase on top of 38% carbon tax increase. So a 57% total increase. Of course, that is taxable at 15% HST, so that is a grand total of 65.5% increase. If that does not make people conserve, then I don't know what will. It took us 5 years to cut our power consumption in half, so it is possible. We have too many trees around our home to implement solar, so we are now at the mercy of these increases Not a pleasant thought.


David Amos
David Amos
@Roger Williams "Not a pleasant thought."

Methinks that should make the beancounters within NB Power and their KPMG buddies Happy Happy Happy N'esy Pas?












Vernon Shein 
Vernon Shein

Keep voting Liberal NB.......................


David Amos
David Amos
@Vernon Shein Why not consider the Independents next time?










SarahRose Werner 
SarahRose Werner
In other news: "Scientists turn carbon dioxide back into coal: New technique can efficiently convert CO2 from gas into solid particles of carbon." https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2019/02/190226112429.htm


David Amos
David Amos
@SarahRose Werner Imagine that? BTW anyone remember what the forests that were mowed down used to breathe?

David Amos
David Amos
@SarahRose Werner Geez I wish CBC would quit blocking me










SarahRose Werner 
Chris Spiers
Here is an idea. Refuse to pay the taxes. Just dont send a cheque. What are the Feds going to do?


SarahRose Werner
SarahRose Werner
@Chris Spiers - Withhold our equalization payments.

SarahRose Werner
SarahRose Werner
@SarahRose Werner - "Total major transfers to New Brunswick for 2019-20 will round to $3,157 million." https://www.fin.gc.ca/fedprov/2018-12-09/nb-eng.asp

Chris Spiers
Chris Spiers
@SarahRose Werner

Well maybe learn to stand on your own 2 feet in NB, instead of money from other parts of the country.

Maybe NB should stop giving the Irvings tax breaks.

David Amos
David Amos
@Chris Spiers "Here is an idea. Refuse to pay the taxes. Just dont send a cheque. What are the Feds going to do?"

Methinks Mr Higgs knows why I don't pay income taxes because the federal liberals deleted my SIN many moons ago Truth is stranger that fiction N'esy Pas?

SarahRose Werner
SarahRose Werner
I agree that we should stop giving the Irving's tax breaks. But are we giving them $18 million worth of tax breaks?



David Amos
David Amos











SarahRose Werner 
Chris Spiers
Wealth transferring is all the tax is.

Rich get richer, the poor get more, and the Middle class as per normal bare the brunt

No Libs come Oct 2019


David Amos
Content disabled.
David Amos 
 @Chris Spiers Methinks the Irving Clan don't pay much for taxes but the PCs made certain that they get big cheques from NB Power N'esy Pas?

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/new-brunswick/nb-power-first-full-rate-hearing-gets-questions-about-big-paper-mills-1.3114844

"Hickey registered to participate as a concerned citizen and was given wide latitude by EUB Chairman Ray Gorman to ask NB Power any questions he had, with the same standing as the corporate lawyer for Enbridge who went before him and the corporate lawyer for JD Irving who came after.

Hickey made the most of his chance.

I think the people of this province deserve to know.
- Gregory Hickey

He was especially curious about NB Power's Large Industrial Renewable Energy Purchase Program which was unveiled by the Alward government in 2011."


David Amos
David Amos
@Chris Spiers Too bad so sad that you could not read my reply



David Amos
David Amos
@Chris Spiers Methinks I should be permitted to say that folks should be curious about NB Power's Large Industrial Renewable Energy Purchase Program which was unveiled by the Alward government in 2011 N'esy Pas?











SarahRose Werner
SarahRose Werner
The feds are threatening to tax NB Power $18M. The feds also instituted climate action incentive payments. All you have to do to get yours is to file a 2018 tax return. There is no income phase out Based on the 2016 census figures, I'm calculating that NBers will be able to claim *at least* $65M. Even allowing for continuing population decline, we ought to get at least $60M. 60 > 18. Thank you, PM Trudeau.


David Amos
David Amos
@SarahRose Werner Methinks Mr Trudeau has a far bigger concern than his carbon tax plan with buddy Jody spouting off today N'esy Pas?



daryl doucette
daryl doucette
@David Amos cant wait to hear what she says




NB Power could face $18M carbon tax bill as Ottawa toughens approach

Bill would be six times higher in 2020 than 2019's bill, which the utility hadn't budgeted for


NB Power could face a significantly higher tax bill if the federal government takes a harsher approach to generating plants that burn coal or petroleum coke. (Michael Heenan/CBC)

Tougher federal treatment of generating stations that burn coal and petroleum coke, quietly being proposed for next January, could mean an $18 million carbon tax bill for NB Power in 2020 — up to six times more than it's paying this year.

It's an amount the utility has not budgeted for and could require additional rate increases to finance.
NB Power, which is already projecting little profit for itself over the next four years without factoring in carbon taxes, says it is waiting for more information before it plans for the expense, including whether the Blaine Higgs government can work out a deal on carbon pricing with Ottawa to avoid or mitigate the increase.





"The current plan does not have anything meaningful in there for that," NB Power chairman Ed Barrett told New Brunswick MLAs earlier this month about how the utility plans to deal with the cost of its greenhouse gas emissions.

"It's uncertain to us the posture that the shareholder [Higgs government] is going to take with respect to carbon tax in general. When they know, we'd sure like to know."

Utility expected low tax bill


Despite being the largest greenhouse gas producer in Atlantic Canada, NB Power's federal carbon tax bill for 2019 is expected to be low — about $3 million — thanks to generous but controversial credits offered to coal and petroleum coke-fired generating stations, like NB Power's plant in Belledune.

According to the federal Department of Environment and Climate Change, Belledune emits 838 tonnes of greenhouse gases for every gigawatt hour, equal to one million kilowatt hours, of electricity it produces.

Under currently proposed rules for 2019 carbon taxes on plants fuelled by coal or petroleum coke are exempt from paying tax on the first 800 tonnes of emissions per gigawatt hour of electricity they produce — up to 95 per cent of the emissions in Belledune's case.


Belledune emits 838 tonnes of greenhouse gases for every gigawatt hour, equal to one million kilowatt hours, of electricity it produces. (Jacques Poitras/CBC)
That favourable treatment caused controversy in Parliament and elsewhere when first reported in October, and in December the federal government proposed revised and much tougher treatment for power plants fired by coal or petroleum coke. The change would start next January, after this fall's federal election.

The new plan is to exempt only the first 650 tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions per gigawatt hour of electricity produced in 2020 and tighten the exemption every year until it reaches 370 tonnes in 2030.

​Belledune produces between 3,000 and 3,600 gigawatt hours of electricity per year and in 2020 will have to pay tax on an extra 500,000 tonnes of emissions at the rate of $30 per tonne.

That will increase NB Power's carbon tax bill 500 per cent, from about $3 million in 2019 to $18 million in 2020, if production levels at Belledune are not cut.

Utility struggling financially


NB Power has applied for an average 2.5 per cent rate increase for April 1, including a 2.9 per cent increase on residential customers.

Its application noted the amounts include no provision to deal with carbon costs as it waits for the federal government to finalize its proposed treatment of industry and for the province to announce any possible alternative that will be acceptable to Ottawa.

"While the federal government has currently rejected the government of New Brunswick's carbon pricing plan, the government of New Brunswick continues to develop a carbon pricing plan that  would meet federal guidelines," says the utility's application.

"Additional uncertainty around carbon pricing  exists due to the lack of published final regulations. These issues need to be fully understood to budget any carbon expense. As such, NB Power has not included a carbon cost in the budget."

NB Power is already in a financial bind and is projecting low profitability and a $108 million increase in its debt over the next four years, without any money set aside to pay carbon costs.


Blaine Higgs's Progressive Conservative government announced it was working on a 'made-in-New Brunswick' treatment for large emitters to avoid federal taxes but so far has not revealed a plan. (CBC)
Provinces that develop an alternative carbon pricing plan acceptable to Ottawa can escape federal taxes but so far, New Brunswick proposals have failed to win federal support.

The province has joined a court challenge to the federal program, and in December announced it was working on a "made-in-New Brunswick" treatment for large emitters to avoid federal taxes. So far, that plan has not been revealed or accepted.

Ottawa is still finalizing carbon tax exemption levels for industry, which are expected mid-year. Nevertheless, carbon taxes on industrial emitters took effect in the province on Jan. 1 at a rate of $20 per tonne on non exempt emissions.

That amount grows by $10 per tonne every Jan. 1, until reaching $50 per tonne in 2022.

About the Author

 


Robert Jones
Reporter
Robert Jones has been a reporter and producer with CBC New Brunswick since 1990. His investigative reports on petroleum pricing in New Brunswick won several regional and national awards and led to the adoption of price regulation in 2006. 



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