In last week’s editions of the Westlock News and the Town & Country, you might have seen advertisements from the NDP government entitled “Protecting Albertans against unfair power bills.”
In those ads, the NDP government lays out the case for going to court over the so-called “Enron clause,” which allows electricity companies to walk away from the Power Purchase Agreements (PPAs) that the Progressive government introduced in 2000.
The idea of the Enron clause, which the NDP claims was effectively “snuck in” by the now-defunct U.S. company of the same name, was to allow electricity providers to walk away from the PPAs if the government brought in laws that made the companies “unprofitable.”
That’s exactly what happened earlier this year, not long after the NDP announced it would be doubling the carbon levy on large emitters of greenhouse gas emissions.
The NDP are now fighting a battle on two fronts: they’re trying to overturn these contracts in court, and they’re fighting a public relations battle with Opposition forces who claim they really should have known about this clause before pushing forward with the controversial carbon levy.
It would probably be fair to say the carbon levy is unpopular with a lot of Westlock News readers, and thus you’ll probably join in blaming the NDP government for putting taxpayers on the hook for $2 billion.
And you’re not totally wrong. They’re in government; the onus falls on them to know what laws they have on the books.
That said, they’re not totally wrong in blaming either the previous Progressive Conservative government or even the current PC party.
The previous PC government effectively made us hostages of the power companies. And the current PC party said nothing in the months leading up to the introduction of the carbon levy.
When did the PCs ever say “Well, there’s this escape clause that could result in a huge bill for taxpayers” before the levy was introduced?
