How the Liberals drove electricity prices up 100%

Two hits of "Ontario's Power Trip" in one day, as Parker Gallant has an article, providing an excellent overview of recent electricity sector planning history, at the Financial Post site today (in addition to Bruce Sharp's article I noted earlier).

I wrote a little over a year ago that "The Green Energy Act essentially ended the electricity planning in Ontario being done by Ontario’s civil servants."

Ontario’s Power Trip: How the Liberals drove electricity prices up 100% — by Parker Gallant | FP Comment | Financial Post:

Back on March 31, 2004, Energy Minister Dwight Duncan uttered these words in the Ontario Legislature in response to a question on the Liberals energy policy;
“If we address energy policy in a responsible way, our economy will prosper and our families will have a stronger Ontario in which to grow. Our initiatives include aggressive conservation, new supply and accountability at our Crown corporations. Bill 15 will help us meet our goals on accountability and transparency.”
At that point in Ontario’s history the unemployment rate sat at 6.6% (February 2004) and today (September 2012) the unemployment rate is 7.9%.
It is important to take a look at how that “energy policy” has emerged over the last eight years to determine if the initiatives Minister Duncan talked about actually accomplished the goals he mentioned."
By March 24, 2005 Minister Duncan had created the Ontario Power Authority (OPA) and issued the first of his many “directives” telling the OPA exactly what to do. In all, Minister Duncan issued 19 directives during his time in the energy chair, ordering the OPA to do various things in respect to conservation, contracting for renewable energy, etc. The directive he issued on June 13, 2006 was the one that instructed the OPA to develop an Integrated Power System Plan (IPSP).

Continue reading at the Financial Post: