From: brewnoser2@gmail.com   
      
   Tuesday, July 26, 2016   
      
   Nenshi blasts NDP's 'outrageous' power contract lawsuit involving Enmax   
      
      
   Deputy premier Sarah Hoffman is brushing away criticism from power companies   
   — and Mayor Naheed Nenshi — a day after the NDP government launched legal   
   action aimed at stopping the corporations from ditching money-losing contracts   
   with the province.   
      
   On Monday, the government filed suit asking the Court of Queen’s Bench to   
   declare void a provision in Alberta’s power purchase arragement (PPA)   
   regulations that allows companies to terminate contracts if there has been any   
   change in law that makes    
   the deals “more unprofitable,” with the province arguing the clause was   
   unlawfully enacted by the previous Tory government.   
      
   The government also wants the court to block Enmax’s termination of its   
   Battle River PPA, which was accepted by the Balancing Pool, an arms-length   
   government body.   
      
   Enmax issued a statement Monday saying it was “very disappointed” by the   
   government’s attempt to make retroactive changes to well-established   
   regulations and that it had broad concerns about the approach and “the   
   signals it sends for future    
   investment in Alberta.”   
      
   TransCanada and Capital Power also issued statements raising concerns about   
   the Notley government’s move.   
      
   But in an interview Tuesday, Hoffman offered little ground to the companies as   
   she reiterated that allowing the terminations to proceed could cost Albertans   
   an additional $2 billion on their power bills.   
      
   “Their job is to make money.  They made $10 billion because of these PPAs   
   and now they’re looking at having to cut into that profit by $2 billion,”   
   said Hoffman.   
      
   “Their job is to make money.  Our job is to protect Albertans.  I get why   
   they’re frustrated.  I get why they are not keen on having to potentially   
   pay this, but neither are Albertans.”   
      
   PPAs are contracts set up during the deregulation of Alberta’s electrical   
   system in 2000 that see buyers purchase power from generating companies and   
   then resell into the open market.   
      
   The government says the PPAs were originally written to allow for their   
   termination in cases where a change in law made a contract unprofitable.   
      
   It alleges that was improperly altered, at the behest of now-bankrupt American   
   electrical operator Enron, to also allow the contract to be ended if a change   
   in law made the PPA “more unprofitable.”   
      
   Since December, Enmax, TransCanada, AltaGas and Capital Power have announced   
   their intention to terminate all of their PPAs for coal-fired electricity,   
   citing the NDP government’s Jan. 1 increase to the carbon levy on large   
   emitters, the Specified Gas    
   Emitters Regulation.   
      
   Mayor Naheed Nenshi said he fully supported Enmax, which is owned by the city   
   of Calgary, in its fight with the provincial government.   
      
   “This suit is outrageous,” he said.   
      
   “We have the spectacle of the provincial government suing itself because   
   apparently it didn’t know its own policies that have been in place for 15,   
   16 years and that Enmax has been abiding by.”   
   ___________________________________________   
      
   . . . . But 'abiding by those rules' only when it was profitable to do so, eh   
   Mayor Nenshi?   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)