05.15.2011 02:57 PM

Timmy Hudak: caught lying, again, about power

“Tory Leader Tim Hudak likes to tell a tale of woe when he gives his standard hydro speech. Pull up a chair and sit down. It goes like this:

At the podium, he paints a picture of Ontario families huddling in the early-morning chill of winter so that sleepy-eyed children can get a hot shower before dawn – all to avoid getting soaked by punitive hydro rates.

“Instead of savings on their hydro bill, families are seeing long lines at the bathroom as budget-conscious families struggle to get everybody showered before 7 a.m. when the prices go up,” he told a recent party fundraising dinner.

That Dickensian image was hard to fathom for the donors who paid up to $1,500 a plate to hear Hudak speak last month. And it’s a stretch for the vast majority of Ontarians with gas-fired – not electric – hot-water heaters.”

27 Comments

  1. Liz J says:

    ?????????

  2. Patrick Hamilton says:

    Required reading for all Hudak luddites and/or dinosaurs: http://www.walrusmagazine.com/articles/2010.05-environment-the-new-grand-tour/

    • allegra fortissima says:

      Not a Hudak luddite and/or dinosaur, but none the less I loved the article – Thank you 🙂

      • Patrick Hamilton says:

        It is an excellent article, isnt it?…..Kind of gives me hope for the future, if people have the courage to act…..I wish our Premier was as forward thinking as Mr. McGuinty……

        • Ottawacon says:

          Article is now very dated. The Spanish FIT has all but collapsed, mostly because the Government has had to exit every obligation it possibly could, and the German one has flatlined in the face of the need for a replacement for nuclear. Grand tour is probably an appropriate title, as that always did involve dilettantes running around scratching the surface and then coming home to pose as an authority.

          • Patrick Hamilton says:

            Perhaps, but Germany is still looking ahead, we should be too, imho…….

            Wind power
            Wind farm in BernburgSee main article: Wind power in Germany
            Closely after the USA, Germany is the world’s second largest user of wind power with an installed capacity of 23,903 MW by the end of 2008,[12] ahead of Spain which had an installed capacity of 16,740 MW.[13] 20,301 wind turbines are located in the German federal area and the country has plans to build more wind turbines.[14]

            In 2009, 6.5% of Germany’s total electricity consumption was satisfied by wind power. 867 wind power plants were constructed in 2008, and 952 more in 2009. At the end of 2009, Germany possessed 21,614 wind power plants. Their installed electricity production capacity was 25,777 MW.[15] However this is a theoretical maximum, the actual output is vastly smaller.

            Wind power currently produces about seven percent of Germany’s total power and it is said[by whom?] that no other country has more technological know-how in this area. Wind power in Germany provides over 70,000 people with jobs and German wind energy systems are also exported.[14] However, the economics of wind power in Germany are under close scrutiny[16] and there are other issues which deserve consideration. These include the effect of wind turbines on the landscape, the effect on the bird population, and the effect on the tourist industry.[14]

            Following the 2011 Japanese nuclear accidents, Germany’s federal government is working on a new plan for increasing energy efficiency and renewable energy commercialization, with a particular focus on offshore wind farms. Under the plan large wind turbines will be erected far away from the coastlines, where the wind blows more consistently than it does on land, and where the enormous turbines won’t bother the inhabitants. The plan aims to decrease Germany’s dependence on energy derived from coal and nuclear power plants.[17]

            From Wikipedia…

        • Patrick Hamilton says:

          @Mr. Tulk…..no one said that they were basing their economy on wind power completely….What part of “plan aims to decrease Germany’s dependence on energy derived from coal and nuclear power plants” did you not understand?

          Its not the be all and end all, but an adjunct, capiche, pointdexter?……

    • allegra fortissima says:

      …uninformed blather by an armchair commentator

    • Patrick Hamilton says:

      Yes lets see it, Mr. Tulk…..I am sure they will continue to have a much higher quality of life than us if we dont change our ways of doing things….but just carry on with your head in the(tar) sands,

      many of us would like to see things done differently in this world…….

      Your way of thinking is just anothe reason why I left the Conservative Party…..You folks wont be happy til youve done everything you can to ensure future generations are left with a shit hole….But why worry when the second comings right around the corner, eh Mr. Tulk?

      The article must be striking a nerve if a number of your ilk have responded to it…..

      • ottawacon says:

        I am hardly against renewable power, I work in the field – and i think Gord does not understand wind power. If grid operators applied the same inflexibility to load management that is suggested around wind to the ramp-up time of coal generation, the grid would be a disaster. But that article sucked. It was published almost exactly when the Spanish FIT program basically collapsed, and it was in crisis when the article was researched.

  3. AmandaM says:

    Here’s my situation as a person living in a home in central Toronto:

    1. Energy prices are going up. We, as a province, are paying for a shift to clean energy. It’s a societal decision. Energy is not free – it must be paid for by the people who use it. I think we can all agree by now that cleaner sources of energy are best.
    2. Before I had a smart meter, I was charged the average of what usage in my neighbourhood is.
    3. I live in a mixed neighbourhood where there are a lot of young families with children at home during the day with parents/nannies and seniors who are at home during the day. Energy is most expensive in the daytime – has been since I first started paying a hydro bill in 2001.
    4. I am not at home during the day and do not use as much energy as a four-person family with two or three people at home in the daytime.
    5. In 2001, I was renting a house that used to have a family with people at home during the day living in it, and Toronto Hydro was charging me the yearly average (/12) of the previous tenants’ usage. Apparently, I was to get a refund at the end of the year for energy not used. That meant Toronto Hydro was making interest on my payments each month and they did not refund me at the end of the year as I moved to another apartment that had utilities included – there was no bill to credit and they did not offer refund cheques.
    6. Unless I called Toronto Hydro and required them to come and read the meter each month and/or read the meter myself and reported it, the status quo is average billing. I did not know this until I called after 8 months to ask why my bill was so high as I was not at home in the day and am a conservationist.
    7. Obviously, the average of my neighbourhood is higher than my ACTUAL usage, and Toronto Hydro was getting more money from me than energy I was using. Not to mention the previous tenants issue.
    8. In September, 2009 I moved into a house with a smart meter. I only pay for my ACTUAL usage each month, which is exactly what I should be paying for. My bills are relatively low because I conserve energy and am not at home in the daytime. I have no complaints as a single mother living in a house in Toronto about my hydro bill. However, I appreciate the help that the Premier has given, despite not really needing it.
    9. Gas is another story, but the house is leaky (as per an energy auditor) and crude prices, and a cold winter, pushed our bills up over the $300 mark each month this year when they were $150 or so last year.
    10. Yet another reason why I will vote for Kathleen Wynne in October – I pay for what hydroI use, accept that cleaner energy is costlier, but worth it in the long run, and life goes on.

    In closing, smart meters help us understand what we use, only pay for exactly what we use (instead of some average that Toronto Hydro makes you opt out of – like Rogers’ negative billing), and I simply cannot see a downside to them. I would say the same thing no matter what political stripe they had come from. Anything that helps people understand more about the resources they use, and paying only for what they use, is a good thing in my books.

  4. RN200 says:

    Gas-fired not electric? That’s the best you can do for “yet another Hudak lie” – let’s shorten that to YAHL because we know you’ll be stretching and grasping weakly for YAHL daily until October.

    Thankfully we don’t need to stretch, grasp, twist, turn, cajole, or manufacture any of Dalton’s lies – you can swing a bloody cat without hitting 5 of ’em.

    Beginning with – “I promise no new taxes. Here’s a Health Fee.”

    Can’t wait for your next YAHL post. Need my daily laugh.

  5. Patrick Hamilton says:

    Try reading the above article…….I think you fit the criteria…….

  6. ben burd says:

    Smart meters: the new photo radar election image. In other words a political football designed by apparatchiks in the back room to get votes. Remember how the pledge to eliminate PR propelled Mike into power? Timmy is trying to replicate the image. The truth is the Smart Meters have diddly to do with prices, they may even help dumb users get to know the price of hydro. The price is the issue not the device but in a very clever election move the image is now connected to Timmy. Some one in the back room is a helluva lot smarter than him to figure this one out.

  7. JenS says:

    Sorry – when I said “availability” above, I meant available price.

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