Media Clipping – Thursday, January 25, 2007, The Chronicle-Herald

Affordable energy must be on table, interveners say

By CLARE MELLOR Business Reporter

Issues around energy affordability and environmental impact should take priority over hearings to consider a fuel adjustment mechanism, says a group of interveners who plan to file written submissions to the Nova Scotia Utility and Review Board this week.

The group, which includes the Affordable Energy Coalition, the Ecology Action Centre, Genuine Progress Index Atlantic and a local resident, is questioning the need for the government regulator to hold hearings to consider a way to adjust fuel costs to power bills automatically.

In an exchange for a cut in its latest rate request, NSP wants the regulators to hold hearings on how such a fuel cost mechanism could be implemented

A settlement agreement on electricity rates, now being considered by the utility and review board, requires the board to hold these hearings no later than July 15.

"It seems to me that any further discussions on how to manage fuel costs are inappropriate if we are not first considering how to maximize our potential to not have to incur these fuel costs through energy efficiency and renewable energy," Brendan Haley, energy co-ordinator for the Ecology Action Centre, said in a news release Wednesday. For some time, the centre has been calling for Nova Scotia to develop an energy efficiency policy and to assess the viability of specific renewable energy projects, he said.

Genuine Progress Index Atlantic, a non-profit research and education organization in Nova Scotia has devised 30 economic, social, health, environmental and institutional indicators to measure progress in the province's energy sector and says the board needs to look at the whole electricity picture.

"The impacts of our existing energy system and changes to the current structure must be examined in the context of a full cost assessment," Clare Levin, a GPI Atlantic spokeswoman, said in a news release.

The Affordable Energy Coalition argues that electricity rate increases create a disproportionate burden on the poor.

The coalition had been set to argue before the board that the Public Utilities Act violates the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms by discriminating against low-income groups. But that case was separated from the current rate application hearing, and a date has not yet been set to consider the matter.

The interveners said Wednesday that they often lack the financial resources to fully participate in the regulatory hearings.

( cmellor@herald.ca )

© 2007 The Halifax Herald Limited