Oil tycoon takes on Ontario Green Energy Act over wind farm

[CHIMO]

Source: Globe and Mail

Ontario’s controversial green energy policy is facing a new assault as famed oilman tycoon T. Boone Pickens has launched a $775-million NAFTA challenge alleging the government has discriminated against his privately owned wind energy company.

With the Dallas-based Mesa Power Group’s action, the Liberal government is now fighting multi-front battles over its Green Energy Act and the feed-in tariff that pays renewable energy companies premium prices for electricity – so long as they procure a percentage of the goods and services in the province.

Ontario Conservative Leader Tim Hudak has vowed to kill the Green Energy Act if his party wins the October election, while Japan has challenged the act’s local procurement rules at the World Trade Organization.

On Thursday, Mesa filed a notice of intent to launch challenge under the North American Free Trade Agreement, claiming the Ontario government arbitrarily changed a policy that designated which wind companies would get access to critical transmission hookups.



Read more: http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/industry-news/energy-and-resources/boone-pickens-challenges-canada-on-green-energy-plan/article2097575/

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http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/politics/second-detroit-windsor-bridge-faces-opposition/article2098158/

[jwirr]

1. Not quite sure what to think about this. I have never trusted Pickens.

Interested in seeing the follow up posts.

[applegrove]

2. I wonder if the National conservative party is toning down their batshitness

just until the Ontario election is over so as not to spook the Ontario electorate who hated Mike Harris back in 1995?

[saras]

3. Every attempt to make the transition can expect these fights from conservatives...

and yet another reason NAFTA was a bad idea

[Monk06]

4. Unless the green energy produced in Ontario is being exported to the US, Pickens has no case.

Provinces can set their own rules for products produced and
sold within their own boundaries.

[WatsonT]

5. Apparently the whole country can be in trouble for the actions of provinces

if those actions violate previous trade agreements.

Under NAFTA rules, foreign investors can sue the federal government if provinces discriminate against them. Provinces can have local content rules for their own procurement programs, but both Mesa and the Government of Japan argue the electricity contracts do not count as provincial procurement.

“Provinces are directly bound but Canada is bound and Canada can be found to be in violation of its trade obligations as a result of actions by the province,” said trade lawyer Lawrence Herman with Toronto-based Cassels Brock & Blackwell LLP .

So he may have a case.

[Kingofalldems]

6. Defend those conservatives! Yeah!

[KurtNYC]

7. Post #5 is citing reality

Sarcasm is a waste of pixels.

[WatsonT]

8. It's a statement of fact

do you propose rewriting or ignoring facts if they don't suit your beliefs?