Friday, March 30, 2007

Alberta Energy Savings LP

I am in receipt of your letter of March 21 where you offer me 10.97 per kWh.

Looking back over the contracts since the switch from EPCOR it appears I have paid on average almost .03 cents per KWh above market for the electricity you supplied and you are asking for an additional .03 cents!.

Before we go any further I would appreciated it you could review and explain why such a markup (Above 30% and climbing is needed?)

Regards,
John Clark
cyberclark@shaw.ca

Thursday, March 22, 2007

Heritage Trust Fund? Good-By!

This tired old Government is up to the same old tricks, the same old game plan; forever deadly!

Alberta eyes big earning gains up to 500 million a year reads the half story headline.

Create a new crown corporation to take care of all the revenue invested pockets in our cupboard. Namely the Alberta Heritage and Trust Fund.

The crown corporation is the first step to turning the control and management of these funds over to private industry. Look what happened to the Crown Corporation Encana.

Here’s how it will shake down.

The Edmonton based power house investment crown corporation will be set up.

Running it will be good old Mazankowski (Great West Live, Lifeco and the Power Corporation) After this crew decides a decent mount of time has passed to allow people to go back to sleep they will offer public shares that cover a portion of the new corporation. At this point it becomes partially or all private.

In the meantime the funds become an experimental slush fund for GWL and Lifeco.

What happens when this new company does not perform?

That will work the same way as the electrical network. The taxpayer will make up the profits lost.

One third of this province voted in this batch of politicians.

If you want to change anything you must get out and vote!

cyberclark@shaw.ca
John Clark

Tuesday, March 13, 2007

Cost plus not good enough any more!

Old Ma ESSO is flipping her skirts again in regards to the Mackenzie Valley gas pipeline. ESSO, with the Harper Government in its pocket is after more money before starting the MacKenzie valley pipeline. Learning from the Alberta experience ESSO says "We expect double-digit returns on this kind of investment. We're not anywhere near that now." No risk, cost plus profit just isn’t good enough any more.

Gone is the plan that optimizes resources. In is the guaranteed profit for industry that is practiced in Alberta. The tar sands, the electrical generation, the electrical transmission lines and the pipelines all have profit guarantees in place, these same guarantees are guarded by the Energy Utilities Board of Alberta.

It doesn’t matter what the economy is; it doesn’t matter what you can afford to pay and it doesn’t matter what the price of that utility or service is worth elsewhere. The guarantees are in under this Government.

Many will view this item as support for the Conservatives.

John Clarkcyberclark@shaw.ca

Monday, March 12, 2007

Politican view of teachers strike.

Quote from Tom Thurber MLA Drayton Valley, Rtd.

“Teacher strikes are the most difficult of strikes for us in Government to deal with! The teachers time the strikes’ to hit during full school days. The Parents are left trying to hire help to look after their kids, effectively hire baby sitters.

These same parents push on Government for a quick resolve, pay anything with no regards at all for what is fair or market. To them, the parents, the cost does not matter. A very larger increase will affect their taxes by a dollar a month.

Where can they hire a sitter for a dollar a month? So, the Government capitulates and pays.”

I would like to see something fresh here. The Government stands for what is right for a change and stands for the taxpayer. Leave the teachers on strike as long as it takes.

John Clark
cyberclark@shaw.ca

Great power exports planned!

The AESO 10 year plan is interesting.

It shows 240 KV lines though out Alberta and a 500 KV line from Langdon (Calgary) to BC. It appears this province is planning for more export of power than we have need for our local and current use.

When new power is applied for we should be asking how much is for our use? How much of that power will be exported? Who is paying line fees on exported power?

The same plan calls for a major increase in the amount of wind power generated. Again who pays to service the export?

EPCOR tell me that a .06 kwh charge to you for power use on your utility bill will ultimately mean an additional .06 for power lines and “other costs” In other words, the cost of power is only 50% of your power bill.


John Clark

Friday, March 09, 2007

CO2 Pipline; for who?

I have been asked by several to weigh in on the Stelmach-Harper CO2 pipelines. Notably any other pipe lines in use now are paid for by the oil companies and industries involved. I can understand why you think neither is to be trusted!

Misc link:

Mr. Stelmach is saying the Alberta lines will be built and paid for by the Alberta Government. Under this provinces present agreement with the Oil Companies in the Tar Sands it really makes no difference. The taxpayer will pay by waiting for a “higher” (still nothing) royalty as the oil companies add the price of the pipe line to the start up costs.

Or, the tax payer can pay for it all up front and simplify the book keeping.

There is other slight of hand in this much to show about nothing.

The Government is having you think or ignore “Tar Sands” for use in this pipeline application. They are the ones sucking back all of our water and creating most of the emissions.


The formation holding the oil must be greater than 2500 feet (762 meters) This means the process will be used on older conventional oil fields which will get the free perk from the Conservatives courtesy of the tax payers. And, these same older oil fields will not be able to deduct pipeline construction from royalities so, the conservatives have found a way to pad their pockets otherwise.

Oil reservoir
depth must be greater than 2,500 ft (762 meter) to reach CO2 minimum miscibility pressure (MMP), which is a function of lithostatic pressure, bottom hole temperature, and oil composition.

An oil gravity greater than 27 degrees API with an oil viscosity less than 10 centipoise (cp) at reservoir conditions is ideal.

Formation porosity greater than 12% with an effective permeability to oil of greater than 10 millidarcies (md) is ideal.

The tar sands are very shallow. There is no way to sequester carbon dioxide in this process. The wells must be very deep as are those in Waybern Saskatchewan..

Also when the CO2 scrubs the oil in the deeper strata and becomes sequestered in the oil strata, the oil becomes effervescent somewhat like a can of pop. When the oil is extracted now by much of its own pressure the carbon dioxide is released again into the atmosphere.

The Conservatives are in a panic to get good press on an environment fix they have no interest in.

John Clark
cyberclark@shaw.ca
Newer Posts Older Posts a> Home