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Uneven electrical bills could create a National Electric Strategy

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5 minute read

Is it time to have or implement a National Electrical Strategy?

I live in Red Deer, a small city in Central Alberta. My electrical bill last month was $95.

The average household, according to Google, in Canada uses 972 KWHs monthly, but I used 848 KWHs last month, so if I had been an average user then my bill would have been $109.

My electrical bill shows that my electrical use cost only $32.40 while administration cost $6.99, distribution cost $25.90 transmission fees cost $23.86, include access fees, rate riders and balancing pool allocations and GST and my bill came to $95.

Talk of carbon taxes, green energy would increase my energy costs. Fine, increasing my energy costs by 10% would mean an increase of only $3.24 because all the other charges should not go up. Changing fuel or supply should not affect administrators, power lines, poles or switches.

I started requesting electric bills from homes in other parts of Alberta and the costs varied from 3.75/ kwh to 5.99/kwh and the other costs varied in name and amount for varying total costs per kwh from 11.7 to 15.75/kwh. So at 848 kwh my bill would go from $95 up to $133.56 depending on location.

Alberta is deregulated and you have options of providers. Floating and fixed rates, but the other fees are always added.

A home in Vancouver showed an average 11.37/kwh so my bill would be $96.50, very similar to my Alberta bill. Vancouver is vastly different and denser market. Vancouver has 5,249 people per km. or 2100 homes per square km.

Alberta has a population of 4,252,879 people in 640,081.87 sq. kms. For a density of 6.7 people per square km. or 2.7 homes per square km. So you would think that the costs would be astronomically higher to compensate for the vast distances, and the increased wiring, poles, and installation of such, but apparently not.

So I thought about Ontario. Population of 13,982.984 in 908,607 square kms of land. 15.4 people or 6.2 homes per square kms. More than twice the density of Alberta. The transmission and distribution costs should be equal to or less than sparsely populated Alberta. I started requesting power bills from home owners in Ontario, especially in rural Ontario.

The first bill came from Winchester, 40 kms. from Ottawa. It showed a monthly usage of 661.24 KWHs. Energy costs varied from 8.7/kwh of low peak to 18/kwh during high peak for energy cost of $79.06. Add in delivery charge of $65.41, regulatory fees and HST and the bill comes to $164.96. Or 25/kwh. My current bill would now be $211.55 if I lived in Winchester.

The second bill came from a family outside Chesterville. It showed higher usage, perhaps because of location, age of appliances or lifestyle. Energy use of 1281 KWHs for a bill of $278.93 or 22/kwh. My bill would then be $184.65 if I lived outside Chesterville.

Albertans get their power from natural gas (44%), coal (39%) and even hydro (6%) while Ontario get their power from Nuclear, (66%) and Hydro (22%) But in Alberta, we are expecting increases in our power bills due to carbon taxes, green initiatives and the new power lines being built to the southern border. Paid for by current users to provide power south of the border. Ontario has some similar changes and challenges ahead to incur expectations of increased costs. Is this proper?

Alberta is only 70% the size of Ontario, our population is only 30% of Ontario, yet Alberta power bills are substantially lower. Capitalists will tell you that larger markets like Ontario, means lower costs, as one would also expect with increased density as in this case, Ontario.

Alberta deregulated the electrical sector increasing competition. Would that help or exasperate the problem in Ontario? Should the vast majority of urban homes subsidize the rural users? Should a standard rate be applied to all in Ontario?

To recap with averages of 972 KWHs per home per month it would cost $110.61 in Vancouver B.C., $108.90 in Red Deer Ab., $242.48 in Winchester Ont. And $211.65 in Chesterville Ont. Definitely not a level playing field, is it?

Is it time for the Federal Government to create a National Electrical Strategy? We could at least study on it.

What do you think?

 

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Media

Top Five Huge Stories the Media Buried This Week

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#5 – CNN panel lectures America on military “accountability”… and then melts down when Scott Jennings points out that no one was held accountable for the disaster in Afghanistan or Biden’s open border.

NEERA TANDEN: “The military requires accountability. It’s the most accountable organization. You are supposed to be accountable to higher-ups. Politics isn’t supposed to have to do with any of this, and the fact that that’s happening, that they’re just basically saying nothing to do here, is a big problem, I think, for those who believe in accountability.”

@ScottJenningsKY: “I think Republicans aren’t interested in any lectures on accountability in the military after the Biden administration. I mean, the bar for getting rid of a Secretary of Defense is apparently pretty high. You can get 13 people killed and go AWOL and not tell the commander in chief, and that’s not a fireable offense.”

“But these lectures about accountability and national security after letting 10 million people into the country who raped and murdered and committed violent acts and no remorse or accountability.”

NEERA TANDEN: “What are you talking about? They closed the border.”

#4 – Bill Gates says we won’t need humans “for most things.”

During an appearance on The Tonight Show, Jimmy Fallon asked Gates a pretty direct question: “Will we still need humans?”

Gates responded, “Not for most things. We’ll decide … There will be some things that we reserve for ourselves, but in terms of making things and moving things and growing food, over time those will be basically solved problems.”

VIDEO: @TheChiefNerd

#3 – Rep. Jim Jordan hammers NPR CEO Katherine Maher for three straight minutes over political bias, the Hunter Biden laptop cover-up, and NPR’s 87-to-0 Democrat staff ratio.

REP JORDAN: “Is NPR biased?”

MAHER: “I have never seen any political bias.”

JORDAN: “In the DC area, editorial positions at NPR have 87 registered Democrats and 0 Republicans.”

MAHER: “We do not track the voter registration, but I find that concerning.”

JORDAN: “87-0 and you’re not biased?”

MAHER: “I think that is concerning if those numbers are accurate.”

JORDAN: “October 2020, the NYPost had the Hunter Biden laptop story, and one of those 87 Democrat editors said, ‘We don’t want to waste our readers and listeners’ time on stories that are just pure distractions.’ Was that story a pure distraction?”

Video + Transcript via @Kanekoathegreat

While you’re here, don’t forget to subscribe to this page for more weekly news roundups.

#2 – Utah becomes the first state to officially BAN fluoride in all public drinking water.

For decades, fluoride was accepted as a safe way to prevent tooth decay. Few questioned it.

But last year, in a dramatic legal twist, a federal judge ruled that fluoride may actually lower children’s IQ—and cited evidence that could upend everything we thought we knew.

That ruling sent shockwaves through the public health world.

Judge Edward Chen pointed to scientific studies showing a “high level of certainty” that fluoride exposure “poses a risk” to developing brains.

He ordered the EPA to reexamine its safety standards, warning that the margin for safety may be far too narrow.

At the center of the case: dozens of peer-reviewed studies linking everyday fluoride exposure—even at levels found in U.S. tap water—to reduced intellectual capacity in children.

It wasn’t just one paper. The National Toxicology Program, a branch of the U.S. government, also concluded that higher fluoride levels were “consistently associated” with lower IQ in kids.

They flagged 1.5 mg/L as a risk threshold. Some communities hover right near it.

In response to the growing evidence, Utah passed HB 81, banning all fluoride additives in public water.

The law takes effect May 7. It doesn’t ban fluoride completely. Anyone who wants it can still get it—like any other prescription.

And that’s the point: Utah’s lawmakers say this is about informed consent and personal choice.

This issue is no longer on the fringe. Across the country, cities and towns are quietly rethinking water fluoridation—and some have already pulled out. Utah is the first state to take bold action. It may not be the last.

The conversation surrounding fluoride has shifted from “Is it helpful?” to “Is it safe?” And for the first time in nearly a century, that question is being taken seriously.

VIDEO: @TheChiefNerd

#1 – RFK Jr. Drops Stunning Vaccine Announcement

Kennedy revealed that the CDC is creating a new sub-agency focused entirely on vaccine injuries—a long-overdue shift for patients who’ve spent years searching for answers without any support from the government.

“We’re incorporating an agency within CDC that is going to specialize in vaccine injuries,” Kennedy announced.

“These are priorities for the American people. More and more people are suffering from these injuries, and we are committed to having gold-standard science make sure that we can figure out what the treatments are and that we can deliver the best treatments possible to the American people.”

For years, the vaccine-injured have felt ignored or dismissed, as public health agencies refused to even acknowledge the problem. Now, there’s finally an initiative underway to investigate their injuries and to provide support.

Thanks for reading! This weekly roundup takes time and care to put together—and I do my best to make it your go-to source for the stories that matter most but rarely get the attention they deserve.

If you like my work and want to support me and my family and help keep this page alive, the most powerful thing you can do is sign up for the email list and become a paid subscriber.

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International

‘Lot Of Nonsense’: Kari Lake Announces Voice Of America Is Dumping Legacy Outlets

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From the Daily Caller News Foundation

By Hailey Gomez

Special Adviser for the U.S. Agency for Global Media (USAGM) Kari Lake announced Friday that Voice of America (VOA) will terminate its contracts with The Associated Press, Reuters, and Agence France-Presse.

VOA, an international broadcasting state media network, is funded by USAGM, with former President Joe Biden requesting in March 2024 a budget increase for the 2025 fiscal year to further support the radio network. In an X post on Friday, Lake announced USAGM will end its “expensive and unnecessary newswire contracts,” adding that some of the major agreements included “tens-of-millions of dollars in contracts” with AP News, Reuters and Agence France-Presse.

“USAGM is an American taxpayer funded News Organization with an 83-year history. We should not be paying outside news companies to tell us what the news is—with nearly a billion-dollar budget, we should be producing news ourselves,” Lake wrote. “And if that’s not possible, the American taxpayer should demand to know why.”

During a meeting with VOA staffers Friday, employees were reportedly told to “stop using wire service material for their reports,” according to Newsmax. Notably, audio, video, and text reports have often been used to supplement coverage from locations where reporters are not present, the outlet reported.

In an interview with Newsmax prior to the official contract cuts, Lake discussed how the agency was finding “a lot of nonsense that the American taxpayer shouldn’t be paying for.”

“Today, I started the process of terminating the agency’s contracts with the Associated Press, Reuters, & the Agence France-Presse. This will save taxpayers about 53 million dollars. The purpose of our agency is to tell the American story. We don’t need to outsource that responsibility to anyone else,” Lake wrote in an X post regarding the interview.

Disputes between The AP and the White House began in February after the corporate media outlet was revoked press access for refusing to call the Gulf of America by its new name. The AP filed a lawsuit on Feb. 21 against White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt, Chief of Staff Susie Wiles, and Deputy Chief of Staff Taylor Budowich for injunctive relief.

Lake was sworn in as USAGM’s special adviser on March 3, saying she’s “looking forward” to serving America and “streamlining” the agency. The cuts from the agency follow President Donald Trump’s push for his second administration to review the government’s wasteful spending.

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