Canada may soon receive the worldwide prize for being the most difficult jurisdiction to build energy projects in. This is particularly the case with pipelines. In the last five years, investors have walked from four major projects. In total they accounted for over $50 billion in investment.
Restructuring of the Alberta electrical power market, which began in the late 1990s, continues to evolve. In the lead article in this issue of Energy Regulation Quarterly, “A Tale of Two Market Designs: What’s New in Alberta”, Bob Heggie discusses the current initiative to reshape the role of market forces in the wholesale electricity market through the introduction of an administered capacity market, while the Alberta Utilities Commission is examining whether and how market forces can be brought to bear in the, traditionally monopolistic, distribution infrastructure function[…]
Each year when we write this Annual Review we face the same issues. The first issue on the list is always pipelines. In the 2016 Annual Review the first heading was “The Pipeline Delays are Over”. Last year, the first heading of the review was “Pipeline Delays are Back”. This year, the first heading is “Pipeline Delays Continue”[…]
Public policy is all too often driven by a perceived need to respond urgently to a ‘crisis’ – to be seen to be doing ‘something’. Insufficient attention is sometimes paid to analyzing the real nature of the problem at hand, with the result that legislative and regulatory responses frequently overreach[…]
As this issue of Energy Regulation Quarterly goes to press, the federal Parliament is proceeding with legislation that would radically restructure the regulatory framework for major energy projects under federal jurisdiction, including in particular interprovincial and international pipelines […]