Canadian Energy Law : Lawyers & Attorneys for Environmental Energy Law

Dan Murdoch

On April 29, 2008, the Ontario Energy Board (OEB) released its decisions on Natural Gas Storage Allocation Policies for Enbridge Gas Distribution Inc. and Union Gas Limited (EB-2007-0724 and 0725). An oral hearing had taken place December 17-20, 2007.

The hearing addressed certain issues arising from the OEB's 2006 Natural Gas Electricity Interface Review (NGEIR) decision, in which the OEB had ordered Union and Enbridge to submit new storage allocation policies on the basis that existing rules, in particular Union's policy of applying the aggregate excess method for semi-unbundled customers, were not consistently applied. The aggregate excess method permits customers with seasonal loads to balance constant supply, allowing them to inject storage all summer and then withdraw all winter.

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Kerri Howard and Lisa McDowell

As part of the Government of Alberta's commitment to address "unintended consequences" of the New Royalty Framework announced in October 2007 (the Framework), the Alberta Department of Energy (Alberta Energy) recently introduced two new royalty programs and certain other amendments affecting royalty calculations.

The two new royalty programs are designed to encourage the continued development of deep, high-cost oil and gas reserves, in light of identified concerns that some deep oil and gas reserves had the potential of becoming uneconomic under the Framework. These programs are expected to be implemented on January 1, 2009 with the other Framework programs.

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Amy Hu and Kirsten Iler

At a joint cabinet meeting held in Quebec City in early June, Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty and Quebec Premier Jean Charest signed a Memorandum of Understanding with respect to a provincial and territorial cap and trade initiative. The accord sets out the two provinces' plans to create an interprovincial cap and trade system for the trading of emissions credits, which could be implemented as early as 2010.

The accord explicitly rejects the use of the intensity-based targets (i.e., per unit of production) such as those used in the federal government's green plan called Turning the Corner. Instead, like the Kyoto Protocol, the system proposed by the two Premiers would set caps based on absolute greenhouse gas reductions using a 1990 baseline.  The federal framework uses 2006 as its baseline year and, as noted, rejects hard caps on emissions in favour of intensity-based reduction targets.

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Patrick G. Duffy

The Ontario Divisional Court recently ruled in Advocacy Centre for Tenants-Ontario v. Ontario Energy Board that the Ontario Energy Board (OEB) has the authority to implement a low-income affordability plan as part of its rate-setting function.

The issue arose in an application to the OEB for approval a utility's gas distribution rates on a cost of service basis. One of the intervenors, the Low Income Energy Network ("LIEN"), requested that OEB include on the issues list whether the utility's residential rates should include a rate affordability assistance program for low-income consumers. A majority of the OEB rejected the issue on the basis that it was outside of the OEB's jurisdiction.
 

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