By: jamie Ballem

jamie Ballem — Sun, 11 Jul 2010 16:40:03 +0000

Dear Editor,
I would like to respond to letter published in your May/June issue from Ian McQueen and also to the letter on your website from Darren Steeves. Both letters are almost identical in the wording used so I suspect there is one author???
I found both letters amusing since they are critical of your magazine for not doing any research but yet both gentlemen use numbers that are totally wrong which is more than a little ironic!
Since I am mentioned in both letters as using invalid statements I would like to offer up the following;
The average price of electricity in PEI is not 17c/kwh as claimed by the two authors, the top residential price was as high as 16 cents (now 13.65c/kwh) and some industrial rates are below 10 cents. This is public information if the 2 critics took the time to check. Yes I was a Dairy Farmer and proud of it but I am not sure what that has to do with the article except that maybe these 2 have negative concepts about farmers? What I do know is that if the highest number is 16 then the average cannot be 17?
The next comment is the true cost of wind energy is 19c/kwh. I have no idea where that number comes from except from an oil industry that does not want to see locally produced energy from free fuel (wind). The energy sold to Maritime Electric is around 8c/kwh now and the Energy Corp makes a profit. Check the auditor Generals report for PEI, again public if someone took the time to check.
My question, who funds Climate Truth Initiative, this group is always against locally produced renewable energy. You tell me?
Jamie Ballem
Island Green Power

By: Darrin Steeves

Darrin Steeves — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 13:23:13 +0000

I like receiving the Atlantic Business Magazine because it feels so rich to the touch because of the highest quality of newsprint used. I want to comment on your feature report called “Whistling in the Wind” because is mainly a wish list from PEI’s Minister of Environment, Energy and Forestry, Richard Brown, who isn’t our sharpest knife on the Island. Firstly, the true cost of producing wind power is 19 cents per kilowatt/hour while the Province via the PEI Energy Corp. sells it to Maritime Electric for the bargain rate of 7.75 cent per kilowatt/hour and Island consumers pay an average price of about 17 cents per KH.for electrical power. Green energy is expensive and will never be cheaper than conventional sources. Today, Maritime Electric gets about 18 per cent of their total from wind energy so the cost of power to consumers has steadily increased not decreased every year since. The PEI’s Minister of Energy’s dream of energy swaps with other Provinces for wind power is not likely to happen because producing and selling power is all about profit and not good will. Most of the statements made by Jamie Ballum, once a dairy farmer, next a Binns Conservative Cabinet Minister and now an energy consultant are equally invalid. It’s unfortunate the writer Nicholas Oakes neglected to interview people like Malcolm Lodge who are experts concerning the facts and fiction concerning wind power on PEI because he ran the original test site at West Cape about 20 years ago. I like reading articles about PEI but this one lacked sufficient research and left the false impression with readers that the solution to our energy needs is wind power while it isn’t and never will be.

Comments on: PEI: Energy Self-Sufficiency

By: jamie Ballem

By: Darrin Steeves