Nova Scotia Power Plans To Raise Electricity Rates 3% in 2013 and 3% in 2014

News Of Nova Scotia Power Rate Increase Not Going Over Well With Public

Nova Scotia Power has applied to have an increase of 3% to all residential power bills starting in February of 2013 and again in February of 2014. This has thrown the public into an uproar wondering, Why Us, when we as a province, already pay the highest amount per kilowatt hour of any province in Canada. While this is true, how can anyone argue that the increase is unjustified? The annual inflation rate in Canada has averaged 3.25% since the 1920s which would account for the increase in price without going any further. If everyone else in the country can start charging more for their good and services, why cant Nova Scotia Power. Most people, especially if you belong in a union, get raises almost every year. I am sure that all of the blue collar workers at Nova Scotia Power do as well. That has to be fixed into the prices in some way or another.

Nova Scotia Power Executives Getting Ridiculous Raises

Rob Bennett CEO of Nova Scotia Power got a 23% raise and is set to bring home over 1.1 million dollars when you factor in bonuses and benefits into his salary. Their chief financial officer, Judy Steele, saw her compensation more than double to 730,000 dollars. Chris Huskilson, the head honcho at Emera, saw his compensation rise 20% to 2.99 million dollars. Not chump change. While these raises are hard to wrap your head around, these salaries really aren’t that out of the ordinary in the industry. If you look across the country, you could find dozens of CEOs of oil, gas, and power companies who make significantly more money than the people who run our provinces power. If the salaries weren’t competitive, what would keep these CEOs from jumping ship and moving across the country to the promised lands of Alberta or Saskatchewan to make a better living? Do we blame oil rig workers out of high school for moving West to make more money and better their lives? No, but we do sometimes hear people complaining that the West is stealing a good portion of our employable youth. This is a case where Emera and Nova Scotia Power are saying that they believe that they have the best people in their positions and they don’t want to lose them to the West, so they reward them to stay. If it means that more competent people are running our provincial power company, hey why not.

Nova Scotia Power Rate Increase Will Cost Normal House Hold An Additional $3-4 Per Month

The 3% increase that Nova Scotia Power is applying for will work out to cost the average household about 3 or 4 extra dollars a month, which over the course of the year does add up to almost $50. Not a huge number, but certainly noticeable. My suggestion is this. With all of the programs which are being held by Efficiency Nova Scotia, our government, and Nova Scotia Power, work to get your power usage down 3-4% per month to off set the increase. It’s not that hard. Take out the old fashioned light bulbs. Buy the new aged fluorescent bulbs which use a fraction of the power of the older style. Hang your clothes out on the line on sunny days. Turn your heat down at night. Open your window at night instead of using the air conditioner. Upgrade old appliances and windows. There are literally hundreds of ways to reduce your power bill. Nova Scotia Power wants you to. They tell you exactly how on their website. Why can’t people take a bit of responsibility for their consumption and the amount that they pay themselves?

Annapolis Valley Residents Have Even Less Of A Reason To Complain

Cartoon About Peoples Fears Of Wind Turbines

Residents of the Annapolis Valley and in particular Kings county have even less of a reason to complain. After fighting so hard to get a moratorium placed on wind farms in the Valley, how can we complain about the cost of power, or that our power corporation is using coal to generate power. Everyone is always complaining about global warming and wanting to be more green, but when it comes time to put our money where our mouth is too many people chose not to inconvenience themselves and figured that other counties could cover us in the quest to go green. While the costs of setting up wind turbines obviously are extensive, and it wouldn’t by any means lower our energy rates right  away, long term it is the better solution for green, affordable energy.

Peoples concerns about the health concerns of these structures are incredible. Sure if you google health risks of wind turbines you will find something. Probably several million results. Hell, if you google President Obama Nude, you will get 35.2 million results, but guess what. They are all bull crap. These structures are all over Europe and other parts of the world. In much more crowded areas than where the companies looking to invest millions of dollars in our area were looking to place them. They are on beaches, in towns and villages, all over the place. I haven’t heard about any big wind turbine epidemics hitting Europe yet, so lets just assume we are safe. The noise that is given off by them is minimal. The money that could have been invested in our area and the jobs created was major. How this managed to get passed through our Kings County Council I am not sure. Every citizen who wasn’t there to fight for the wind turbines to be ok’ed in our area is partially to blame. We need to let our elected members know that this is not alright. We need greener energy and we need jobs and money invested in our area.

I think people in general need to put their heads on straight and realize that there are bigger topics at hand than a 3% increase on our power bills put in place by Nova Scotia Power.