Introduction- Nova Scotians are angry about the increases in electricity rates from NSPI over the last several years. Electricity rates increased by almost 58%1 from 2001 to 2012. Most of these increases occurred before 2009, but the latest rounds have incensed Nova Scotians more than ever as stories of Emera’s record profits and million dollar salaries for top executives along with requests for annual rate increases make them particularly galling.
The controversy misses the real underlying issue and it threatens to de-rail significant progress in reducing Green House Gas emissions and other pollutants. It threatens to return Nova Scotia to an old way of thinking that prevents innovation and environmental progress. We must change this way of thinking to embrace a healthier, more affordable, more innovative and more sustainable future.
Nova Scotians have been gripped by cycles of public anger about energy prices for decades. But real energy affordability is about energy costs compared to income and not energy prices. This reality is very well described in “Energy Cost Politics and the Environment in NS” written by former EAC staff member Brendan Haley in 2010 for the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives. Haley explains: “… energy prices are only one component of consumer energy costs. Our energy bills are determined by both price and how much energy we use; including the energy we waste.” He further writes: “Energy bills themselves only become unmanageable when they are too high relative to the income of a household or business.”
While the increase in electrical prices has caused widespread concern, low income Nova Scotians who pay more than 3% of their income on electricity (or 6% if they heat their homes electrically) are most severely affected. They are most likely to face the stark choice of heating or eating, medications or lights. This is also true for Nova Scotians who heat with oil the price of which has gone up even faster than the price of electricity. Any measures to address the price of electricity must change the conversation to look at energy costs instead – how much our bills are instead of what the price is. They must also address how those costs affect people with different incomes. They must address the right to energy cost security - the ability of every Nova Scotian to secure energy required for food preparation, warmth, hot water and light.
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