Summary
Ontario will impose a 25% surcharge on electricity exports to New York, Michigan, and Minnesota starting Monday in retaliation for Trump’s tariffs on Canadian goods.
Premier Doug Ford warned U.S. governors and vowed to maintain the surcharge until all tariffs are lifted.
Canada has already imposed $30 billion in retaliatory tariffs, with more planned.
Ford also threatened to cut power to the states by April and banned U.S. firms from bidding on Ontario contracts. A $100M SpaceX deal for rural internet was also scrapped in response.
It will likely take awhile for this to have any effect. I know at least in my state (ME) the utility needs to give a 30 day notice of rate hike and then that needs to then go to committee within public utility commission, who will basically arbitrate the request for increase.
Consequently, my supplier of electricity is a wholly owned Canadian company…so they’d actually be paying the increase until a rate hike was approved. Also, would a punitive rate hike even be approved?
They have enough trouble getting a 1% rate hike though for building infrastructure.
Edit: Although I’m not up to speed on if the affected states have set rates or variable rates.
On the other hand there are logging trucks piling up at the border on the golden road right now!
Sucks for us. We deserve it.
The same strange dichotomy exists there as well. It’s likely the logging trucks are employed by Irving, pulling logs from Irving owned forests going to Canadian mills. Irving of course being a Canadian company. It really shows how intertwined we are with the Canadian economy and how stupid this trade war is…
Personally I saw this coming and invested in a smallish solar setup last fall. Hopefully build it out this summer to help deal with the energy shock. Also using oil to heat, which is refined in Canada, so long term need to get a heat pump and add more panels.