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On December 17, 2002, Canada ratified the Kyoto Protocol, committing itself to reducing its greenhouse gas emissions by 6 percent of 1990 levels. This paper argues that nuclear power must [...]

Using the Canadian coal industry as a case study, the author discerns that in some cases excess rent is collected by the government, and in other cases less rent than appropriate is collected.

The industrial structure of the manufacturing industry failed to account for the intensity disparities between the ten chosen countries of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. The major cause for the disparity seems to be the way processing is handled in each nation. It was established that an international correlation of energy intensity, at the aggregate stage, yields deceiving findings relative to energy efficiency and the class of technology utilized in a specific country.

A comparison of the energy policies of Canada, Mexico and the US shows that government attention to the promotion of biomass as an alternative energy resource range from poor to impressive. Mexico has yet to formulate a biomass energy program while Canada has left biomass technology development to market forces and private industry after supporting it through the 1970s and 1980s. In contrast, the US government remains supportive of biomass energy.

Canadian communities have increased their investigations into the uses of combined heat and power (CHP), due mostly to efforts by municipal power companies. The examples of Vancouver and Edmonton are cited to illustrate the elements that promote public acceptance of CHP for applications beyond the traditional industry uses for steam and electricity production. Marketing and financing strategies are outlined.

In the past few decades, crown electrical utilities have exhausted available economies of scale. At marginal-cost prices, the utilities could recover costs and even a rent. Yet the available rents have not been collected through economically efficient pricing, but distributed to consumers through low prices. Who benefits from this policy? Second-best prices are found subject to the constraint that profits are nil, and are compared to actual-pricing formulas. The results are used as informal tests of various theories of public decision-making. Most theories provide a partial, but no theory provies a complete, explanation of pricing behaviour. (Reprinted by permission of the publisher.)

Over a decade ago, the federal Liberal government announced one of the most controversial policy initiatives in Canadian history, the National Energy Program (NEP). The bargaining that followed the NEP's announcement on October 28, 1980 is easily recalled; intense disagreements focussed on economic, partisan and, ultimately, constitutional issues. While these events have stimulated a wide range of investigations, a prominent gap exists in the scholarship: very few studies adopt a game-theoretic perspective. In seeking to explain strategic interaction over energy policy, such an approach might increase understanding of the difficult political processes surrounding the NEP in a wider context. These are five stages to the game-theoretic investigation that follows. First, a brief history of the phase of confrontation is provided. Second, the game-theoretic interpretation is presented in general terms, including participants, strategies and potential outcomes. Relevant measurements are derived in the third phase. In the fourth stage, the process of a sequential game is analyzed, in both abstract and operational terms. Fifth, and finally, policy-related implications of the analysis are discussed, along with possible directions for further research.

STRATEGY, PLANNING AND COSTING FOR DECOMMISSIONING IN CANADA Ontario Hydro, the public-owned electric utility in Ontario, Canada, is one of the three largest nuclear utilities in the world. Decommissioning of [...]

Natural Gas Policy: The Unresolved Issues This paper analyzes the restructuring of the natural gas industry which has been going on for several years. It gives the background to the [...]