Avista sale is bad news

Avista may sell out to HydroOne in Ontario. Save your shekels, you will need them. What are the pros vs. cons?

Pros: 1) Stockholders receive a handsome profit.

Cons: 1) Foreign ownership provides zero motivation to invest its profits back into Avista’s 4-state local region.

2) Avista’s customers enjoy the lowest energy costs in North America while HydroOne customers pay the highest rates. (Recent rate decreases ocurred only after rates increased 144 percent in 10 years!) 3) HydroOne must adhere to Ontario’s Green Energy Act requiring a carbon tax. A $50/ton tax on a 3-car family means $1,987 tax/year. Australia instituted a carbon tax in 2012 but ended it two years later due to severe unemployment and economic downturns. 4) Our most precious natural resource and hydroelectric dams will be subject to Canadian laws, not American. 5) HydroOne expands use of wind and solar power, which is often unpredictable and much less efficient than Avista’s current energy sources. The EPA found wind turbines killed so many birds (endangered ones, too) that they stopped keeping track of the destruction of this marvelous wildlife.

Write WUTC (comments@utc.wa.gov) and tell them not to sell out. Let’s keep our energy costs low.

Alene Lindstrand

Spokane