These are the facts:
Fact 1 – The CEO and board of Avista Corp would receive $51 Million upon close of the merger.
Fact 2 – The existing stockholders of Avista would receive a premium of 24% for their shares during mandated buyback at the close of the merger.
Fact 3 – Hydro One is a company owned by the provincial government of Ontario, Canada and is drowning in Billions of Dollars in debt, its infrastructure is crumbling and claims the title of the least reliable electrical distribution company in all of Canada all while having the distinction of Charging the highest rates in Canada.
Fact 4 – Hydro One charges its customers a 70% surcharge added to every bill to subsidize unprofitable wind and solar power suppliers.
Fact 5 – Avista will sell to Hydro One all its assets, including 15 hydroelectric dams, all electric and gas distribution infrastructure, all 13 subsidiaries of Avista including extensive nontaxable land holdings, land development companies, equity firms, water rights, 2 gold mines with approximately $10 Billion dollars of proven gold reserves all for the bargain price of $6.5 Billion. What would it cost to buy the property, get regulatory approvals, design, build and staff a dam today? Approximately $7-10 billion and about 7 years for 1 dam. Great deal, for everyone but the ratepayer/ citizens. A real STEAL!
Fact 6 – The water rights and control of storage and flows of 15 dams in the Northwest would be owned and controlled by a Canadian government entity during the renegotiations of the US & Canada Columbia River Treaty. Just coincidence?
These facts alone would lead any rational person to think this deal is a joke.
Yet the public utility commissions of FIVE states have entered in agreements for this scam, with TWO states already approving this sale.
The cherry on top of this pile is that FOUR federal government agencies have also approved this sale.
We the citizens and ratepayers are left to ask.
What is Ontario, Canada’s Hydro One Performance Track Record? In a word abysmal. See: ‘Kathleen Wynne increasing hydro prices are devastating rural Ontario’; ‘Hydro Rates in Ontario are killing small business.‘; ‘Outrage grows over rising electricity rates in rural Ontario’; ‘Hydro Scam: Exposing the lies in plain sight’; ‘Top 10 takeaways from auditor general’s report on Ontario’s electricity sector‘; ‘Lawyer Alan Whiteley: Ontario’s electricity Ponzi scheme‘; ‘5 reasons to oppose Ontario’s cap and trade proposal‘; ‘What happens when forced to use renewable energy‘; The phony ‘social cost of carbon’ ‘Auditor General, by Adam Beck on YouTube, Heated over Hydro One‘; ‘58,000 rural power customers cut-off in winter‘
