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By Guy Page
Ever since Vermont signed its first power contract with Quebec in 1987, its critics have wondered if tensions between Canada and the U.S. might ever threaten the flow of carbon-free, low-cost electricity.
Until recently, such differences with our neighbors to the north were considered highly speculative. However, on February 28, Quebec Premiere Francois Legault, said cutting off Hydro-Quebec electricity to the U.S. is an option if U.S. tariffs on Quebec goods continue.
Legault wrote on X February 28: “And if Mr. Trump implements tariffs, we [with Ontario Premier Doug Ford] do not rule out joint retaliation on, among other things, electricity exported to the United States.”
Ford has explicitly promised to cut off Ontario electricity exports to New York, Minnesota and Michigan if the tariffs proceed.
Legault did not single out Vermont’s power contract, H.Q.’s only long-running fixed-term deal with a U.S. state. The rest of H.Q.’s U.S. power sales are sold on the “spot market,” where prices vary according to supply and demand. Two new contracts with Massachusetts and New York could be cancelled if the tariffs continue.
According to Hydro-Québec, the Canadian electricity provider is connected to the Vermont grid via an approximately 24-km (15-mile), 120-kV transmission line that runs from Bedford substation in Québec’s Montérégie region to Highgate substation in the northwest corner of Vermont. The interconnection also includes a back-to-back converter station to synchronize Hydro-Québec’s energy deliveries with the New England grid. With a maximum capacity of 225 MW, the interconnection was commissioned in 1985, enabling Hydro-Québec to supply Vermont utilities under long-term agreements.
The first long-term contract between Hydro-Québec and Vermont was signed in 1987. In 2010, the parties signed a second contract for up to 225 MW, under which Hydro-Québec committed to deliver approximately 1.3 TWh of energy each year through 2038—a volume equivalent to about 25% of Vermont’s annual electricity needs, H.Q. says.
“Designed to stabilize prices, these long-term contracts are part of the reason why Vermont consumers have not experienced the sharp rate increases that have occurred in other parts of New England in recent years,” H.Q. said.
According to the Globe & Mail report, Quebec Premier Francois Legault said the power restrictions aren’t imminent, but are being weighed among its options. Quebec is also considering legal options for breaking new, as-yet-unimplemented contracts to deliver power to Massachusetts and New York.
While stopping short of threatening a cutoff of electricity, the chief executive of Hydro Quebec suggested the price of energy exports to the U.S. may rise in response to tariffs.
Hydro-Québec chief executive Michael Sabia, who said in a February 19 speech in Montreal that the current administration in Washington, D.C. is a “bully” that must be met “rate to rate.”
“Short-term: In March, we will most likely face tariffs on steel and aluminum. And possibly generalized rates of 25%. Let’s be clear, we are at the beginning of an inevitable and potentially very long [negotiation]. The actions we are taking now set the stage for this negotiation. The only way to negotiate is from a position of strength. Especially when faced with a bully. And the president of the United States is a bully. [We] must show that we are ready to stand up, rate for rate. Strength: this is what people in Washington understand.”
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Categories: Energy
I’ve often joked about not pissing out neighbors to the north or they might open the switch on us here in Vermont. I’m not joking anymore. Now if we hadn’t closed Vermont Yankee….
Hellen Keller could have seen the possibility of this coming someday ! Now that it is at least a short term probability it’s unimaginable ? Hey, I have an idea. Let’s buy nuclear submarines, and missiles from China !
Fine. Trump can cut off every single export to all of Canada in our 2 trillion-dollar mutual trade partnership. Sounds to me like a no-win proposition, but let’s see who squeals first. What “fun”.
Our whole house generator is all ready, btw & gas prices are down. Ready, set, go!
Maybe the day when Vermont gets “cut-off” by Hydro Quebec is long overdue? VT should stand on its own two feet energy wise. Oh wait, we can’t because we shut down VT Yankee and hydro-carbon sources.
Montpelier should address the inevitable loss of Canadian power and plan accordingly for a US based solution… excluding unreliable, intermittent, wasteful solar and wind.
THERE WILL BE A RUN ON BUYING GENERATORS. HURRY AND GET YOURS BEFORE THERE IS A SHORTAGE. YOU WILL NEED TO PAY TEN PERCENT MORE FOR YOUR GAS TO RUN IT.
Buy Generac ! I have stock in it !
If individuals don’t have a home generator with underground wiring, a Reliance 10 breaker panel and a gas stash you have not been paying attention.
What Canada does or threatens to do regarding electricity doesn’t matter one bit. The fact of the matter is that if any part of Canada shuts off electricity to any part of the US, it’s a relatively simple matter to purchase the needed electricity somewhere else. Maybe it costs more, maybe it costs less – it doesn’t matter. We won’t “run out”. Beware of scare tactics, my friends. How many times have you fallen for similar nonsense in the past (THIS will happen if you don’t do THAT)? And how many of those boogeyman threats have come to pass?
If any utility operator anywhere in the country doesn’t have a Plan B, Plan C, and Plan D for what to do when Plan A fails for some reason, then they have no business anywhere near a US public utility company. As it is, utilities purchase a mix of power generated in different ways. Some percentage is solar, some is wind, some may be hydro, and so on and so forth. They spread their risk. Read your bill.
To me, the question has always been, why is Vermont using such a small percentage of its own readily available, cheap hydro? Why weren’t those old facilities kept in service, or at least kept operable “just in case”? We should have been home-generated and hydro-based to the largest extent possible all along. Think of the rivers we have and the power they carry. And yet we’re down to what, 10-20% usage of infrastructure that was already in place and functional at one time in the past? Not to mention, hydro is about the simplest way to get power. All you need is a dam or a diversion spillway and a wheel. New England was built on small-scale waterwheels powering both large and small mills on nearly every river. And for all you greenies out there, it’s CARBON FREE!
And yet the point of this article seems to be to alarm the people so that we keep power oozing over the border like maple syrup.
Given the insinuations of the Senator from Quebec, how in the hell were we ever going to afford electrifying damn near everything, with 2 EVs in every garage and windmills on every skyline?
Let me help you. We weren’t, we can’t, and we never will.
My info might be dated but I recall Canadians owned much of the hydropower in Vermont,(Always wondered why) so if they cut us off ,it’s simple, nationalize Canada’s hydropower holdings in the US ,then sell that power, via American firms, back to Americans, but there is the 51st state option…
Further on this, regarding Hydro-Quebec, that is of intense national security interest…in 2022, the RCMP arrested the Chinese national Yuesheng Wang, working for Hydro Quebec, as a researcher for the HQ Center of Excellence in Transportation Electrification and Energy Storage, for economic espionage, and published items that harmed HQ, and applied for patents from data he took from same.
Case is still pending, he is out on bail and movements monitored ,passport withheld by the RCMP and is the first case of it’s kind in Canada.
HQ owns and operates 13 hydro electric generation stations in VT,NH and MA.
HQ is on the PRC target list due to its sales ,holdings and storage and transmission into the US electric infrastructure so there is much more than meets the eye here.
On the security front I argue that the US should own and control this grid or Canada becomes our 51st state.
I see this as a “cut off your nose to spite your face” kind of reaction. I wonder how much revenue Canada makes from the power exported to the US? What kind of financial hit would they take and how would they compensate the loss? I have no idea how much money it is, but I have to think it might be substantial. So, I have to ask….is this really how Canada wants to respond? Americans are inventive if nothing else…we will create solutions and life will go on. Personally, I believe it might just be time we become less dependent on other countries for a lot of things anyway.
We should never become reliant on other countries for critical commodities. Did we learn nothing from COVID ?
Re: Quebec premier threatens to cut off electricity to U.S.
Vermont Daily Chronicle: The headline of this article is not only misleading; it’s a disservice to its readers.
Yes, the Ontario Premier, Doug Ford, made this threat. But the VDC headline to this article doesn’t say that. And Doug Ford doesn’t control Hydro Quebec.
I’ve read all of the citations and see nothing from Quebec’s Premier threatening to cut off electricity. In fact, the VDC article specifically states:
“Quebec Premier Francois Legault said the power restrictions aren’t imminent, but are being weighed among its options. Quebec is also considering legal options for breaking new, as-yet-unimplemented contracts to deliver power to Massachusetts and New York.”
Perhaps the headline should have been: Quebec premier threatens to restrict electricity to U.S.
After all, the VDC article goes on to state that: “While stopping short of threatening a cutoff of electricity, the chief executive of Hydro Quebec suggested the price of energy exports to the U.S. may rise in response to tariffs.”
Curiously, the article doesn’t say anything about the fact that if Hydro Quebec (HQ) placed a 100% tariff on the electricity it sells to Vermont, HQ power would still cost less than the electricity generated locally.
Never mind that HQ would lose a significant portion of its revenue by curtailing sales in the U.S. – irretrievable revenues from the hydro generating power that is forever lost as the water flows to the sea.
And the article doesn’t consider the restrictions Canada already places on U.S. citizens and companies doing business in Canada. I worked in Canada from time to time over a five-year period. I was strictly forbidden from performing certain tasks. As a manufacturer, I had severe tariffs placed on products I sold in Canada. And I was prohibited from sending staff to Canada to service the products I sold there.
How about this? If the Quebec Premier decides to ‘cut off electricity’ to Vermont, Vermont takes control of Quebec-owned Green Mountain Power, its subsidiaries and all of their assets, including the distribution, transportation, generation, purchase and sale of electricity in Vermont and, to a minor degree, electricity transportation in New Hampshire and electricity generation in the states of New York, Maine and Connecticut. Not to mention Vermont taking over the several hydroelectric dams GMP owns on the CT River and the various wind and solar facilities GMP owns here.
Wouldn’t that make a great headline?
sounds a lot like the “reciprocal tariffs” our President was speaking of last night. All the media (social and mass) seems to want to talk about is the tariffs the US is planning to implement with little, if any, mention of the tariffs and restrictions put on the US by foreign entities.
thanks Bill!
I concur re Jay’s descriptions of how costly selling products in Canada can be and how restrictive it is on Americans trying to service products in Canada.
Good things the elected Vermont Republicans have a plan in place to cut spending and taxes…. right?
Do you ever get tired of posting the same irrelevant statement to every article. The trueth is Republicans are still out numbered in the House and Senate as well as the Committees they serve in. So you really need to direct your concern to the Democratic party as to why it will not cooperate in making Vermont more affordable. But don’t worry because Republicans will be more than happy to uphold the governord vetos.
Vermont has been in the dark for quite some time and would hardly notice it. Well, maybe just those that have been getting their electricity for free.
Their will be a lot of EVs on the side of the road once the plug is pulled. Hope the buying incentives included towing.
Yes, our astute elected officials decided it was a good idear to shut down all of our
ability to make electricity on our own, this pack of geniuses thought we could buy it
cheaper, but never thought what would happen to Vermont if the other entity stopped selling us power ??………………….. another cart before the horse decission !!
Where do we find so many people with no common sense to run things, I guess we are as dumb as they think we are !!
What this really shows how is how interconnected Quebec and all of the New England States are. Most of the time the partnership works well because Quebec is more dependent on the partnership than the US is. So when the bully President of the US engages in this stupidity because he cant think of anything else, it’s no wonder that Canada is ticked off. The reality is that few people in the US, including politicians know anything about Canada, its history , its economy or in, the case of Quebec, the nearly one million Americans whose ancestors migrated here.
Hydro Quebec had a late property tax bill in Searsburg Vermont.
Seize that wooden banded pipeline running through Searsburg and charge them a big fee for transiting town property.
It’s a good thing we plastered solar panel fields all over and tore up mountain sides to erect giant wind turbines – we are all set right? Isn’t all the rate hikes and storm damage surcharges show how green energy lowered our costs and makes Vermont greentard energy efficient, affordable, reliable, and independent?
Yes, the sub-Prime Ministers of Kanadastan are threatening to flip the Northeast grid power switch to off. How nice, how neighborly, can even be construed as an ignorant declaration of war. Good on Vermont for placing our energy dependence in a foreign territory. The genius Public Service Board must now wave Canadian flags, eat plates full of poutine, and activate greenback diplomacy. What are the odds our rates will climb even higher to grease the palms of those corrupt criminals North of the border? Blackmail and extortion teed up perfectly for hostage taking of our power grid – the backdoor cyber polygon apocalypse was broadcast by the WEF overlords and left wide open for China’s access. All of which, Twinkle Socks Trudeau and his cabinet are all sustaining members and big supporters.
Wow, 19 replies and not a single one puts any blame whatsoever on Trump. I’ve got to share the cartoonish picture that popped into my head: A large flock of sheep, all with blinders on, following their idol overhill into the sunset.
I suggested all businesses affected by the Trump tariffs add a “Trump Tariff Surcharge” line item to their receipts and invoices to remind every customer that Trump took that money out of their pocket. Don’t forget to put that line item in your own annual budget, too!
here is a list of the most outrageous tariffs Canada imposes on the USA.
Chicken: 263%
Turkey: 179%
Butter: 175%
Dairy spreads: 165%
Certain fish products: 160%
Milk: 155%
Cheese: 147%
Beef: 77%
Pork: 77%
Eggs: 66%
Flour: 40%
Wheat: 38%
Orange juice: 25%
Peanut butter: 25%
jrice,
No eggs cut off the eggs to Canada
I’m contemplating how much money has been taken out of our pockets via DOGE exposing the rampant waste and fraud committed by our federal government through NGOs and witnessing some high profile Democrats squealing like pigs because they’re being exposed.
Funny, if you looked up the tariffs Canada currently charges the U.S.. on goods shipped here you would be shocked, some are 100%, these tariffs by the U.S.were long overdue. Now maybe if Canada would eliminate theirs, we could too?
That’s hard to believe, Carla. Which Canadian goods have a 100% tariff added to them?