Author: Tom Tucker
The Atlantic Institute for Market Studies research paper “Power Trip: Stumbling toward a policy for NB Power” not only provides an in-depth analysis and explanation of NB Power’s poor financial performance, but also of the government’s response to the utility’s crisis – a proposed restructuring of the company and of the electricity market. “Power Trip” also addresses and debunks the conventional wisdom regarding the superiority of Crown owned utilities over those privately owned.
According to the paper’s author, Dr. Thomas L. Tucker, AIMS Fellow Natural Resource Policy, “Shifting the debt from the corporation to the government does nothing to address the fundamental problems which prevent the corporation from generating sufficient cash to retire debt. Turning the business units of NB Power into separate Crowns is nothing more than symbolism over substance.”