Peace Valley Environment Association
February 10th, 2010

Climate Change Hypocrisy in BC’s Throne Speech

Climate change hypocrisy is evident in the throne speech. The BC Government somehow plans to become a “clean energy powerhouse” by building power lines and damming rivers to increase oil and gas exploration and export natural gas to further the oil sands development. Yesterday’s throne speech identifies the connection of the Horn River Basin petroleum development to the BC Transmission Grid allowing accelerated development of Horn River Basin Gas. This gas is targeted to support oil sands development in Alberta and coincidentally the pipelines to Kitimat and the awaiting super tankers ready to take the oil and gas off-shore to produce more greenhouse gases in Asia.

The throne speech promises to make BC a “clean energy powerhouse….while we lower greenhouse gas emissions within and beyond our border”. However, accelerated oil and gas development, with new huge greenhouse gas emitting plants like the one proposed by Encana at Cabin Creek in north-eastern BC’s Horn River Basin, is in direct conflict with the goal of reducing greenhouse gas emissions. BC is the only province to increase greenhouse gases in 2009. Northeast BC is BC’s energy and greenhouse gas emitting dirty little secret. The large natural gas processing plants in NE BC are individually some of the largest emitters in the province and collectively are the majority of BC’s industrial emissions.

An intended purpose for the power from the proposed Site C dam was recently revealed by former BC Energy Minister and new federal Senator Richard Neufeld, who made a presentation to Fort St. John City Council on Monday, February 8th. In encouraging Council to “get on the train” of Site C, Neufeld said “I know that there has been some discussion ongoing about the amount of electricity that would be needed in Fort Nelson with the advent of the Horn River Basin which is in the magnitude of 500 MW. Understanding Site C would generate about 900 MW, it’s a significant amount of Site C so I think we can all get some benefits out of this as long as we all are on the same boat.” The suggestion is that Site C Hydro is intended to power fossil fuel extraction from one of the largest gas fields in North America – the Horn River Basin. This is not to meet domestic needs but rather to power the extraction of Alberta tar sands oil – the world’s dirtiest oil.

This throne speech proposal would connect the huge new gas “play” near Fort Nelson to BC’s electrical grid creating a circle of emissions. This folly is destined to sabotage the promise of a “clean energy powerhouse….while we lower greenhouse gas emissions within and beyond our border”.

Sandra Hoffmann – Coordinator, Peace Valley Environment Association
Phone: 250-787-1749 ; Email: savingthepeace@gmail.com

Download full press release.

(Recorded live at the Bell Performing Arts Centre in Surrey on December 3, 2009.)

CAMPBELL GOVERNMENT DECIDES TO KEEP ‘GREEN’ ENERGY TASK FORCE SUBMISSIONS SECRET

In response to a letter to the BC Ministry of Energy, Mines and Petroleum Resource’s Project Coordinator for the Green Energy Advisory Task Force late last week, the Tap Water Alliance was informed on January 25, 2010 by Katherine Rowe that the government will allow all the recent public submissions to the Task Force groups (November 30 – December 31, 2009) to be kept secret. After personally consulting with the four Task Force Chairs as requested by the Alliance, Rowe stated “the public submissions are not going to get released.” Unfortunately, repeated questions to Rowe about the BC government’s “domain” and “interest” in the public submissions were deflected and left unanswered.

In December, 2009, after Energy Minister Lekstrom named the appointed 29 Task Force members, information was released in the media criticizing the lack of transparency and public accountability of the Task Force, and how just under half the members, through direct or indirect private company affiliation, had made small and large political  financial contributions to the BC Liberals, many key players in the Energy sector. A suggestion was made that these apparent conflicts of interest be investigated by BC’s Auditor General.

In response to the public outcry, on January 11, 2010, about 200 people attended a public dialogue forum in downtown Vancouver, hosted by West Coast Environmental Law Foundation. They participated with a 17-member panel on the general questions of Energy policy and projects under review by the Task Force members and the main BC Cabinet Task Force committee. The dialogue participants raised concerns on the lack of public disclosure, absence of public participation in land use planning, in particular Bill 30 (passed in March, 2006) which restrains local governments from Run-of-River hydro development proposals, the (“by design”) removal of environmental regulations, the question of exporting electrical energy without open public debate, and the secrecy and unaccountability of the Task Force groups, themes repeatedly discussed.

“This is yet another sad day for our democracy in BC. Deals are being made behind closed doors that will seal the further fate of our rivers, line the pockets of energy developers and raise the price of energy for BC consumers”, said Will Koop, Alliance Coordinator. “We call upon our government through Energy Minister Lekstrom to immediately suspend the release of his pending report and conduct a proper, Public Hearing process on the future of our rivers.”

Similar concerns by the American public over secrecy with the Bush Administration’s National Energy Policy Development Group erupted in 2001 (the same year the BC Liberals began a review of a new controversial Energy Plan). According to information on the U.S. Judicial Watch website (Judicial Watch, Inc. vs. National Energy Policy  Development Group, et al.), former vice president Cheney’s Energy Task Force “refused to turn over information pertaining to who was involved and what was discussed”, “in violation of the Federal Advisory Committee Act, or the open meetings law, as it is better known.” After four years of court proceedings, and nine years later, information about the energy industry meetings is still kept secret – for now.

The Alliance is in the process of filing an access to information request to force the release of the Task Force submissions.

For information: Will Koop (email: info@bctwa.org).

For Green Energy Advisory Task Force member backgrounders, and YouTube videos of the public dialogue forum: (www.action.saveourrivers.ca)

PDF Version

To Katherine Rowe, Project Coordinator – BC Ministry of Energy

Re: Public Submissions to the Green Energy Advisory Task Force Groups

Thank you for your call on the late afternoon of January 19, 2010, regarding our discussion on obtaining public submissions to the Green Energy Advisory Task Force groups.

You stated that I had only two possible avenues to obtain these submissions: either by directly emailing the four task force chairs (through emails provided on the government’s website):

• Advisory Task Force on Procurement and Regulatory Reform – Tim Newton, Chair
ProcurementAndRegulatoryReform@gmail.com

• Advisory Task Force on Carbon Pricing, Trading and Export Market Development – Cheryl L. Slusarchuk, Chair
CarbonAndExportMarket@gmail.com

• Advisory Task Force on Community Engagement and First Nations Partnerships – James Hoggan, Chair
CommunityAndFirstNations@gmail.com

• Advisory Task Force on Resource Development – John Webster, Chair
ResourceDevelopmentTF@gmail.com

or, by conducting a Freedom of Information request. I also wanted to understand under whose “domain” the public submissions reside, i.e. are they the ‘property’ of our elected government, as our government appointed the 29 members of the task force groups and provided public financial funding for their private meetings and costs.

Before proceeding on either of your two recommendations, the following morning (January 20) I contacted the Assistant Deputy Minister’s secretary, for Marketing, Aboriginal and Community Relations Division, the next level up from your division, to seek further clarification. I then related to the Manager of that Division the nature of our conversation from the previous day. I stated to the Manager a concern I had, namely that I never received a confirmation email reply from the above referenced task force group emails regarding the submission I sent to all the four groups on the late afternoon of December 31, 2010 (in the past, when I sent submissions to federal or provincial governments, I received confirmation replies). I then stated that I had recently sent an email to the four groups for such a confirmation:

The Chair. We sent in a submission on December 31, 2009, but were not notified of its reception from you. Could you please do so. Secondly, where are the public submissions posted on a website? Sincerely, Will Koop, B.C. Tap Water Alliance Coordinator. (emails sent on the early afternoon of January 19, 2010)

I have not yet received confirmations from the four groups. My point is, how do I proceed on your recommendation to email request the four groups to:

1. request that they post all of the public submissions they received on the government website;

2. or, request they provide me with a copy of all the public submissions they received?

Furthermore, regarding recent information published in the Globe & Mail, Ontario Edges BC in Green Energy Fight (January 20), it states that Energy Minister Lekstrom already has the recommendations from the four Task Force groups “on his desk”. Does this mean that the Task Force groups are now disbanded, and if so, does that mean that the non-government registered email accounts provided above are now abandoned?

In light of these concerns, I would therefore specifically request that you act on my behalf to ask the four Task Force group chairs to:

release all the public submissions received by the four Task Force groups into the operational hands of your Ministry and post them on the government’s website.

Please notify me as soon as possible regarding my request.

Sincerely,

Will Koop,
Coordinator, BC Tap Water Alliance
www.bctwa.org

Cc: Jody Shimkus, Assistant Deputy Minister, Marketing, Aboriginal and Community Relation Division, EMPR

Cc: Rhonda De Champlain, Manager – Division Initiatives, Aboriginal and Community Relations Division, EMPR

(Note: West Coast has a biography of panel members for the dialogue on its website. The member list is incomplete, and more were present at the dialogue session. West Coast needs to update this information on its website.)

Video Segments Links on:

Jim Abram (Strathcona Regional District)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GHhlhruLNLA

Gwen Barlee (Western Canada Wilderness Committee
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r0b-3kV9-os
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7qno-SsJ_gc

Melissa Davis (BC Citizens for Public Power)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gwsava4ou2Y

Rex Weyler (author, ecologist)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=89IEW2rBrUw

Doug Konkin (BC Deputy Minister of Environment and Climate Action)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MLouNWrtDbc

Craig Orr (Executive Director, Watershed Watch)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I4ODPUCJx54

Citizen Adam (River Kayaker)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8z3EZFyqdjw

[Note: A few more video segments are in the works]

IPPs destroy environment

The Provincial Government has taken a radically new direction of providing energy for BC citizens and industry. There are basically two reasons why this direction needs to be reversed: one, we cannot afford a doubling or tripling of electricity costs and two, nature, which provides the life-support system sustaining all life, including ours, cannot afford the reckless environmental destruction caused by almost all the proposed Independent Power Projects (IPPs).

The government’s new Energy Plan has taken away BC Hydro’s right to create new energy and given that job to the private sector. It is forcing BC Hydro into long-term “use or pay” contracts with private producers that I understand already amount to over 30 billion dollars. Investors are falling over each other trying to get into this action. You cannot beat a return on capital of at least 10% come “hell or high water” over 30+ years, guaranteed by BC Hydro and paid for by us, the electricity users. No wonder the BC Utilities Commission has found that the government Energy Policy is “not in the public interest.”

While the financial exploitation of BC energy users, mainly average citizens, via this new Energy Plan is bad enough, the environmental destruction caused if even a small portion of the hundreds of proposed IPPs are allowed to proceed is devastating. For example, the proposed hydropower project on the Tzoonie River in Narrows Inlet involves building three dams four metres in height, an 8.5 km transmission line that crosses over the Caren Range, and diverting water from streams and lakes at 19 different points. This is essentially an investment in environmental destruction.

Increasingly, people today understand that the most important asset we have on this planet is the natural life-support system. Nature produces the air we breathe, the water we drink, the food we eat and regulates the planet temperature. Therefore, the first and vital step we must take, if we and all our fellow living things want to survive long-term, is to protect the remaining intact areas of the natural environment. The new Energy Plan does exactly the opposite. Like the Tzoonie River, hundreds of other natural watersheds are threatened with destruction for the sake of providing a fat return for wealthy investors. We cannot allow this to continue.

The Green Advisory Task Force on Procurement and Regulatory Reform must recommend that the Government restore and reaffirm BC Hydro as a publicly held, fully integrated power generation and transmission system; permit BC Hydro to investigate and construct small hydro, wind, tidal, and other forms of renewable energy; prohibit the private export of electricity; and conduct a provincial environmental assessment of all private power projects.

Hans Penner
Roberts Creek, BC

Photograph by: Photos.com, canada.com

(Article From The Vancouver Sun, December 17, 2009 – By Scott Simpson)

A broad-based cluster of environmental groups is urging the British Columbia government to exercise more caution in the development of new green electricity resources.

VANCOUVER — British Columbia needs to take a closer look at the effect new renewable electricity development will have on communities, business and the environment before it commits to increasing the size of the sector, environmental groups said Thursday.

A report prepared for 25 environmental groups says B.C. needs to restore public confidence as well as demonstrate that plans to develop power for export will work to the benefit of the province.

“Many British Columbians — including those deeply concerned about climate change — harbour concerns about how renewable electricity is currently planned, promoted and developed in B.C.,” says a six-page report released Thursday.

“They want to see renewable electricity projects, but they want to be confident that those projects are planned and developed in a way that limits impacts and maximizes benefits for British Columbians.”

The report was co-authored by the David Suzuki Foundation, Pembina Institute, Watershed Watch Salmon Society and West Coast Environmental Law.

The report is aimed at both the government and members of a Green Energy Advisory Task Force announced last month by Premier Gordon Campbell to recommend new policies for green power development and opportunities to export renewable power to the United States.

Blair Lekstrom, Minister of Energy, Mines and Petroleum Resources, said he welcomed the report and encouraged the authors to submit it to the Task Force, which is due to report back to government in January.

The report says Crown corporation BC Hydro should no longer be barred from competing with private sector power developers to build new renewable energy projects.

Recommendations including designation of ecologically sensitive areas as off-limits to green power development, support for community and first nations power projects, and halting plans for power exports until the environmental benefits can be proven.

Watershed Watch executive director Craig Orr said the report authors believe it’s important that renewable power not be developed in B.C. to serve as a crutch for U.S. jurisdictions that primarily rely on electricity generated from the burning of fossil fuels such as coal.

“The whole system of developing clean energy is just a mess right now. There are huge numbers of changes that need to be made to increase public participation, democratic environmental standards. We just don’t know what advice is being given by the green task force.”

Orr said B.C. conservation groups are in broad agreement that the government’s strategy is “seriously flawed and needs a major overhaul.”

Lekstrom said he had time for a brief review of the report and said he is “supportive” of some of its recommendations.

“I would encourage them to make sure, if they haven’t already, to put that submission forward to the task force,” Lekstrom said. “The best thing we’ve got in B.C. is the ability to work together, from all the groups, bring all the sides together and try to find some issues we agree on.”

NDP energy critic John Horgan noted that representatives of two of the paper’s co-authors, Suzuki Foundation and Pembina, are members of the task force.

“Even those groups whom the Liberals assumed were in lockstep with the idea of green at all costs … are saying ‘Hold on a second, it’s not that simple,’ ” Horgan said.

“I think it speaks to the need, not for a two-month discussion with a selected audience over Christmas, but rather a broader discussion about where we are going with energy policy.”

ssimpson@vancouversun.com

© Copyright (c) The Vancouver Sun

Task Force members are hand-picked: some are high-profile individuals with little experience, many have ties to energy industry profits, and most support existing government policies.

The majority of task force members, featured in background reports below, represent a ‘who’s who’ from the private power industry sector:

Backgrounder Introduction

Task Force Group 1 – Backgrounder

Task Force Group 2 – Backgrounder

Task Force Group 3 – Backgrounder

Task Force Group 4 – Backgrounder

“…I have followed the Liberal Government’s Green Energy Plan carefully since becoming aware of the tremendous scope and potential detrimental environmental impact of Run of River Power projects.
The way that your government is proceeding with this plan without public consultation, without the participation of B.C. Hydro, without the participation of the B.C.Utilities commission, and with a task force that does not represent the people of British Columbia and with an unrealistic timeline, is absolutely wrong. It is also UNDEMOCRATIC.
Please do the right thing and put the brakes on this process. We need time to have our input and we need a more balanced cross section of British Columbians to be involved.
I have written to you on this subject before and I am joining with many others now, to let you know I want a process that is in the public interest.”

B, Seachelt

“I am writing to demand that public hearings be held throughout the Province. Your decision to implement an extremely short submission deadline, of which 2-3 weeks is absorbed by the holiday season, is designed to ensure the reception of very few submissions from the public. As it stands, this Task Force is neither transparent nor accountable to British Columbians. The four panels meet behind closed doors, with no opportunity for public participation or scrutiny. Task Force members have apparently signed ‘confidentiality agreements’ forbidding them to disclose their private discussions to the public. In order to have a transparent and accountable process, the Provincial government must create opportunities for the public to meet with the panels and make submissions.

Premier Campbell has taken away citizens’ and communities’ rights to have a say in any private power project with Bill 30 and now the creation of this obviously partisan committee- who is set to make biased recommendations “on behalf of the public interest”-  are trampling over our public independent regulator, the BC Utilities Commission, which recently found private run-of-river power to be unnecessary, too expensive, and not the public interest. The predictable, pro-business findings of such charlatan Task Forces will position British Columbia to offset the growing consumption of the Alberta tar sands, the US and commit us to hundreds of environmentally destructive energy projects that will destroy our wild rivers and lock BC into private control of our energy policies. Without these necessary changes I can only conclude that this Task Force is an exercise in pure green-wash.”

S, Vancouver