The press release from the Ministry of Energy, Mines and Petroleum Resources last week might have you thinking the Burrard Thermal generating plant in Port Moody will soon be shut down and our air quality will be much improved as a consequence.

Wrong on both counts.

I think this press release was more about the BC Liberal government creating energy policies to favour its supporters in the private power industry.

BC Hydro’s Burrard Thermal plant on Port Moody’s north shore has the capacity to generate up to 10% of Hydro’s electricity output. Built between 1961 and ’75, and upgraded in the 1990s, this plant burns natural gas to produce electricity. It has rarely been used at full capacity and remains in good operating condition.

Since 2002, the plant has been used mostly to supply electricity during our peak demand period in the winter, when it is cold and dark. Since that time, it has provided, on average, slightly less than 300 gigawatt hours (GWh) per year, a mere 5% of its full capacity.

Bob Elton, President and CEO of BC Hydro, wasn't reading from the same page as the Campbell government on energy policy. As a result, he has been "transitioned" out of his job. Story from CBC News: BC Hydro CEO steps down amid power controversy

Excerpt: "The B.C. Liberal government has said that by 2020 half of B.C.'s new energy must be met through conservation, and much of the rest should come from private, independent power producers.

"Those independent power producers became a hot issue during the May provincial election when environmentalists raised concerns about the environmental impact of plans to build run-of-the-river power plants on many B.C. rivers.

"Then in July, the B.C. Utilities Commission, which regulates the Crown corporation, rejected BC Hydro's long-term plan based on the government's policy.

"The controversial decision by the independent commission pulled the plug on BC Hydro's plan to buy electricity from dozens of run-of-river and wind-power projects, saying the long-term acquisition scheme is not practical or in the public interest."

Vaughn Palmer of the Vancouver Sun wrote that Elton may have been "transitioned" instead of fired so they would have to give him severance pay. Link to article: This looks like a sideways move

Excerpt: "The B.C. Liberals have been concerned that investors were losing confidence in the province as a place to develop power projects, particularly since a recent ruling by the BC Utilities Commission that blocked Hydro's last call for proposals from private operators.

"So last week the cabinet eliminated that regulatory obstacle, ensuring that even as BC Hydro invests billions in upgrading its publicly owned assets, it will also be buying power on contract from private operators.

"The action was cheered by independent power producers. 'There's been a certain degree of investor fatigue with B.C. because of an uncertain investment climate,' said the CEO of one of the largest producers, Donald McInnes of Plutonic Power, in an interview with the Dow-Jones news service this week."

A press release from the Save Our Rivers Society:

SAVE OUR RIVERS SOCIETY

PRESS RELEASE 
November 3, 2009

BC PREMIER CAMPBELL FROM BEHIND GREEN CURTAIN

Today at the SFU WOSK Centre for Dialogue in the Delta Suites Hotel on Vancouver’s Hastings Street a two day GREEN ENERGY conference begins which is billed as open to the public. A ticket is $200.00.

Premier Campbell assumed absolute power over the Province of British Columbia in 2001.  On May 12, 2009 he and his BC Liberal party were elected to lead the Province for another four year term.  Throughout history political scholars have warned of a flaw in our system of governance where a charismatic political leader of a duly elected majority government has the power equal to a dictator.

Since the May 2009 the hard truth of unreported financial mismanagement has surfaced in many sectors of the BC economy. Undisclosed changes affecting every taxpayer include benefits turned to losses, public services cut, public assets transferred, public electricity, renewable energy resources, civil rights, Aboriginal rights taken and now the news of $30 or $40 billion dollars of public guarantees in purchase orders issued to thirty or forty of a potential seven hundred private power licenses. Yesterday appearing at a private power licensee meeting in Vancouver the Premier announced a review of his 2002 BC Energy Plan to be conducted by four committees whose members he will name. The Premier used a similar format in 2001. The David Suzuki Foundation and the Alcan Aluminum Company were two noteworthy participants who submitted similarly detailed recommendations, blueprints for public policy privatizing public assets, Crown land, watersheds, rivers, profitable public energy systems and renewable energy assets licensed away for less than 1% of their value into the hands of companies, General Electric, banks and Alberta oilsands companies all done FROM BEHIND THE PREMIER’S GREEN CURTAIN.

Premier Gordon Campbell promised the citizens of BC in 2002 that they would be involved and consulted regarding private power developments occurring in BC, the last Canadian province with a rich public power monopoly. BILL 30, July 2006, barred the public and local governments from consultation in private power projects.   A few private power licenses have become hundreds as exposed in volunteer built and operated website www.ippwatch.info.   The Premier’s private investment opportunities have been revealed as banks making loans for construction of private renewable energy facilities, guaranteed as profitable by citizens committed to pay very high prices for forty years for unneeded electricity that will be dumped into the USA at half the price paid by the public.  As the public begins to enter this controversy the Premier will deny access to the facts. Known facts are and will be available at the website listed above and at www.saveourrivers.ca.

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Press release from the Western Canada Wilderness Committee:

Vancouver, BC – The Wilderness Committee today condemned the BC government's decision to order BC Hydro to buy an additional 6,000 gigawatt hours of electrical power from private power producers, in direct opposition to what the BC Utilities Commission (BCUC) has recommended.

“Requiring BC Hydro to purchase power that it doesn’t need is an idiotic decision and a gift to the private power industry. Three months ago, the BCUC said buying this power was not in the public interest, and yet the BC government is ignoring their own regulatory watchdog and ordering BC Hydro to spend billions of dollars on power we don’t need. This decision won’t reduce greenhouse gas emissions in BC by one iota, but it will damage a lot of streams and rivers in the process,” said Gwen Barlee, policy director with the Wilderness Committee.

“Private power coming from so-called ‘run of river’ projects comes mostly at the wrong time of year for British Columbians, is costing us far above market rates, and threatens our rivers and streams. Ratepayers are already on the hook for $31 billion in energy agreements to the likes of General Electric. The BC government's decision to order Hydro to buy even more of this power is irrational and unacceptable,” said Wilderness Committee campaign director Joe Foy.

The BC government justified the decision to purchase more expensive private power by over-ruling the BCUC and reducing the “planning” capacity of Burrard Thermal, a gas-powered plant in Port Moody.  Since 2002, Burrard Thermal has run at about five per cent of capacity, being used almost exclusively to provide firm emergency peak power backup in winter months. Ironically, Burrard Thermal will continue to operate in the same manner it has for the last seven years despite the government’s recent announcement.

The BC government has come under intense criticism since the introduction of the BC Energy Plan in 2002 which prohibited BC Hydro from producing new sources of hydroelectricity.  The Energy Plan resulted in a gold rush which has seen over 800 water bodies, including lakes, staked by private power corporations. Private hydro projects have been heavily criticized for low environmental standards, lack of public input, and a lack of provincial or regional planning process.

“It is sadly ironic that while the BC government is bailing out the private power industry under the ruse of addressing climate change it is blasting ahead with contradictory plans to promote carbon-producing coal mines such as Klappan and Groundhog in northern BC, axing Live Smart BC, radically increasing subsidies to the oil and gas sector, and promoting massive highway expansion. People recognize hypocrisy when they see it and are aware that this gift to the private power sector has nothing to do with addressing global warming,” said Barlee.

Click here for original

Across British Columbia, communities are doing everything they can to raise public awareness to take action to stop governments and businesses from ruining natural watershed environments in the name of green energy.

From the annual report of the Save-the-Cedar League, based in Crescent Spur, BC: "The Crescent Spur-Loos Community Association, The West Coast Environmental Law Society, The Western Canada Wilderness Committee, The Save Our Rivers Society, The Dome Forest Information Committee, The Valhalla Wilderness Society, Applied Conservation GIS, The Purcell Alliance for Wilderness, STCL, and others continued our collaborative project to stop the destruction of the magnificent Morkill River Waterfalls, and the proposed habitat destruction of endangered Mountain Caribou, at-risk Grizzly Bear, Bull-Trout, and Chinook Salmon by BC Hydro’s Independent Power Producer’s (IPP) Run of the River Project.  The Ptarmigan Creek/Robson Valley Power Corporation submitted their proposal to government to dry-up Morkill Falls and build 50 km of power lines through endangered Mountain Caribou Reserves and Old Growth Management Areas during 2009.  Your generous support in 2010 will help us stop this ridiculous project that proposes to break the law, yet was still advertised by government for public review.  See STCL's official response to the application submitted to government at: http://savethecedarleague.org/STCL Submission On The Morkill IPP.pdf.

Click here to view a PDF of ""BC Rivers at Risk", a publication of the Western Canada WIlderness Committee.

The paper shines a spotlight on two large and extremely unpopular proposed projects: Bute Inlet (150 km north of Powell River) and Glacier/Howser (in the West Kootenays). It also points out breaking news that the BC government is finally admitting what we’ve accused them of all along: that this private power would not be generated to serve British Columbians, but rather is intended for export. The newsletter also shows how we can do green power right: in a way that respects local communities, promotes conservation, fights against climate change, has real environmental oversight and benefits the public - not just corporations.

If you can help distribute this publication, please contact Sven Biggs at the Wilderness Committee: rivers AT wildernesscommittee.org, or phone 604-683-8220 (1-800-661-9453 outside the Lower Mainland).

Article by Christopher Pollon in The Tyee: Time to Get 'Wacky' Again: The Northwest Transmission Line

Excerpt: "... the province confirmed last November that the [Northwest Transmission Line], as currently planned, will not take a single northern community off diesel power. (emphasis added) At present, Dease Lake has its own small hydro plant with diesel back-up, and Iskut burns diesel and pays subsidized rates comparable to grid power. Telegraph Creek -- located hundreds of kilometres north of Bob Quinn and at least 90 kilometres east of the Highway 37 itself -- would require its own massive infrastructure project to get off diesel. Stewart, meanwhile, is already connected to the grid.

"In terms of energy development, the northwest accounts for only about 12 per cent of the province’s estimated run-of-river hydro potential, including the Forest Kerr run of river hydro project on the Iskut River, the largest planned IPP in the province at nearly 200 MW capacity. It is the only regional energy project likely to come into production any time soon.

"Steve Davis, the president of the Independent Power Producers Association of B.C., says there is excellent potential to develop run-of-river and wind resources in the Northwest, but the great distance from demand centres is currently a barrier to development."

A media advisory from the Save Our Rivers Society:

SAVE OUR RIVERS SOCIETY

MEDIA ADVISORY
September 15, 2009

GREEN ENERGY LEGISLATION AND STANDARDS

The United States General Accountability Office Issued a report in September 2008:

Decades of ‘ELECTRICITY RESTRUCTURING’ resulted in higher costs to consumers and had failed to deliver any of the benefits promised as changes were made to utilities and their once wholly owned transmission systems.

The GAO recommended that the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) be restored to its former exclusive capacity as the only regulator of electricity and gas transmission systems. Households were well served by the publicly accountable regulatory agency before electricity restructuring ushered in private regulators and market manipulators.

Electricity and gas consumers cannot afford another ENRON. The GAO report directs law makers to look into new contracts between the regional transmissions operators, along with the newly added Canadian Independent Transmission Operators and a newly formed private regulator NERC who has recently changed its name again to end in the word Corporation. The Western Governors Organization and California itself is moving quickly without apparent awareness of the GAO report. Hurried legislation could trap consumers and suppliers in undesirable circumstances. The new California Utility PG&E is lobbying the California legislature for fast action regarding alternative energy standards that could result in unnecessarily bad consequences for consumers and for the natural watershed environments and the people of British Columbia.

United States lawmakers have the power to protect all electricity consumers from another ENRON style market manipulation. Given the importance of economic stability and energy security we ask each and every informed citizen and lawmaker to slowdown and eradicate the North American grid of transmission systems of private regulatory influence.

Transmission operators (RTO and ITO) have agreed in contracts to reliability standards and to pass the costs of operating the new private regulator on to utility consumers. That point alone should alarm every household and every consumer of gas and electricity. Another ENRON experience is at hand if State and Federal lawmakers do not pause. In a recent agreement NERC enjoys some authority from FERC. The GOA report did note FERC personnel issues when gathering the evidence presented in the report.

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After a wonderful summer filled with visiting family, vacationing and farming, Hamish Nichol passed away on August 23rd, 2009.

Born on Christmas Day in 1924, Hamish grew up at Ericsberg, the family farm near Underberg, South Africa, with brother Bill and sister Marion, who have predeceased him. Soon after graduating from Maritzburg College, he entered the South African Navy and then the Royal Navy, serving as a sub-lieutenant in the Royal Navy in WWII on destroyers in the Atlantic and Mediterranean.  He returned to university in South Africa until 1947 when he won a scholarship to Trinity College, Cambridge. In Birmingham and London, he studied neurology and psychiatry, before moving to New York to specialize in child psychiatry at the Albert Einstein Institute.

He came to Vancouver in 1961, driving across the country on his trusty Rambler, “Mac the Knife”.  He taught psychiatry at the University of British Columbia and it was at the Faculty Club that he met Christine who became his wife of 44 years. He retired from UBC in 1989 but continued to work at the Pacific Voice Clinic of the Vancouver General Hospital and in private practice, with a busy schedule right until his passing.

The summer they met, he and Christine built a cabin on Thormanby Island, and with his family spent many happy summers fishing, fixing, swimming and running the three-legged race on Sports Day.

In 1977, he fulfilled his passion outside of medicine when he began farming seed potatoes in the Pemberton Valley. For 32 harvests, he enlisted friends and family as planters, sorters, diggers, drivers and reluctant mechanics with the promise of good food and good company.

He was also a hockey and rugby fan, a fisherman and a sailor. He believed himself to have been very fortunate throughout his life, and tried to repay that by helping others in any way he could.  He has been involved professionally and personally in many causes sharing his beliefs in social justice.

Damien Gillis on Kootenay Co-op Radio's EcoCentric - hosted by Lee-Ann Unger.  An in-depth discussion of the BC Utilities' Commission's rejection of private power - and the larger ramifications of the private river power gold rush in BC. Click here to listen (MP3).