Statement by Colin Hansen, posted on YouTube on April 8, 2009:

I think, first of all, that we have to recognize that British Columbia is a net importer of electricity. We seem to think that, with all the tremendous hydorelectric generating capacity we have, that we are a huge exporter. Well, we do export some, but we are a net importer, from Washington State, which largely produces their electricity from dirty coal, and also from Alberta, which uses a lot of natural gas in their electicity production. So I think it's incumbent on British Columbia to develop its own source of needed electricity. And quite frankly, the independent power projects are the best source of that, where we can encourage small companies to build small scale hydroelectric projects that are run of the river, and what that means is, instead of having a big reservoir, a big dam that backs water up, and creates a great big lake, these are run of the river, so the river continues to flow at its nomal stream, but we capture some of the energy in the form of hydroelectric power from this. And again, from the perspective of some of the opposition, they would have you believe that every single river in British Columbia is being impacted. In reality, it is .03% of the rivers in British Columbia that could sustain any kind of hydroelectric activity, are being used for these independent power projects. So, it's being widely supported by many of the leading environmentalists, because it's clean and sustainable. It's also being supported by many of the First Nations communities in the province. So, I think that we have to look behind the scenes on this, and really question who is funding the opposition, and clearly they have their own agenda, and in my view, it's not a responsible environmental agenda.