I recently told a right wing friend of mine that this is the worst government British Columbia has had in a very long time. I said that not because of its political orientation and values that time and again favour the interests of the wealthy over the less fortunate in a rather shameless way. I said it because of the gross incompetence it is exhibiting in so many areas, but particularly when it comes to BC Hydro.
The government’s policy here is a simple one. First, force BC Hydro to buy more power than it needs by ignoring its ability to import power when extreme drought conditions reduce the generating capability of its major hydro stations. And ignoring the downstream power benefits that are returned to (and owned by) the province under the Columbia River Treaty — an amount of power equal to the potential output from Site C. And most recently by pretending the Burrard Thermal plant doesn’t exist — that it can’t provide any back up in emergency drought conditions even though we have to maintain the plant to be able to meet peak winter capacity requirements.
Next, artificially increase the demand for electricity with what I like to call a buy high-sell low policy of charging new electric intensive mines less than half the cost of the new electricity supply BC Hydro must acquire to meet their requirements — an effective subsidy of tens of millions of dollars per year per mine.
And finally, force BC Hydro to look only to the private sector to develop new sources of energy, no matter how costly and low in value many of these sources are or what cumulative environmental impacts they have.
You do, in this process, create an artificial private power producer (IPP) industry. And politically you reap the rewards of mindless consulting reports, uncritically regurgitated in the mainstream press, touting all the investment and jobs that will be created. And there is the green veneer — the suggestion that building more power plants and transmission lines than you need, and encouraging more electric (and GHG) intensive mines with effectively subsidized power rates is somehow good for the environment.
But of course the investment and jobs in the IPP industry and electric intensive mining industry don’t come for free. They are being paid for by BC Hydro, which in turn passes on the extraordinary costs it is being forced to incur to you and me. The bill for all this, by which I mean not the total cost, but the extra costs due to the unnecessary, inefficient and, I would argue, environmentally unfriendly government policy is well over a billion dollars — easily heading for two. A billion or two we don’t have to spend, that you could spend in other ways, generating jobs and investment just like the IPPs. A billion or two that essentially strips BC Hydro of the net benefits we all could have shared in.
Not once through all the announcements and media spin (sadly spun by the mainstream media reporters themselves) has there been any analysis of the benefits and costs of what the government is forcing BC Hydro to do. Simple measures, for example the amount and cost per tonne of any net reduction in GHGs, or the effective subsidy per job, would be not too much to ask. But there is no justification, only slogans and press releases.
It is, as I said to my right wing friend, either corruption or stupidity. Except for the obvious influence of election support, I’m not a conspiracy theorist myself — I think it’s stupidity. But either way it still is a disgrace — much worse than anything I saw in the Clark or Harcourt governments or the Socred governments that preceded them.
Melissa Davis // Nov 3, 2009 at 2:25 pm
I’m in full agreement… although more inclined to assign the corruption label to the provincial government. Public Affairs teams are working overtime to re-position themselves on electricity sector issues in BC.
Back in early September, around the time the provincial government presented its revised budget, public affairs teams introduced some creative new messaging on this issue–backpedaling their earlier claims about an energy crisis in British Columbia–and repositioning their intention to export privately produced power to the US as part of its leadership role in the fight against climate change. The people of this province aren’t fooled. They know that many of the proposed private power projects carry significant environmental impacts–to our forests, water, fish, and wildlife–and that the only thing ‘green’ about these companies is the colour of the money they are siphoning from our Crown utility and into their shareholders’ pockets… $31 billion in energy purchase agreements… and counting.
Graeme Simpson // Nov 3, 2009 at 2:51 pm
This is a government completely out of control and totally beholden to the IPP industry. The whole strategy for green energy development in BC makes absolutely no economic sense. The government is dreaming in technicolour if they think that PNW or California utilities will pay $120/MWh at site for wind power generated in the Peace River, plus the costs of capacity backup and shipping over the various transmission networks. The likely result is that ratepayers in BC will be left holding the bag on the significant differential between the buy and sell prices for these resources. Also, the number of jobs created by new IPP project development in BC will be miniscule since all major equipment will come from either the US or Europe. I thought this government was elected to serve the interest of British Columbians, not line the pockets of a few IPP developers.
BC Government Must Explain Why It is Not Corrupt « PolicyCentre.ca // Nov 5, 2009 at 2:54 pm
[...] the recent behavior of the BC Liberals in setting hydro electricity policy. (See Marvin Shaffer at http://www.policynote.ca/2009/11/03/you-dont-have-to-sell-bc-hydro-to-give-it-away/ [...]
David Mayes // Nov 10, 2009 at 8:10 pm
There is something rotten in Denmark, as regards BC complacency about water…Hydrological forecasting is a BC Hydro secret. Some environmental groups seems to be completely satisfied that we will have more water than less, and that we should exploit it. Even if true does this sound like good policy?
Huh?
Rafe Mair Online » Blog Archive » SFU Profs Slam Campbell’s Energy Plan // Nov 19, 2009 at 2:17 pm
[...] Marvin Shaffer, an acknowledged power expert also from SFU, confirms this analysis, concluding that the Campbell government “force[s] BC Hydro to look only to the private [...]
Rod Smelser // Dec 27, 2009 at 1:23 pm
I wonder why the commercial mass media, and for that matter the CBC, are unwilling to take a more critical stance towards privately produced electricity? Are they bedazzled, perhaps, by celebrity telenvironmentalists and their legions of wide-eyed disciples into believing that GHG-free power is necessarily beyond reproach?
I have heard some other experts claim, without proof, that this approach, smaller-scale hydro and wind projects developed by independent producers, is the trend around the world. Well, what about neighbouring American states such as Washington, Oregon and Alaska? Are their electric utility companies buying run-of-river electricity from other companies, and if so, what kinds of prices are they paying? What kind of bid procedure do they use and how are environmental and recreational impacts measured?