Posts by Marvin Shaffer

Marvin Shaffer

About Marvin Shaffer

Marvin Shaffer is a consulting economist and adjunct professor in the Public Policy Program at Simon Fraser University. He has a PhD in Economics from the University of British Columbia and received his BA, Honours in Economics, from McGill University. Marvin has managed his own consulting firm specializing in energy, transportation and natural resource economics for over thirty years.

Marvin previously held senior positions with the Government of British Columbia (head of the Crown Corporations Secretariat and Chief Executive Officer of the British Columbia Transportation Financing Authority). As well, he lectured in economics at the University of British Columbia, and at the University of Queensland and University of Tasmania in Australia. Follow Marvin on Twitter

Time to redesign BC’s GHG policy

Oct 8, 2013
By
No matter where you stand on GHGs and climate change, one thing is very clear. British Columbia GHG policy is a mess. It is not just that GHG reduction targets were legislated without any credible plan to achieve them and, given our current industrial strategy, little prospect of doing so. It is the complete lack… View Article

Deconstructing BC Hydro’s Rate Increase

Sep 14, 2013
By
When the government imposed its Energy Plan on BC Hydro it never bothered to estimate the costs (or for that matter the benefits) of what it hoped to achieve. Ardent supporters of that Plan, like my good friend Mark Jaccard, constructed scenarios under which it would make sense to force BC Hydro to buy more… View Article

A Misdirected Response to a Self-Inflicted Problem

Aug 26, 2013
By
The essence of BC Hydro’s Integrated Resource Plan (IRP) is straightforward. Maintain aggressive conservation targets and plan to build Site C as soon as possible in order to meet the forecast growth in British Columbia’s basic electricity requirements. As for LNG, the energy needed for the liquefaction process is expected to be met by the… View Article

Get a grip indeed

Jul 2, 2013
By
One wonders if the Globe and Mail’s intrepid Victoria correspondent, Justine Hunter, appreciates the irony of her weekend dispatch on Energy Minister Bill Bennett’s ‘vow’ to rein in BC Hydro spending. Pretty well everything Bennett promised to do, and that Ms Hunter dutifully reported, completely missed the point of what ails BC Hydro and what has… View Article

Big Numbers – Big Lies

May 22, 2013
By
The election results were disheartening; it was, as many have commented, a victory of style over substance. Hope for something unachievable (a debt free B.C. in fifteen years) and fear of a leader and party that does not exist (an untrustworthy Chavez of the north) won the day. It was not a great moment for… View Article

The Green Part of Green

May 10, 2013
By
Unlike a number of green advocates, political and otherwise, I think there can be some significant benefit for British Columbians from the development of LNG exports, particularly if issues around the supply and pricing of electricity, and the regulation and offset of industry GHG emissions are properly addressed. Nevertheless, I do agree with those who argue… View Article

Debt Free BC?

May 4, 2013
By
It is pretty clear that the election-inspired promise of a debt free BC is not to be taken seriously. There is no credible market analysis indicating that the royalties from B.C. LNG exports would be sufficient to do that in 15 years, as the Premier would have it. The potential for increased gas supply from… View Article

Project Mania

Apr 26, 2013
By
One can excuse politicians in the heat of a campaign of simplifying issues and seeking out tags and slags in lieu of substantive debate. But there is no excuse for leading columnists of major newspapers, like Barbara Yaffe in her most recent attack on the BC NDP, to do the same. Yaffe raises the spectre… View Article

Tea Party Tactics

Feb 7, 2013
By
There is no question that climate change is one of the major issues of our time . And we do need to challenge our political leaders to state clearly what plans and strategies they have both to reduce GHG emissions and to prepare for the changes that are already happening and likely to intensify. However,… View Article

Time for a Serious Conversation about Natural Gas

Jun 22, 2012
By
It is pretty clear that the government’s ill-conceived Energy Plan is falling apart. The near religious call for self-sufficiency has been moderated (though not sensibly changed) and the legislated requirement for insurance eliminated. The plan to develop run-of-river and wind IPPs for export has been abandoned. The problem of charging major new industrial customers less… View Article