Dr. McArthur (SFU) on Private Power...

Little Hawk

Active Member
Rafe Mair forwarded this, yet another scathing expose' on Campbell's private power scam.

November 19, 2009 in Current Events, environmental policy, provincial politics |

A few days ago I argued that the sole reason the BC Campbell government ordered BC Hydro to take the Burrard Thermal gas generating station off its base supply is to make room for newly rich private owners of high cost hydro plants to make piles of money at our expense. Campbell claims it is to reduce the production of green house gases. This needs to be sorted out.

Under his plan, expensive private suppliers will supposedly make up the energy supply gap that BC Hydro is legally required to fill as a result of the government's order to pull Burrard Thermal . Who cares that the gap was created by a stroke of Campbell's pen? Not being able to count Burrard Thermal means that BC Hydro, whom the government will not permit to invest in cheap plants for expansion, must take power generated by the expensive and environmentally destructive private hydro plants being developed all over the province. Worse, this power won't be there when it is most needed. Burrard Thermal produces cheap and efficient energy during the parts of the year when BC water levels are low and BC Hydro water generated power is available in limited amounts. Private hydro producers supported by government guarantees to buy their electricity can't produce much energy during these parts of the year, for the same reasons. They can't fill the gap. So now BC Hydro will have to go to expensive private suppliers elsewhere who also burn gas or coal during these periods. Ironically the net affect will be more greenhouse gases.

I was attacked by more than one defender of the government for suggesting that the motive for Campbell's policy was profit for his friends in the private power sector at the expense of BC Hydro customers. They said I was wrong, and that Campbell's real motivation is, as he claims, to cut back on the amount of BC natural gas burned. In so doing, they claim, he intends to reduce the amount of greenhouse gases created from burning BC gas.

I tried to confirm that the gas burned at Burrard Thermal would be held back rather than burned elsewhere. I was told quite the opposite. His own Ministry said that there are no plans to take that gas off the market. Rather it will be sold to be burned elsewhere, adding as much or more greenhouse gases to the atmosphere.

Further eroding the credibility of Campbell's claim, we have the announcement that Nexen Inc. will spend $200 million on the government's Horn River shale gas field over the next year to quadruple its current output of gas to be sold and burned, pumping a huge amount of additional carbon into the atmosphere. Nexen added in its statement that the company plans to triple its gas capacity from the area again in the following 12 months. All of this thanks to the policy of this government.

The company will drill eight 1,800-metre horizontal wells this winter and use 18 fracture stimulations in each well to destroy the rock and drain and waste vast amounts of scarce water, just to allow the gas to be recovered. In last year's program, the company was using only 10 fractures per well. Which means more damage to the environment from this government's Alice in Wonderland energy policies, where nothing is what it seems.

The government's electricity plan makes no sense in terms of green energy. It only makes sense if the intention is to use us, the consumers, to line the pockets of the high cost private power producers. That is not the role of government. This whole policy needs to be opened up to public scrutiny. But the government has directed the BC Utilities Commission to accept it without review, which is in fact to rob it of its role. Don't you wonder what's going on here?
 
The Campbell Liberal government loses credibility every day. They should not be allowed to continue their plans to destroy the economy of this province. How can these people be stopped?
 
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