Topic
Struggling penny stock firm with light cash reserves lands major wind power agreements.
Finavera may reap a wind-powered windfall.
Wind power is in vogue, but is B.C. failing to set sail?
Led by two former Accenture executives who spearheaded the 2003 privatization of BC Hydro and Power Authority's back-office operations, a little-known, three-and-a-half year-old company with negligible cash reserves and an accumulated deficit in excess of $41 million scored a stunning win two weeks ago when it was awarded four much sought-after electricity purchase agreements from the province's largest Crown corporation.
Finavera Renewables Inc. was picked by Hydro on March 11 to develop four wind farms in north-eastern B.C. -- three near Tumbler Ridge, and another outside Chetwynd. Together, they are expected to generate over 800 gigawatt hours of electricity annually once construction is completed in 2014.
Seven years ago, Peter Leighton, Finavera's president and chief operating officer, was executive vice-president and chief financial officer at Accenture Business Services of British Columbia Limited Partnership (ABS). The company was a subsidiary established by Accenture -- a world-wide consultancy firm, then-headquartered for tax purposes in Bermuda -- to take over B.C. Hydro's administrative and business support functions.
The privatization was negotiated primarily by John Icke, then president of another Accenture subsidiary, Accenture Business Strategies for Utilities Inc.
Icke has been described by BusinessWeek as a co-founder of Finavera, which was established in late 2006, but he did not join the company's board of directors until December 2007. Re-elected to the Finavera board last September, Icke suddenly resigned that position on February 12 -- just four weeks before the company scored its big win with BC Hydro -- but has retained options to purchase hundreds of thousands of the company's common shares.
Leighton and Icke are long-time business associates and continue to share interests in such entities as Cue Resources Ltd., a junior mining company with a uranium play in Uruguay.
Now Leighton and Icke and other Finavera insiders and shareholders stand to make millions from having their four projects selected under BC Hydro's clean power call.
The four wind farms, according to a company news release issued after Hydro's surprising award, "have the potential to generate over $100 million annually in revenue once they are fully operational." Those are pretty impressive revenues, especially considering that the company has been unable to generate any receipts since its inception in late 2006.
Accenture: a brief history
Accenture has its roots in the 1980s and 1990s, a period that saw extensive consolidation and realignment amongst the world's biggest accounting firms. After numerous mergers and acquisitions, the largest by the end of the century had become "the Big 5" -- Ernst & Young, Deloitte & Touche, Peat Marwick, Pricewaterhouse Coopers, and Arthur Anderson.
A decade or so earlier, the latter firm had established a management advisory division, Anderson Consulting. Before long, the consulting entity had grown to a size (in terms of revenues and employees) that rivaled its parent. Acrimony ensued amongst the principals over an appropriate division of the spoils.
Events in 2001 proved momentous. Arthur Anderson became ensnared in the infamous Enron scandal and was subsequently convicted of various criminal offenses. After dissolution, bits and pieces of the firm were acquired by the other accounting giants, which became the "Big 4."
Anderson Consulting severed all ties with Arthur Anderson and renamed itself as Accenture. In the summer of 2001, the firm was listed on the New York Stock Exchange.
Although the bulk of the consulting company's business was (and is) done out of its offices in New York and Chicago, the firm's headquarters initially was located in Bermuda, allegedly to minimize U.S. taxes. In 2009, the company moved to Ireland and became Accenture plc.
Accenture and BC Hydro
The year Arthur Anderson imploded and Anderson Consulting became Accenture also witnessed the election of Gordon Campbell's BC Liberals to government in British Columbia. Campbell had campaigned on the promise to protect from privatization BC Hydro and Power Authority, the so-called "jewel" among B.C.'s Crown corporations. But within a few months after taking power in May of 2001, the Campbell government instructed Hydro to issue a Request for Expressions of Interest (RFEI) to find a private-sector firm willing to take on such tasks as billing, human resources, office management, payroll, purchasing and information technology, to mention just a few.
By the spring of 2002, Hydro had selected Accenture from amongst 19 applicants. The deal, signed nearly a year later on Feb. 28, 2003, committed B.C.'s biggest Crown corporation to paying a newly-created Accenture subsidiary -- Accenture Business Services of British Columbia Limited Partnership (ABS) -- headed by Peter Leighton, a total of $1.45 billion over a 10-year period.
BC Hydro soon transferred nearly 1,600 staff to the new entity, which boasted a board of directors composed of three Hydro and four Accenture executives. Among the former were Larry Bell (then-chair of the Crown corporation), Bob Elton (later BC Hydro's president and CEO, now retired), and Jay Grewal (then-Hydro's director of business development, a BC Liberal appointee to the board of governors at UBC, and now Accenture's managing partner).
The latter's representatives included John Icke, Mary Tolan (who since has become head of an Accenture off-shoot, Accretive Health in Chicago), Etienne Deffarges (also now with Accretive Health) and David Harrison.
Leighton was Accenture's signatory on the privatization contract.
Accenture's billings climb to more than $1 billion
The contract between Hydro and Accenture committed the Crown corporation to paying ABS approximately $150 million in 2003/04; $141 million in 2004/05; $134 million in 2005/06; $127 million in 2006/07; $125 million in 2007/08; and $614 million thereafter. (All figures in 2003 dollars.)
Actual payments appear to be running well in excess of those figures, however. In 2003/04, instead of $150 million, Hydro actually paid ABS nearly $206 million. The next year, as opposed to the contracted $141 million (discounted), Hydro paid ABS almost $165 million.
In the first six years of its contract with the province's largest Crown, Accenture Business Services has received payments totaling in excess of $1.1 billion.
The ten-year contract between Hydro and ABS is set to expire in the spring of 2013, mere weeks before the next scheduled provincial-general election.
Among many bidders, Finavera wins big
In 2003, at about the same time that BC Hydro was moving employees and operations to Accenture, the Campbell government continued to reshape British Columbia's "jewel" Crown by passing legislation that hived-off the corporation's transmission lines and other operations to a newly-created entity, BC Transmission Corporation.
BC Liberal efforts to slim-down Hydro resumed in the summer of 2008, when the Crown corporation issued a "Clean Power Call," asking interested private-sector firms to submit proposals "for the supply of electrical energy qualifying as clean or renewable electricity ... from Projects located in British Columbia."
Up to 5,000 gigawatt hours per year was to be purchased by Hydro from so-called independent power producers. Seventy-five such companies -- including Finavera Renewables Inc. -- quickly registered as proponents.
More than a year later, in November 2009, the Crown corporation announced that it was studying 47 projects -- ranging from run-of-river hydro, to wind farms and waste-heat -- submitted by 31 private-sector companies. Four were from Finavera.
Finally, on March 11, BC Hydro announced that it had awarded Electricity Purchase Agreements for more than 2,400 gigawatt hours to 19 proposals submitted by 10 proponents.
Little-known Finavera snagged four of the EPAs, for a total 813 gigawatt hours annually -- about one-third of the total -- of wind-generated electricity.
Icke joined Finavera board in 2007
John Icke was president of Accenture Business Services for Utilities from February 2003 until March 2005. He then left to devote his efforts to a personal consultancy, JRI Strategy Consultants.
One of the companies he worked with was Longview Capital Partners, which in December 2006 engineered a reverse takeover whereby Finavera Energy Canada Inc. -- a subsidiary of a company based in Ireland (where Accenture plc's head offices have since been relocated from Bermuda) -- amalgamated with the publicly listed Cascade Minerals Inc. The new company began trading as Finavera Renewables Inc. on the TSE Venture Exchange in January 2007.
By December of that year, Icke had joined Finavera's board of directors, and a few weeks later, in January 2008, he became president and chief operating officer of Longview Capital.
According to a company news release dated January 4, 2007, Longview (which has since changed its name to Resinco Capital Partners) then owned as many as 8.9 million shares in Finavera Renewables.
Icke personally had acquired 200,000 of Finavera's common shares in early 2008, at about the same time that he joined Finavera's board and officially began working at Longview. He sold those shares (at a small loss) in December 2009, but still owns options to purchase as many as 800,000 common shares before their expiration in December 2012.
Peter Leighton joined Finavera as president and chief operating officer in October 2008, and in the summer of 2009 he acquired two million of the company's common shares. He also owns 200,000 options and two million warrants.
Stock tumbled, deficit passed $41 million
The price of Finavera Renewable's shares fell badly after it began trading in January 2007. The stock traded as high as 83 cents upon opening, but ended the year down at 34 cents. By the close of 2008, the company's shares had fallen to just four cents, and in February 2009 slipped further to three pennies.
At the beginning of 2010, Finavera's shares were trading in the five-to-six cent range, but on March 12 -- one day after the company's four wind-farm projects won approval from BC Hydro -- they spiked as high as 18 cents.
The company's plummeting share price accurately reflected Finavera's on-going financial struggles.
In the company's most recent annual report (for 2008/09), it was reported that Finavera's financial statements had been prepared "on the basis of accounting principles applicable to a going concern ... [but] there are conditions and events that cast significant doubt on the validity of that assumption."
Mostly that was because Finavera "has not generated any income and relies entirely upon its shareholders, investors and related parties for financing."
It added, "The Company has incurred losses since inception. At December 31, 2008, it has a working capital deficiency of $4,561,614, shareholders' deficiency of $4,496,699, and has an accumulated deficit of $38,459,685."
Finavera's latest financial report, for the nine months ended on Sept. 30, 2009, shows the company's accumulated deficit climbing past $41 million. Furthermore, it looked to be burning through cash at the rate of nearly $120,000 each month, and had cash reserves of just $334,075.
At the beginning of this year, Finavera seemed to be operating on fumes. The company gained some breathing space in February by closing a private placement which raised $142,000 from the sale of more than 2.8 million units of shares and warrants at five cents apiece.
A golden opportunity
Then, on March 11, everything changed. With BC Hydro's surprising award of four Electricity Purchase Agreements, Finavera's prospects have been transformed from bleak to golden.
The capital cost of the four wind-farms is estimated at $800 million. With yearly revenues projected at above $100 million, Finavera -- according to this writer's rough calculations -- stands to make annual profits of $25 million or more over the course of a 30-year contract with BC Hydro.
As Accenture -- and Peter Leighton and John Icke -- discovered in 2003, it can be extraordinarily profitable to secure regular, long-term payments from BC Hydro. Now Finavera -- under Leighton's and Icke's guidance -- stands to similarly enjoy huge financial rewards. ![[Tyee]](http://thetyee.cachefly.net/ui/img/ico_fishie.png){kind=small}
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freebear
3 years ago
Isn't that conveeeeeeeenient!
EDITED FOR LEGAL CONCERNS -- TYEE EDITOR
oeanda
3 years ago
Oh, Tyee...
...you bring me up with the knowlege that journalism is still alive.
Then you bring me down with a dose of reality.
Takuan
3 years ago
no wonder they've always
EDITED FOR VULGARITY AND LEGAL CONCERNS -- TYEE EDITOR
mary jane
3 years ago
EDITED
edited for legal concerns -- tyee moderator
Angela
3 years ago
Accenture
thank you so much for that detailed background on Accenture - now it all makes sense!
ted...
3 years ago
How do I become , "A Friend " of Accenture ...?
You got to admire Gordon-Cambell's Liberals.
"Open & Accountable" mean's "open for Business" , and "accountable to their Friends" ...!
How do I become one of these so called friends ...?
( do I have to sell my soul )
----- How did we wind up in a "Kingdom" ,
where the "Prince's & and their CRONY'S" share the spoils ...?
ted... ( what a Dem-Mockery they've made )
Ps , I'm sure it's all "Legal" and stuff ...!
( ie: they've changed he rules" enough times )
mikev
3 years ago
heave
The fact that low impact sources of energy are coming on line is fantastic. The way it's being gone about is fu... well just disgusting I guess, restrain myself, don't want to get EDITED!
If only there was a provincial political party with the balls to campaign on a platform of ripping up these contracts and nationalizing the facilities. That would get me going to demonstrations and going door to door talking to my neighbours.
Ripping up the contracts the same way the Liberals ripped up contracts with the unions.
Nationalizing the facilities in the same way the Liberals privatized things like the Abbotsford hospital and BC Rail.
These shenanigans are such obvious weak spots in the supposed economic master skills of the Liberals. How smart is it to guarantee above market rates for the electricity generated? I don't see much if any free market happening with these contracts, just plain old obvious corporate welfare. Supported on the backs of the rate payers. Gouging working families to make sure that corporate executives don't have to go without.
If only there was a provincial political party with the balls to make these things an issue.
Please keep this up Tyee, these are the kind of details that real journalists are supposed to come up with. You empower us, thank you.
(Maybe I shouldn't say balls, maybe that's sexist of me, guts? gumption? Fuck it I'm pissed off!)
Stephanie
3 years ago
Accenture & Gordy and the Boys
Thanks Tyee, for good info and the appalling truth.
"The more I know about people, the more I dislike being one"
Just how can we get the "back room" dealings of Gordy & Co into the public eyes (and brains!) and keep it there long enough to get through the next provincial election? Is there any law that can be used (legally, not "their" way!) to at least try to limit the ongoing harm G&C are (and will be) doing to both this province and the people thereof? Is there anybody out there who can start the ball rolling on total recall? Is there anyone out there who is willing to assist with total anarchy, in an intelligent and effective manner?
I am so grossly embarrassed to say that I am a British Columbian anymore, when we are represented by the worst of the worst, with the worst of all human capabilities - greed, dishonour, lying, etc.
PS Those of you who were editted for content and legal reasons, could you calm down enough now to actually tell us what your message would have been? I'm asking honestly, no sarcasm intended...
demotto
3 years ago
Legal concerns
The gangsters, war criminals, thieves and perverts who are our supposed representatives are never going to bring a lawsuit in which their crimes will be revealed. Grow a pair Tyee.
Nathaniel Sabanski
3 years ago
Lies from Mr. Campbell and our money going out of the country.
BC Hydro and our own citizens should be doing these jobs.
EDITED FOR LEGAL CONCERNS -- TYEE EDITOR
mopled
3 years ago
Nobody would be considering windpower
if it weren't for the AGW scam. This is what makes this report even more sick making. These "opportunities" would never have been considered without the artificial need to "lower our carbon footprints."
Isn't it time to pull the plug on the climate swindle?
demotto
3 years ago
What to do
Fire them all. Quit paying all taxes, quit putting license plates and insurance on your automobiles unless engaged in commerce, quit using banks, basically be responsible to each other for our actions and do no harm and most of all read the Acts and Statutes and use them to our advantage instead of letting some bureaucrat bully us into the belief they hold some power over us. They do not they work for us in case you have all forgotten they derive their power through our permission so revoke it just say no. They have no power unless we give it to them. I do not give mine. It is your choice of whether or not to be responsible for yourselves or let the state take care of you from cradle to grave. If we choose to be children all our lives they will gladly steal all our labour, if that is the choice quit whining and let them change our diapers for us or we can grow up and look after ourselves. I prefer freedom not servitude.
patron
3 years ago
Finavera
what effect does anyone think that their diluted stock base will have on their future stock value ( 270 million + shares out there )
Nathaniel Sabanski
3 years ago
Re: mopled
While I respect your opinion, I feel you are wrong because this issue started months after Gordon Campbell first took office in 2001 (as this article mentions).
The issue here is government corruption, and it would be happening regardless of it being wind power or anything else.
Hugh
3 years ago
Does BC Hydro actually need
Does BC Hydro actually need the electricity from these projects? I doubt it.
Nathaniel Sabanski
3 years ago
Re: Hugh
Not at all, but it's imposed privatization, so yes. See: http://www.strategicthoughts.com/record2005/privatehydro.html
"The private sector will develop new electricity generation, with BC Hydro restricted to improvements at existing plants."
Hugh
3 years ago
So BC Hydro has to pay for
So BC Hydro has to pay for the electricity from these projects, whether it needs it or not.
Does this explain why, according to the BC Budget, our hydro rates are going up 33% in the next few years?
shabbaranks
3 years ago
A couple of contentious
A couple of contentious points to a well researched and thorough article: According to TSX Venture Exchange rules, on which Finavera trades, stock options expire 90 days after a director's resignation, regardless of their original expiry date.
Unless Icke is staying on in some capacity with the company, he shouldn't be able to continue to profit off any future successes of the company due to his insider status. The fact that he sold his shares at a loss suggests he is of the opinion that Finavera will never succeed, an opinion he is not alone on.
This article also suggests some dirty business links that those of us who are quick to judgement will latch on to. Are we really to believe that the location of Accenture in Ireland has something to do with a Finavera-based conspiracy? Finavera is small potatoes. Ireland has a booming economy, one of the few success stories in Europe. That's a good place for a business consultancy to be. They may also have attractive taxation laws that any shrewd multi-national would want to take advantage of. There is no connection to Finavera in this decision.
The last sentence in the article suggests that Icke and Leighton are running things at Finavera. Icke resigned. And he took a loss on his shares. That doesn't sound like someone with faith in, profiting or running the company, does it?
NONE of the company's stock options are currently priced below what the stock is trading at and very few of their warrants are. The company is not a cash cow for the "backroom boys". It remains to be seen if it ever will be.
Full disclosure: I own about 3,000 shares in Finavera I bought at $0.40. I was excited when they got contracts, but the stock price has yet to get to a point where I've made a wise investment (on the backs of my fellow BC taxpayers no less). Understand that pretty much NO ONE has made any money off of the privatisation of power in BC. Yet. Maybe ever.
The positive outcomes of Finavera's success, which should be noted are: jobs in the Peace region in the construction and operation of these projects and a new era in BC where power can be created without having to flood a valley or burn diesel or gas. Not a bad trade off.
ted...
3 years ago
Dear Hugh
Dear Hugh, my hydro bill goes up another $7.oo
The money will come from what's left of my welfare-cheque
ie: from my food budget.
Hugh , the rates are going up so that the Gov can GRAB one more meal out of my mouth, and give it to some excecutives & a CEO or two ...!!!!!!
;{-
poor things , I feel for them
ted... ( even it's only hunger pains )
Hugh
3 years ago
shabbaranks,
"Understand that pretty much NO ONE has made any money off of the privatisation of power in BC."
So all those companies are building IPPs just for the fun of it?
G West
3 years ago
ireland has a booming economy?
Don't think so shabbaranks. Your perceptions are about a mile short of reality. In fact, Ireland, along with Portugal, Greece and Spain, are economic basket cases.
That's why they've earned the acronym PIGS. I have some very good Irish friends - who spent several weeks in BC last summer - things were bad then, and they've gotten a lot worse since.
If you don't believe me, check out the Irish media:
http://www.anphoblacht.com/news/detail/39560
G West
3 years ago
shabbaranks
Should mention, there are actually two nations vying for the 'I' in PIGS - the other one, not surprisingly, is Italy.
Tieleman
3 years ago
Great investigative journalism by Will McMartin
This is exactly the kind of reporting British Columbians need - and often only find at The Tyee. Congrats to Will for a great piece of investigative journalism - more please!
shabbaranks
3 years ago
Okay fine, Ireland had a
Okay fine, Ireland had a booming economy. Likely that it will improve again. Economist Article ftw http://www.economist.com/world/europe/displaystory.cfm?story_id=15331237
Intention Pure
3 years ago
What mopled and demotto said!
I agree with mopled and demotto. If anyone in power actually gave a CRAP about people in BC (or Canada, or the US or anywhere!) they would be outfitting every home with a wind turbine, or a pelton wheel, or a solar panel (one that actually works not what the big corps have made) like done in Europe. Take the power back and take full responsibility for your own electrical needs while eliminating your electrical wants. Gordo's plan is to bankrupt and dismantle every Crown corp in Canada, and eliminate Crown land as public land that they are supposed to hold in trust, as the fudciary agent, with the public as the benefactor. But, alas, how will we "harmonize" with the US in the North American Union when Canada remains a Constitutional Monarchy and the US is a Republic. First it was BC Tel, then BC Rail, then BC Ferries, then BC Gas, then removal of appurtenancy for our forest and those who harvest it, then raw log export, then BC Hydro, then Canada Post, then Public Schools, then Public Health Care, then Crown land and water rights. Then we are a Republic! Then the major orchestrated devaluation of money while our debt will remain the same. Then the majority of homeowners are insolvent and homeless. Then we get the Amero to save us. We have lost our Canadian sovereignty already.
OilbertaRedTory
3 years ago
Nobody would consider oil power
if it weren't for the subsidies:
http://tinyurl.com/RenewingBarriers
and 'corruption opportunities'
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/14/world/middleeast/14rebuild.html
and PR spinners
http://tinyurl.com/BeyondPropoganda
Even in Campbell's British Coal-umbia:
http://tinyurl.com/BC-Petro-state
Isn't it time to end the corporate oil swindles ?
http://dirtdiggersdigest.org/archives/327
Isn't it time to end all corporate swindles ?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xu5RAM_M0dU&feature=related
freebear
3 years ago
Propectors and Developers-not actual operators!
There are other examples - Sea Breeze Energy comes to mind.
THey have no intention of building the wind farm; just 'selling the data and environmental certificate' to the next bunch of cronies.
We need renewable energy, but not for more of the same development!
It does not make sense to me to impose water meters and water and electricity conservation, only to 'eat up' that water energy saving by allowing 45,000 more people in the Comox Valley (for example).
The same as if we current drivers reduce our mileage and thus emissions; only to have that 'saving' gobbled up by more 'growth'
Dukeboy
3 years ago
EDITED
EDITED FOR LEGAL CONCERNS
Intention Pure
3 years ago
Conservation of water and electricity
Yes, I agree, I conserve and think about what I use and why so that I can sleep at night, not because I think it really impacts the overall scene. What water I save by not using goes into a hydro dam on the Columbia river to be used by some neon sign in Las Vegas. And what electricity I save by not using will be sold for corporate profit (at least right now it is Crown corporation profit - not GE profit). They impose water meters to encorage conservation . . . RIGHT. . . actually the water meters are a CONDITION of the public-private-partnerships (P3s) being imposed on our public infastructure and are being installed so that water systems can be privitized and water can be commodified and sold for profit. Water is a human right not a commodity.
mopled
3 years ago
It is a world-wide fleecing
Nathanial Sabanski may not know how long the AGW scam has been planned on an international level. The UNEP 1972 Stockholm Conference made an unsubstantiated connection between climate and pollution and the rest followed. It was just a new variant of the "create a problem in order to sell the solution" scam. In the Liberals' own words:
"British Columbia's increasing energy requirements and our ambitious greenhouse gas emission reduction and clean energy targets require greater investment and innovation in the area of alternative energy by both the public and private sector.
To lead this effort, the government will establish an Innovative Clean Energy Fund of $25 million to help promising clean power technology projects succeed. The fund will be established through a small charge on energy utilities. The Minister of Energy, Mines and Petroleum Resources will consult with the energy utilities on the implementation of this charge."
http://www.energyplan.gov.bc.ca/bcep/default.aspx?hash=6
Campbell & Co.have been building on the lie that CO2 can change climate. They fit right in to the generalized appropriation of public assets going on by government insiders the world over. They have ponied their local schemes on public credulity generated by an international propaganda campaign of historical proportions. The same snake oil "clean energy" is being peddled all over the place at great cost to both the environment and to taxpayers.
It is worth reading Australian climate scientist, editor of the journal, Energy & Environment, Sonja Boehmer-Christiansen's submission to the UK Parliament:
http://blogs.news.com.au/heraldsun/andrewbolt/index.php/heraldsun/comments/how_government_cash_created_the_climategate_scandal#68680
freebear
3 years ago
MMMM...edited for legal concerns?
Becoming like an edited letters to the editor here; may leave for good!
G West
3 years ago
Not so good any more = Ireland
Same sort of analysis applies to BC - not so good anymore...I don't think Ireland will be recovering any time soon. Sadly, after Campbell's finished, BC will be as bad or worse - outside the lower mainland it's well on the way now. Pimping our future to companies like Finavera Renewables Inc. is just one tiny part of the serial selloff that has been going on since 2001.
Chris Keam
3 years ago
CO Too funny
"Campbell & Co.have been building on the lie that CO2 can change climate."
If CO2 can't change climate, then a lack of it wouldn't affect climate either right? Yet, I suspect the climate of a planet without plant life would look very different from the one we currently live in. One can only conclude CO2 has a rather large impact on climate, or your statement is so imprecise that it should be ignored.
Sean Holman
3 years ago
To those complaining about legal concerns...
...stop complaining! Do you want The Tyee, an organization of limited resources, to be shutdown as a result of a SLAPP suit they aren't able to financially fend off? This Website does important journalistic work. And it would be a shame if went black just because of someone's ill-phrased comment.
SharingIsGood
3 years ago
Ditto: Bill Tieleman
"Great investigative journalism by Will McMartin
This is exactly the kind of reporting British Columbians need - and often only find at The Tyee. Congrats to Will for a great piece of investigative journalism - more please!"
I can't say it any better!
mopled
3 years ago
Chris, that is a strawman
and a pretty sophomoric one, at that.You it seems have a great deal of catch-up to do. May I suggest Richard Lindzen's Colloquium at Fermlab.
http://hockeyschtick.blogspot.com/2010/02/dr-richard-lindzens-talk-at-fermilab.html
While there is little doubt how dependent we are on the minuscule amount of CO2 in the atmosphere for plant growth, there has never yet been a link established between "climate change" and CO2.
Climategate was about massaging temperature data to at least show a correlation between temperature and CO2.
Take a gander at the graph displayed at the link above...CO2 UP Temperature and solar activity DOWN. There is a correlation between solar activity and temperature, but there is no longer one with CO2 levels. You can't have causation without correlation.Please investigate the issue more thoroughly.
The biggest problem we have in BC is that the opposition is both crippled and deluded since they go along with the basic scam.
freebear
3 years ago
Planned in the backrooms
This did not happen overnight as the cards were dealt in 2001
Skywalker
3 years ago
Way to go Will McMartin
Anything else I could write would likely be edited.
skeptikool
3 years ago
Why contract out?
Too many name changes and questionable associations for my liking.
The wind power technology for electricity generation is not really that complex. The thing is to build the units robustly enough to not require constant maintenance. Even if manufactured and purchased elsewhere, BC Hydro, surely, has the ability to handle the construction and management of these proposed wind farms.
Chris Keam
3 years ago
Lindzen
defrocked:
http://www.logicalscience.com/skeptics/Lindzen.htm
Sorry Mopled, all I did was parrot your sweeping statement and point out it could not in fact be true. Further, if as you say there's no link established, by the same token, there's no generally accepted belief that CO2 can't affect climate, so to characterize the opposite as a lie is inaccurate. It may be an incorrect assumption (and I might yet start dating supermodels) but the people who suggest climate change is CO2 related (Campbell included) as a general rule believe that to be so. If that makes them liars, then I suggest to you that you might also be filed under the same category, as your assertions remain unlinked and unproven w/r/t climate change.
Takuan
3 years ago
the whole thing about making
the whole thing about making money is things only have to hold together long enough for you.
OilbertaRedTory
3 years ago
Thoroughly Investigate Strawmen
... like Richard Lindzen:
http://tinyurl.com/StrawmanLinden
Keeping up with the denialists - the PR 'frame shift mutation' is now from 'any' AGW to 'catastrophic' AGW.
The psychology of denial:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5SqFZgoE_Us
OilbertaRedTory
3 years ago
Linking CO2 to Climate Change
... since 1956:
“If at the end of this century, the average temperature has continued to rise and in addition measurement shows that the atmospheric carbon dioxide amount has also increased, it will be firmly established that carbon dioxide is a determining factor in causing climatic change.”
Gilbert Plass
http://www.americanscientist.org/issues/pub/2010/1/carbon-dioxide-and-the-climate/11
OilbertaRedTory
3 years ago
The Laws of Sunshine
... help bleach out dis-information:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Sf_UIQYc20
as well as corruption:
http://www.ombudsman.on.ca/en/publications--resources/the-sunshine-law-handbook.aspx
pabbott
3 years ago
Corruption??
I'm sorry Shabbaranks, but when there's a possibliity that insiders are getting special consideration, it also means that the taxpayer may not be getting fair value for our resource base. This is what corruption means. Whether or not it brings jobs or clean energy is besides the point. Without a fair and transparent process, how can we know that another company couldn't have brought the same benefits with better terms for the citizens of this province?
The Vancouver Sun, the paper of record in this province, has seen fit to largely ignore the issue of corruption in our current BC government. It could be agrued, in fact, that it has actively aided the BC Liberals in keeping the issue from public awareness.
For example, Harvey Enchin wrote not long ago that the BC Rail deal was a good one for taxpayers even though there were "rumours of corruption", because that "bloated" Crown Corp was costing us money, and we got a good price for it.
This position, in my opinion, is neither an innocent nor disinterested one. Enchin, and the Sun's editorial board, are surely aware that the issue of government honesty in how it deals with its huge resource base (approximately 95% of BC is Crown Land) has immense implications for all of us.
Citizens in a democracy need a reliable source of meaningful information to make informed decisions at the polling booth.
Thank you Tyee and McMartin.
Paul Abbott
riverboy2323
3 years ago
bc hydro call for power
as if it is not enough that the CEO of Plutonic wasen't a insider and the propaganda exec.also ,now we have Accenture execs. on the new gravy train.
just try to remember at the right time, ONE PERSON-ONE VOTE
Dan the socialist
3 years ago
EDITED FOR LEGAL CONCERNS I
EDITED FOR LEGAL CONCERNS
I thought I would save the mods the hassle.
Ever since the Tyee went into cahoots with Pattison you have gone down hill. I am outta here.
Frank
3 years ago
There it is
The smoking gun...
dot Luke should be here any minute now to blame Campbell's policies on the NDP
Whiskey River
3 years ago
Sean Holman
Isn`t that interesting,Sean Holman is worried about the tyee`s legal concerns..
Real funny Sean...Because you will never criticize the Canwest/Global propoganda unit...Will you?
oh no..You media boys never criticize the black hole known as Canwest,your radio show is a Liberal pimp job 90% of the time,your group of babblers forgive Campbell and blame the NDP for Campbell`s bullshit.
Will Mcmartin has balls, Sean,you do not.
A bankrupt company with $41 million in debt,no expertise on wind power and they get a contract,where is Canwest on reporting this...Where is the Sean Holman press conference?
All you can say Sean is..."what would the NDP do?"
What a phony argument,you had your chance on CKNW,I and everyone who tuned in was disappointed to the point of throwing up.
Monte Paulson,same thing,a useless slug on the radio,an orange pilon would be more effective.
Go ahead Sean,go kiss Don Anderson`s feet,Elanor Gregory`s feet.
I hear the NDP asking questions in question period,you media types don`t give a rats ass,you have your marching orders...
In my opinion you legislative reporters have bought stock in these companies,you all saw the exodus of government employees heading to private power,you knew what Campbell was up too..
How much are you in for Sean?
You know that we are net exporters of power,all media does,yet they continue the spin.
Time for media to open up their stock portfolios
Sorry friends,that`s what is going on here(IMO).
Not one MSM has told the facts,not Palmer,not Sean Leslie,not Michael Smyth,not Les Leyne,not one...Rafe tells the truth,I do,Scott Simpson does,but not one legislative reporter tells the facts.
Coincidence....Fat Chance!
Whiskey River
3 years ago
Stooges!
http://powellriverpersuader.blogspot.com/2010/03/keith-baldreymichael-smythsean.html
Nothing more need be said!
mopled
3 years ago
Corruption? Absolutely.
Why would anyone expect things not to be the old one hand washing another when the basic premise is gaga?
Lindzen gets an attempted smearing with the old guilt by association trick promulgated by Greenpeace sponsored Sourcewatch. His sins are that he associated with groups that were once funded by Exxon. Funny how Warmists overlook facts like CRU at U of East Anglia was FOUNDED by grants from BP and Shell and the emails revealed the CRU gang hoped to wheedle funds from Exxon to continue their fakery.
http://wattsupwiththat.com/2009/12/04/climategate-cru-looks-to-big-oil-for-support/
One of the authors of the American Scientist article Oilberta wants us to swallow is Gavin Schmidt who moonlights over at Realclimate while working..(or not working)for NASA which gets their data from CRU and massages it further.
It is up to those who propose a hypothesis to prove it and the CO2 hypothesis can't be. In fact it has been totally discredited by this:
Falsification of the Atmospheric CO2 Greenhouse Effects Within the Frame of Physics.
http://climateresearchnews.com/2009/03/new-peer-reviewed-study-falsification-of-the-atmospheric-co2-greenhouse-effects-within-the-frame-of-physics-by-gerlich-tscheuschner/
They later answered their Warmist computer modeling critics who snipped at them but did not produce any peer-reviewed science to refute them with:
"computer aided global climatology will not be science, if science is defined as a method to verify or falsify conjectures, according to the usual definition of science.”
“Due to research grants, huge amount of financial support, virtual global climatologists suffer from a kind of omnipotence delusion comparable to the state of highness of the early super string community. However, physics is different. “Physics is where the action is”, I.e., finally, reproducible results in the lab. We cannot overemphasize that science is a method to prove conjectures, and not to go on-stage like the pop star Al Gore performing what-if-when-scenarios beyond any reality and scaring kids."
“we do not reply to semi-anonymous virtual climate pets like Eli Rabett and other Internet geniuses such as Gavin Schmidt, Stefan Rahmstorf and others at “Real Climate” or “Atmoz Blog” anti-scientific smear sites. Most of them do know so little about physics such that they quote the second law of thermodynamics incorrectly in order to falsify our work. Even the difference between energy, work and heat seems to be unknown to these experts. This cannot be the basis of a scientific discussion.”
http://www.ilovemycarbondioxide.com/pdf/DEFINITIVE_DEATHKNELL_to_CLIMATE_ALARMISM.pdf
Now maybe you all can be forgiven for being so ill-informed, since your local media has also kept you in the dark about the scientific corruption rampant. Congratulations to the Tyee for revealing the insider aspect of the windpower scam, but they have never, ever given space to anything other than Warmists.
ted...
3 years ago
Kill THE MESSINGER ...!
Good thing they out-lawed "public-flogging" ,
ted... ( just kill the messinger ,
oupp's
like staving them to death isn't working...! )
---- Let see ,
if Shawn Hollman is a sham @ the same time as being an example of what a "journalist" does ,,,
Then why does cambell need a 7-million dollar propaganda team ...?
oh Ya ,
cause they can't "count on " , or prevent ,their SUPPORTERS from learning the truth ...!
---- Thanks Shawn , Bill & Will ( et-all )
and the "IN-TER-NET" ...!
ted... ( I'm tired of these modern-day "tea-bagger's" that say "TRUST-BIG-BTOTHER" dispite what they actually see in frount of their faces...!!!!!!
----- You must try harder Winston-Smith ,,,
"How Many Fingers are being held in frount of your face " ...?????
worng again ...!!!!! zzzzzZZZZZzzzz-aaapppppp
You must try harder Winston ...
zzzzzzzzzzzzzz-aaaaaaaaaappppppp
"how many fingers" ...?
;{-
Ps ,
"it's NOT about the Finger's"
it's about THE CORUPTION that they point to ....!
ted...
3 years ago
What finger ...?
sorry about the "finger-thing" ...!
( above )
It's NOT just about "how many finger's " ,,,
mainly it's about what finger , is being used @ the time ...!
ted...
seth
3 years ago
In the end there is only none (money that is)
In my earlier reports, I assumed BCHydro's clean power call would be 5000 Gwh's. It wasn't so here are some revisions.
Will McMartin, Bill Tielman, and Shawn Holman, so far refusing to report on the really dire consequences of the IPP scam, should review Wall Street media celeb Jim Cramer getting a butt kicking from Jon Steward over his shilling for Wall Street Pirates. Can you envision, you and your Canwest rivals getting the same beating from some new media star after our power rates double and triple to pay for our power purchases from our own Pirates and a lot of our industry has migrated south and east to enjoy cheap nuclear power.
Highlights
1) Current BCHydro domestic expeditures $1236M ($544M IPP, $692M nonIPP) BCHydro 2009 annual report.
2)Pre 2010 IPP contracts increase BCHydro's domestic expeditures to $2500M by 2011, effectively forcing rates to double.
3) New 2400 Gwh Clean power call increases domestic expenditures to $2800M requiring a 250% rate increase by 2013.
4) Off the books BCHydro obligations go to $60B compared to the $45B in BC's on the books debt.
5) With a current oversupply of energy and forecasted dirt cheap nuclear power the value of BCHydro $60B in contract commitments is a little as $10B an 80% loss.
The numbers:
In BCHydro's 2009 annual report (pg 61), it purchased in 2009 8374 Gwh for $544M from IPP's versus 7765 Gwh for $481M in 2008.
That works out to 10 cents a kwh (544-481)/(8374-7765) for new IPP contracts coming on line in fiscal 2009.
On page 10 of the 2009 report BC Hydro reports contracting 14400 gwh annually Gwh for 2011 service or 6026 more than 2009.
JISEC and Brian Wallace 2009 report that 12 cents a kwh is the new power call payout. All IPP contracts have an escalation clause that will quickly grow to include older power calls giving that 12 cents a new system average.
By end of fiscal 2011 IPP total will grow to $1267M (.12*(14400-8374)+544) increasing BCHydro's domestic expeditures to $2500M ($544M +1267 IPP, $692M nonIPP) effectively forcing rates to double.
The 2400 Gwh in contracts from the clean power call at 12 cents kwh. add $300M increasing domestic expenditures to $2800M annually. 75% of BCHydro's expenditures will be IPP and BCHydro will be largely privatized. BCHydro is contracted to pay around $1600M pa for somewhere around 40 years - a debt commitment of around $60B
If you add in $10B in other 3P's we now have $70B in off the books debt compared to the $45B of on books debt that pundits bring up when discussing BC's financial picture.
Current mid Columbia spot price is 3.8 cents for peak energy and as little as zero for off peak because of the need to dump Bonneville wind power. It will be half that during the spring freshette.
With BCHydro buying at 12 cents a kwh and selling into the spot market at 0 to 5 cents a kwh and into a future US nuclear market at .5 to 2 cents a kwh almost the entire $60 billion could be lost.
Whiskey River
3 years ago
By 2015 BC will be losing maybe as much as $3billion per year.
http://powellriverpersuader.blogspot.com/2009/12/bc-liberals-admit-private-power.html
For Canwest and legislative reporters to bury this story they are complicit in what I would call...
British Columbia`s greatest theft from taxpayers in Canadian history!
.Luke.
3 years ago
Frank...
You have very good ESP. :D
This foolish BC Liberal government just does not have the hutspa of the Manitoba NDP and Manitoba Hydro.
At least Manitoba Hydro gets it right with IPP wind power energy. They even loan those wind energy IPP's money when they run into financial trouble!
From just yesterday:
http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/breakingnews/St-Joseph-wind-farm-construction-to-begin-immediately-Selinger-88835097.html
And what did the pathetic BC Liberals do when the IPP Dokie Wind Energy project was also having financial problems?
BC Hydro and the BC government let them wither on the vine while in creditor protection.
http://www.journalofcommerce.com/article/id31351
BC definately needs an NDP government akin to Manitoba to ensure that Finavera Renewables Inc. will also receive a substantial loan from BC Hydro should they also run into financial problems. ;)
Adam M
3 years ago
Another gouge
Just one more gouge in the biggest scam ever inflicted on this province: the privatization and public subsidization of power in British Columbia.
I spoke with so many people during the Olympics who endlessly lamented the financial imposition of the big party. When I mentioned the vastly larger numbers involved in the BC energy plan, they would get still and quiet and their eyes would glaze over and I could see they were looking at me like I was a 9-11 conspiracy theorist, and the 9-11 conspiracy theorists looked at me like I was a - I don't know - scientologist, I guess. You start talking tens of billions of dollars in revenue losses and I guess it's too big a fish to swallow. It prompts immediate disbelief, a perfect "big lie."
Well, look at the rates going up already. And look at how every call for power purchases way more than the sum indicated beforehand. A billion here, a billion there...
Anyways, I would recommend that anyone that loves this province take the time to read John Calvert's book, Liquid Gold, as it is recent, very well-researched, referenced, and devoid of hysteria:
http://tinyurl.com/liquidgoldcalvert
Here is another decent critique, Lost in Transmission by Dr.Marvin Schaffer and others:
http://tinyurl.com/yo8z33
The excellent, free films chronicling the continual theft and how it has happened (top to bottom of page filled with films, just scroll):
http://www.ourrivers.ca/video-library-mainmenu-29
The magnificent, continually updated map of IPP projects from ippwatch (warning netbooks: big!):
http://www.ippwatch.info/w/index.php?option=com_wrapper&view=wrapper&Itemid=8
Citizens for Public Power is a good starting point also:
http://www.citizensforpublicpower.ca/
Good luck all, and get involved!
Adam M
3 years ago
edit: 1st paragraph
I should have said
Just one more gouge in the biggest scam ever inflicted on this province: the subsidized privatization of public power in British Columbia.
Sorry for the awkward first paragraph :-P
Frank
3 years ago
Whiskey River
The reporters you named only talk about political corruption in BC if the NDP is involved.
After all, expecting right-wing reporters to talk about the BC Hydro and BC Rail stories when they would obviously rather still be talking about Glen Clark's deck is just not being realistic.
Frank
3 years ago
dot Luke
NDP Manitoba has roads, Liberal BC has roads, even Conservative Alberta has roads. Based on your logic that means all 3 parties the same.
Cue the music
Whiskey River
3 years ago
Frank......
The legislative reporters and main stream media knew there was an exodus of Liberal insiders and Government staffers heading to Plutonic Power and other IPPs,they were not only colleagues but friends,they also knew Gordon Campbell wasn`t backing off...
It is my opinion that the legislative reporters got in on the action,maybe they believed the spin at one time,but when the truth came out for all BCers to see they then....Reneged on their duty to report for financial gain(In my opinion)
There can be no other logical solution, they have failed to report the billions in losses unless spot market power rates surge to $150 dollars.
One can believe that prices will go that high,but they have an ethical duty to report the consequences if prices don`t rise.
I have challenged the legislative reporters to divulge their stock holdings, they don`t legally have too divulge, the fact that they haven`t has confirmed my beliefs.
Not one reporter/columnist has reported the risk,not Vaughn Palmer/Not Michael Smyth/Not Sean Leslie/Not Bill Good/Not les Leyne/none of them have reported the downside of buying high and selling low....
That Frank is not a coincidence but a conspiracy!(In my Opinion)
Takuan
3 years ago
no one is guarding the
no one is guarding the hen-house. Everyone with half a brain sees what is going on, but the cops, lawyers and judges do nothing. What is the average citizen supposed to do?
Frank
3 years ago
Whiskey River
I'm not disagreeing, but let's face it, the reporters you're talking about have NEVER gone after the Liberals on a sustained basis like they did to the NDP.
Even the raid on the legislature, something I would consider to be newsworthy, was ignored because the NDP weren't the ones in power.
Whereas the story about Clark's deck was everywhere for 6 months.
Trevor Lautens spent more time in the 1990s attacking the NDP over the terrible case of one child than the entire BC media have spent attacking the Liberals for an even worse record on child care.
We've led the country for 7 years in child poverty but most people in BC aren't even aware of that so how can we expect people in the media to cover stories pertaining to their favourite party that might make people think the word corruption? We can't.
The media is an arm of the BC Liberal party, that's why Michael Smythe can write stories defending the government's record on homelessness and poverty, Sean Leslie and Bill Good can parrot Liberal talking points all day long, Sean Holman can blame the NDP for pretty much everything that happens and no one even understands what Vaughn Palmer is writing about anymore.
Still, Paul Willcocks, Bill Tielman and Will McMartin are good men so there's always a ray of sunshine I guess.
Whiskey River
3 years ago
Frank...?
You forgot about the "Powell River Persuader"
Who? Never mind.
I heard he occasionally criticizes the BC Liberals.
And Norman Farrell,Gary E.....BC Mary..KootCoot...and a few others.
Cheers
Adam M
3 years ago
Takuan
1. Educate themselves. Read Calvert's book, read the actual energy plan and associated documents, etc. A solid background knowledge on the subject, not just news stories, is essential.
2. Volunteer for an organization. WCWC (Western Canada Wilderness Committee) is doing good work. Citizens for Public Power. You can go to your local Council of Canadians, etc. After step one, you will be aware of who is who, so contact them and get together!
3. I would recommend joining the no HST campaign. It's not just about stopping the HST, it's about denying the government alternate, regressive revenue streams to cover their asses.
4. NEVER give money to Greenpeace. They hired Tzeporah Berman, number one IPP greenwasher. This is just a personal pet peeve of mine >:-(
Number one task right now is to spread the knowledge regarding this scam. As mentioned before, mainstream media has largely underreported this, and people have a short attention span for labyrinthine big scam stories. Too many fake-ass conspiracies floating around, and it's difficult not to make this sound like one... just be patient and comprehensive, it's all that one can do.
Frank
3 years ago
Whiskey River
You're right, the bloggers have made the main stream media look pretty bad.
Takuan
3 years ago
you mean
you mean work??!!
welll....alright then.
ted...
3 years ago
What, how many more
What, how many more "conspiracy" do you need...!
of the $122.oo/per-month I have for my "food-buget" (after paying for rent & utilities) the $7.oo/per-month INCREASE IN HYDRO RATES
takes FOOD OUT OF MY MOUTH ,
each & every month ...!!!!!
ted... ( it's not like Gordo is going to increase the amount of "money" DISABLED ~ PEOPLE on welfare have )
we are disabled ,,,,,,,,,,
NOT LIKE ANYBODY GIVES A sh@t about that
but , $7.oo more to BC-HYDRO payments is equil to 7.22% MORE PER-MONTH INCREASE, THAN WHAT I CAN AFFORD ...!
AND , it comes out of the money I have EACH-MONTH ,
to spend on food ...!!!!!!!!!!
ted... ( ya , so why do I need to ask YOU for "spare-change" ,,,?
when MILLION'S are made by Gordo's friends ...!!!!!)
;{-
.
.
.
SPARE ME A FRIEND ...?
Or, I should just say , "Please kill me now"
( kill me , kill me , kill me , now ...! )
but ( oh-no ) , Gordo has the SLOW-DEATH mind set
--- ie: why build death-camp's ,
when what they/we are going to do it to our-selves (ie: the slow-way) ...!!!!!!!!!!!!
NOT THE "MEDIA" WILL REPORT THE SUICIDE-RATE
( or record what their/our notes say )
ie: why do more people feel they are free, to commit ...?
----- simply , it's the "eugenetic-program"
ie: some people are NOT NICE ...!!!!!!!
and they are "better-off" without us
Adam M
3 years ago
Yes
Work will be necessary (cue high-velocity vomiting from Generation Y). Reversing and correcting $60billion of theft reinforced by NAFTA will require the burning of calories.
ted...
3 years ago
Thanks Adam
Thanks Adam,
at least I know where the calories are going ...!
barney
3 years ago
Bravo Will McMartin, Tyee!
An incendiary exposé of the stakes and backroom politics involved in the dismantling of our once great Crown asset.
This article is why I read the Tyee.
It's unfortunate that the intrepid people keeping this magazine going have to expend so much time in a user comments section rightfully censoring people into behaving so that this kind of journalism can continue.
Takuan
3 years ago
EDITED FOR PERSONAL INSULTS
EDITED, anyone can google Accenture and see what the world thinks of them
ted...
3 years ago
Dear Barney
dear Barney,
I wish the writter's of the artical
could/would comment on the "comments" recieved...!
But ,
perhaps it has to do with the comment they've read on other people's articals , that cause's them to write their own articals ...!
ie: the "feed-back" they need to find their way...?
ted... ( comment are great )
perhaps it's my "oppion about them" that isn't ...!
----- But then again ,
when do we see a "debate" about "Letter's to the Editor" section , of any news paper ...?
ted...
.
.
.
later
Takuan
3 years ago
gotta sadly admit I agree
gotta sadly admit I agree about Greenpeace. Things sure have drifted from Hunter's time and now. Sitting on a bloody corporate focus group and finding out it was them was the turning point. Same goes for Berman. I knew the difference between honest, youthful anger and making points even back then. Whatever. A Socred is the blood enemy of a decent man no matter what label they wear now. Even if we are too tired to fight, we owe our kids.
greengreen
3 years ago
The way of the wise
Premier Campbell is a seasoned, clever politician. If he had chosen to come right out and privatize Hydro, there would have been a province-wide revolt(hopefully) and he would have had to back down as he did re Coquihalla Highway. How to privatize? Step by step. INCREMENTALISM. Very little fuss, many don't even notice. Little MSM coverage(given).
There is not ANY reason why 'run of rivers' projects could not have been done under the guise of Hydro. Another step along the road to privatization.
Obama tried to do a '180" with healthcare and the "otherside" went into overdrive. In the end, he got,perhaps, a "85". Better than nothing, but a long way to go.
Premier Campbell and crew, with the support of MSM, know how to not cause a backlash....incremental change, don't attend public meetings, be unavailable when contacted by certain news outlets, don't respond to criticism. Go quietly about your business, most will be unaware of what you are doing. Eventually, Mission accomplished.
Takuan
3 years ago
"seasoned, clever
"seasoned, clever politician" ??? Don't dignify a lying, thieving weasel! It may soothe your ego to imagine you've been bested by a better , but the fact is you were alseep at the switch to let something so low get by you!
G West
3 years ago
Another shape shift
from .Luke. to .Luke.
But it's still the same old rule breaker luke/luke skywalker - still trying to crawl back into the conversation without ever acknowledging and apologizing for his offensive treatment of Rod Smelser.
Why is this guy allowed to keep coming back here?
Janie Jones
3 years ago
On the subject of global warming . . .
Anne Sherrod pretty well nails it in an essay at Watershed Sentinal on Environmental Assessment linked to by the Persuader:
" . . . global warming is being used as an excuse to ignore other kinds of environmental impacts"
http://www.watershedsentinel.ca/content/environmental-assessments-farce
From the same people who are still (despite the loss of 30,000 jobs during their tenure) bringing you "sustainable" forestry.
OilbertaRedTory
3 years ago
On the subject of avoiding the issue ...
global warming denialists confused the symptom for the cause;
the root ideologies empowering scandalous behaviour against the commonwealth:
http://boingboing.net/2009/05/13/life-inc---an-extra.html
ilumin8
3 years ago
Other Privatization Details
This article illustrates the large gap between the information in the mainstream media, and What's Really Going On.
The article mentions Dave Harrison being associated with Accenture. It is notable that Dave Harrison served as Hydro's finance vp leading up to the privatization of Hydro core services to Accenture.
Seemingly absent from the history of this event is that at the time Barbara Filewych was a, or the, Manager of Corporate and Financial Affairs for Hydro. She reported to Dave Harrison, and resigned upon completion of the privatization. Filewych's husband, Chuck Filewych, was at the time a principle in Accenture's Vancouver office, and was a central figure in arranging the terms of the contract between Accenture and BC Hydro.
I know of no improper behaviour by any of these parties.
ilumin8
3 years ago
Corrections to "Other Privatization Details"
Barbara Filewych resigned from Hydro upon the issue of the RFEI, the request for expressions of interest for the privatization. NOT later when Accenture and Hydro signed their agreement.
Her title at the time was more likely: "Manager of Corporate Financial Evaluation."
A Guenther
3 years ago
it's getting worse emerson
http://www.carlyle.com/Media%20Room/News%20Archive/2007/item6964.html
Unless we subscribe to the idea of some mothership from a far off planet, holding a beam on the polar caps and melting them...
There are only 2 options, global warming is either natural or its man made. I think that with all the information available now, it's pretty obvious that the world's governments have known about the receding of the glaciers, also it's acceleration, since at least the '70's and, in some cases, such as iceland, since well before that.
Prime example would be:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nunavut
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nunavut_Land_Claims_Agreement
So what we have is deliberate non action with the regard to setting meaningful targets to try and correct this. Instead, we have countries fighting over offshore rights in the arctic.
Along with knowledge of the glaciers melting, I think they have a pretty good idea of the way things will look in the future... after all, NASA has data from 1978, we have been testing up north for at least 20 years, microwaves were strung in 1993 according to the agreement above, etc.
Sooo... we still have the question whether it's natural or man made... and in either case, have we been let down and betrayed by our governments?
A Guenther
3 years ago
bc hydro
Take Emerson for example... crosses the federal floor from the liberals to the conservatives, and the next thing you know he is giving up CEO of Canfor and Vancouver Airport, being appointed by Campbell (liberal? nah.. ) to key positions in utilites and the economic advisory council (energy, environment, forestry).
Emerson's experience includes serving on Telus, Terasen, and BC ferries boards. His salary would make a horse choke with all the positions that he has... CEO and board chair of BC Transmission Corporation (working with BC Hydro to develop the province's energy potential and oversee B.C.'s power grid) pays a half a million dollars by itself. Within a 2 month period between Nov 2008 and Jan 2009 it is reported that he also has landed a senior advisor position at the law firm Farris, board of directors at Timberwest Forest, and is also holding an executive position at Finning International. We know how Terasen worked out.. being sold to Kinder Morgan (Carlyle Group of Washington DC). We are more than aware of the privatization of BC Ferries. We are currently experiencing a rate increase preposterous with BChydro. And the theft of monies from ICBC? ICBC spokesman Mark Jan Vrem explained that the groundwork for the surplus transfers was laid years ago." He wasn't kidding. "BCUC regulation of ICBC The BC Utilities Commission (BCUC) was appointed in 2003 as the independent regulator for ICBC with the responsibility to approve rates for Basic insurance. A search of BCUC website shows cc's of memos being directed to who else but David Emerson.
A Guenther
3 years ago
Farris law firm
Farris itself is the poster child for conflict of interest:
Practice Areas
Asia Pacific Law
Bankruptcy, Insolvency & Restructuring
Competition Law
Corporate & Commercial
Criminal & Extradition
Environmental, Energy & Natural Resources
Family Law
First Nations & Aboriginal Law
Intellectual Property
International Trade Law
Labour & Employment Law
Litigation & Dispute Resolution
Municipal Law
Real Estate Law
Taxation Law
Wealth Management
Wine Law
crankypants
3 years ago
Kudos
Kudos to Will McMartin on this story.
The way things have developed regarding BC Hydro since Gordon Campbell and Co. took power makes one wonder whether BC Hydro is being operated independently of government intervention or not.
The cast of characters and decisions made do not give one confidence that the interests of the citizens of BC are being protected in any way, shape or form.
I don't know if it is possible, but I think there should be a judicial enquiry of everything the BC Liberal party has done since they came to power in 2001. It seems that everything they have meddled in gives one the impression of paying back a debt at the expense of the taxpayer.
One has to come to only two possible conclusions if they are being honest with themselves. Gordon Campbell's version of the BC Liberal party are either the biggest bunch of incompetents ever assembled or the biggest bunch of cons ever elected.
One thing I do know. I will be long dead and gone and British Columbia will still be only a shell of what it was before this government took power.
mopled
3 years ago
There is no longer a real question about the warming
We didn't do it, we can't do it and neither can CO2. It has perfectly natural causes.
http://windfarms.wordpress.com/2008/02/14/falsification-of-the-atmospheric-co2-greenhouse-effects-within-the-frame-of-physics/
Oh, yes, Wikipedia is neither an unbiased info source nor an honest one.
http://pediawatch.wordpress.com/2010/03/08/the-anatomy-of-dishonest-editing/
And how much are they going to spend on this wind-power nonsense so their buddies can cash in?
More Than 20 UK Wind Farms Operate at Less Than One-Fifth of Capacity
Some of Britain’s most beautiful landscapes have been blighted by wind farms for only small returns in energy, research shows.
The analysis of power output found that more than 20 wind farms are operating at less than one-fifth of their full capacity.
Experts say many turbines are going up on sites that are simply not breezy enough.
They also accuse developers of ‘grossly exaggerating’ the amount of energy they will generate in order to get their hands on subsidies designed to boost the production of green power.
Britain’s most feeble wind farm is in Blyth Harbour in Northumberland, where the nine turbines lining the East Pier reach a meagre 7.9 per cent of their maximum capacity.
Another at Chelker reservoir in North Yorkshire operates at only 8.7 per cent of its potential.
Both are relatively small and old, but larger, more modern sites fared badly too, the analysis of figures provided by energy regulator Ofgem for 2008 found.
For instance, the two turbines at High Volts 2, Country Durham, the largest and most powerful wind farm in Britain when it was commissioned in 2004, achieves an efficiency of just 18.7 per cent.
Wind farms failing to produce enough power… because there’s not enough wind
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1259573/More-20-wind-farms-operating-fifth-power-breezy-enough.html#
skeptikool
3 years ago
Excellent investigative reporting would not be amiss here
I could not help thinking of this article as I read of the death, on Monday while cycling, of Delta councillor George Hawksworth:
http://tinyurl.com/ydh7ucb
He was a fierce opponent of certain major developments in South Delta involving loss of farmland, bog, wetlands and wildlife area. I just hope everything surrounding the deals, necessary to bring these deals about, is subjected to similar scrutiny evidenced here by Will McMartin's article.
soleprobe
3 years ago
Chris Keam
"I suspect the climate of a planet without plant life would look very different from the one we currently live in."
Must keep in mind were talking about human contribution of CO2 as a greenhouse gas and it's effect on climate by means of heat retention. Human contribution of CO2 is about 3.22% of all occurring CO2 (naturally occurring CO2 @ 96.77%).
However, CO2 is a minor greenhouse gas. All CO2 (manmade and naturally occurring) only makes up 3.618% of all greenhouse gases where water vapor is a major greenhouse gas at 95% of all greenhouse gases. When you include all greenhouse gases (water vapor, CO2 and miscellaneous greenhouse gases) manmade greenhouse gas contribution is 0.28 of 1%. While total naturally occurring greenhouse gases are at 99.72%. In other words, if mankind were to go extinct the total drop in greenhouse gases would be only 0.28 of 1% which would have no effect on the climate by means of heat retention.
http://www.geocraft.com/WVFossils/greenhouse_data.html
G West
3 years ago
Not exactly
A little incomplete knowledge is a dangerous thing - especially when you're trying to use someone else's data to make a debating point.
Scratch around a little more, you'll come across this:
http://cdiac.esd.ornl.gov/pns/current_ghg.html
OilbertaRedTory
3 years ago
Whiny two-stroke polluter
... heading backwards. Then falling over a pebble:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hhkbuKstppY&feature=related
OilbertaRedTory
3 years ago
No longer any question
Greenhouse gasses rising:
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/04/080423181652.htm
No longer any question about the Deniers' dis-information agenda:
http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/story/31633524/the_climate_killers/16
http://tinyurl.com/BlowingAway
jwstewart
3 years ago
Help with math please....
"Finavera Renewables Inc. was picked .........they are expected to generate over 800 gigawatt hours of electricity annually once construction is completed in 2014."
"The four wind farms, according to a company news release issued after Hydro's surprising award, "have the potential to generate over $100 million annually in revenue once they are fully operational.""
I'm curious how 800gigwatts is worth $100 million.
If consumers pay $0.06 per kwh, isn't 800Gwh annually worth approximately $5.5million?
Chris Keam
3 years ago
@soleprobe
Sorry, I'm not really interested in rehashing the debate over climate change. I'm comfortable with the overwhelming body of evidence and the vast majority of informed experts who agree on both the cause and urgency of the problem.
My beef was with mopled's statement that CO2 can't affect climate. I showed him that such a statement was patently false, even IF AGW really was a vast conspiracy to transfer a small measure of wealth to developing nations (the horror!), create a world gov't (what? no more fighting over imaginary lines on a map?), and force people to breath clean air and get more exercise (help, we're being oppressed!).
One doesn't get to crow about intellectual rigor and then make sweeping, erroneous statements, without some smart-ass pointing out the disconnect.
cheers,
CK
soleprobe
3 years ago
My beef
My beef is with those who spread "smart-ass" lies that say human generated CO2, at .28 of 1% of all greenhouse gases, will bring doom to the entire planet.
Chris Keam
3 years ago
"My beef is with those who
"My beef is with those who spread "smart-ass" lies "
That's a pretty long list with a whole lot of Nobel Prize winners on it. It also includes organizations who can't agree on anything, except the threat posed by climate change, corporations with a excellent reasons NOT to buy into the theory, and a large body of evidence that climate change is affecting the world we live in.
That's enough beef for quite a bbq.
soleprobe
3 years ago
Nobel Prize winners
ya... Barry Seotoro (Obama) and Al Gore
There is "a large body of evidence that [lying scumbags are] affecting the world we live in."
dave49
3 years ago
The industry is basically a venture capital play
I worked briefly for a wind power company. The industry is basically a venture capital play where you get the rights to a site, do a huge amount of preparatory work (including EIA), then bid against your colleagues in the industry and hope to get picked. Then you have to sign a contract, get financing and put together a construction team and last long enough to get the project in-line. The failure rate is pretty high, even once you have been picked.
Plutonic handles all this well on the run-of-river side, but wind power has been a very risky business. Basically you have to convince investors or venture capitalists, often American, to back you while all the preparatory work goes on and then you sit and wait... and wait... and wait for years until the Province and BC Hydro decide to issue a clean power call. It can be a long wait. All political parties since the early 1990s have dangled the possibility of BC Hydro buying independent power as a carrot to the business sector. That didn't mean very much happened. In fact, the Vander Zalm govt issued a 250 MWh power call in 1990 or 1991, but then did nothing.
KicksyChick
3 years ago
Privatization Details
RE: ilumin8's "Other Privatization Details"
Barbara Filewych was never the Manager of Corporate Financial Evaluation nor did she ever report to V.P. David Harrison. She was a staff member in a financial department, reporting to the Manager of that department, who in turn reported to the Corporate Controller, who in turn reported to David Harrison. She resigned her position almost 2 years before any agreement was made between BC Hydro and Accenture.
G West
3 years ago
Kicksy Chick
That's interesting - you're clearly someone who knows a bit about who's sitting in the chairs at Hydro.
My contacts there tell me it's not the kind of place they like to work at much anymore...and, in many respects it has gone downhill pretty rapidly in the last 6 - 8 years.
I don't suppose you'd care to comment at all about that - or about the way the decision making tree has changed.
G West
3 years ago
Should have said
If you feel so inclined - here's my email -
discretion guaranteed
happy (not verified)
3 years ago
So what else is new? Apparently not much. Ask Rafe (1998)
"Mr Harcourt has, some say, been unfairly tagged with Nanaimogate because it wasn't his doing. Well, he should have stuck around because the next one, Hydrogate, he was up to his eyeballs in."
"Mr Clark appointed a personal aide, Adrian Dix, to sit as his surrogate on the Hydro Board and report directly to him. This was the first dereliction of duty for the responsibility was Mr Clark's not that of Mr Dix. The minister can scarcely shuck responsibility on to a political hack."
"But the critical issue is the absence of direction given the Chairman, John Laxton, when the ill fated (probably) Raiwind project in Pakistan was passed by the Hydro Board. It's interesting that Mr Clark has not, to his credit (and he can use all of that he can find) blamed Mr Dix. Nor has he claimed ignorance on the basis that he was a busy minister, blah, blah, blah. In the latter case, however, Mr Clark had no choice but to admit to full knowledge for, after all, he boasted to the Legislature about this wonderful deal in Pakistan where everyone would make a lot of money. (What he didn't say in the House that for "everyone" read Hydro insiders and dear, dear friends of the NDP.)"
http://www.rafeonline.com/archive/courier/19980531.shtml
OilbertaRedTory
3 years ago
Scandals Pacific
A part of Canada's heritage since 1873:
http://www.mccord-museum.qc.ca/en/keys/games/14
ilumin8
3 years ago
Other Privatization Details...
Kicksy Chick: "RE: ilumin8's "Other Privatization Details"
Barbara Filewych was never the Manager of Corporate Financial Evaluation nor did she ever report to V.P. David Harrison. She was a staff member in a financial department, reporting to the Manager of that department, who in turn reported to the Corporate Controller, who in turn reported to David Harrison. She resigned her position almost 2 years before any agreement was made between BC Hydro and Accenture."
There was an intranet web page that listed Barbara Filewych as Manager of Corporate Financial Evaluation. Later after seeing it, I realized I'd need a copy of it if I needed to prove it. When I returned to the page, it was gone. So I can't prove it.
It's possible it was posted in error, and was removed for that reason.
However, we seem to agree Filewych was in Hydro's accounting/financial group during the preparation for privatizing the services that went to Accenture.
Barbara Filewych resigned from Hydro in September of 2001. As you can see in this document:
http://www.llbc.leg.bc.ca/public/pubdocs/bcdocs/359905/backgrounder.pdf
Accenture was awarded the contract in Spring 2002. This is about 6 months after the resignation, not 2 years. Filewych may have been able to access Hydro financial information after the resignation.
A Guenther
3 years ago
yea but..
there's a chuck Filewych listed as partner of accenture in Spirit of 2010 Business Summit Networking Directory
http://morgan-news.com/2010/SupportFiles/2004-05/2010BizSummitDirectory.pdf
if that helps...
A Guenther
3 years ago
they are running scared now
signature page:
BRITISH COLUMIA HYDRO AND
POWER AUTHORITY
By: L2Q
Title: Chair
BRITISH COLUMIA TRANSMISSION
CORPORATION
By:
Title: Pltf 'Ot T ANt) CEO
By: Y. t1QNV
Title: OJ/Oft ICf PtlESoI() f)T
ilumin8
3 years ago
Charles (Chuck) Filewych has
Charles (Chuck) Filewych has been a senior employee/partner of Accenture in Vancouver since it split off from Arthur Andersen. He has worked within BC Hydro on behalf of both Accenture and Arthur Andersen. This involvement goes back at least 20 years, long before the Accenture privatization.
A Guenther: I didn't understand your "they are running scared now" post. I don't have a membership in L2Q, so can't look at whatever's on there.