Topic
Lobbying effort to get 'renewable energy' approval from state's politicians came up empty.
Terminated: Gov. Schwarzenegger's state isn't buying what BC is selling.
Veteran enviro says no to Tzeporah Berman's 'PowerUp' logic.
'Green' claims disputed.
Better to call it the 'Flood Valleys for Power for Export Act'. Transform BC Hydro so Californians can blast air conditioners.
The provincial government has been pushing California to count the electricity generated by British Columbia's independent run-of-the-river power projects as renewable energy -- allowing it be sold at a premium to the state's electric utilities.
But, after visiting California lawmakers last month as part of government-led delegation, the executive director of the industry association representing independent power producers acknowledged that likely won't happen in the short-term, although he still is holding out hope for the long-term.
At issue is California's so-called renewable portfolio standards. Those standards, which were first introduced in 2002, require the state's electric utilities -- such as Pacific Gas and Electric Co. -- to use renewable sources for 20 per cent of their retail sales by 2020.
The standards also established rules for what counts and what doesn't count as renewable power -- which, according to the province, can be sold at a price that's up to 200 per cent higher than non-renewable power on the spot market.
In the doesn't category: hydro projects that produce more than 30 megawatts of electricity and -- in the case of facilities in operation after Jan. 1, 2006 -- change a river's flow or have an adverse impact on its instream beneficial uses.
A government spokesperson stated the ministry of energy, mines and petroleum resources hasn't analyzed which of the province's independent power projects would meet that standard.
However, Pacific Gas and Electric released a renewable power study on June 20, 2008 which states "BC ROR Hydro facilities will not meet any of these criteria."
And that likely explains why the government has been trying to convince the California government, along with Pacific Gas and Electric, to loosen those standards.
California politicians weren't swayed
PG&E wants to build a high-voltage transmission line costing an estimated $4 to $7 billion to tap into the province's renewable energy -- which, in its opinion, should include run-of-the-river power projects.
During testimony last year before the state assembly's select committee on renewable energy, the firm's energy procurement senior vice-president Fong Wan argued in favour of such a change by pointing out British Columbia has a "population that demands nothing less than stringent environmental protection."
Joining him to make that point was the then head of the province's environmental assessment office Robin Junger -- who has since been appointed the deputy minister of energy, mines and petroleum resources. But their testimony didn't seem to sway California lawmakers.
So Junger was back-talking to them last month as the leader of a six-person delegation whose members included Donald McInnes, the vice-chairman and president of the province's highest-profile independent power producer Plutonic Power Corporation Inc.
A spokesperson for Plutonic was unable to say why McInnes was the only independent power producer executive on the trip, according a delegate list obtained Public Eye.
For its part, the government didn't respond to that question. But Independent Power Producers Association of BC executive director Paul Kariya -- who was also part of that delegation -- speculated it might be because Plutonic is developing both run-of-the-river and wind projects.
Busy lobbying trip
As for what happened during that trip, Kariya said he and his colleagues had four meetings with state senators and assembly members, their staffers and environmentalists.
He said the delegation was "well-received" during those meetings, but added the chances of changing California's renewable portfolio standards is "pretty slim" in the "short-term." Kariya was reluctant to provide more details because he didn't want to jeopardize British Columbia's lobbying effort.
But he did suggest California's term-limits could mean the province will, in the future, be dealing with different politicians who are more receptive to such a change.
"Folks are privately quite positive but also candid privately and saying, 'We're going to have to maybe play this for another day.'"
"Meaning you might not get what you want in the short-term. You play for the long-term, you will be playing with a whole set of different players" -- and a whole different set of conditions.
"There is a heavy, heavy dose of protectionism that one can really appreciate south of the border given their economic woes. I'm not saying those will go away. But as soon as other pressures -- like the price on carbon and that -- kicks in, some of that stuff changes," he continued, adding the delegation also urged California lawmakers to bring down some of the state's other barriers to importing out-of-state renewable power.
But California Hydropower Reform Coalition director Keith Nakatani, one of the environmentalists who met with the delegation, has a different perspective.
In an interview with Public Eye, he said, "The main question is why should California weaken its environmental standards to accommodate what the British Columbia government wants?"
Citing the concerns surrounding run-of-the-river power projects, Nakatani said such a change "would result in extensive environmental damage in B.C., which would also then weaken California's reputation as the United States's leader in environmental protection all for the benefit of one California company."
PG&E didn't respond to repeated requests for comment.
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samuidave (not verified)
2 years ago
Only retarded fools....
...try to negotiate the financial terms after committing and agreeing to provide the goods.
mariner
2 years ago
CAMPBELL NOT SO BRIGHT AFTER ALL - MAYBE 25 WATTS ????
Sure seems like Campbell may have made one monumental faux pas over his idea of green power.
Surprise, not everyone agrees or believes Campbell is right. This must come as quite a slap in the face as Campbell has all but got into bed with California and he still cannot get things right.
Is Campbell smoking dope and totally ignoring expert advice - it sure seems so doesn't it !
What are we going to do now with all that expensive power we have to sell at a loss - or give away ??????
I wonder if we can get out of all of those contracts as the government didn't get elected legally, but by false pretenses ?????
Thanks
Hugh
2 years ago
In the meantime, BC Hydro is
In the meantime, BC Hydro is now stuck buying power from IPPs in BC for up to $120/MWh, and exporting for the market price of about $36/MWh?
Isn't the BC public also subsidizing the upgrades to BC Hydro's system needed to accommodate all the IPP power? Just so that BC Hydro can export at a loss?
The recent Clean Energy Act removes the oversight and veto power of the BCUC. The BCUC is supposed to protect the public by being a watchdog over BC Hydro
seth
2 years ago
Gordy's Folly
$65B in committed IPP sales for the next 40 years buying a little over 1 Gw average of worthless intermittent power at over 12 cents a kwh selling today for 3.6 cents a kwh daytime much less at night. And that's a good rate because there ain't no wind blowing in this heat wave.
BCHydro will have to more than double its rates to pay for it, giving us the highest cost power in Canada.
Japan is building American designed nukes at $1.7B/Gw with 4 year built times. With more than a hundred nukes under construction or in engineering worldwide that cost is forecasted by AECL and Toshiba to drop to under $1/B a Gw and 3 year built times as factory module plants for mass production get set up.
A variation on the molten salt reactor (MSR), which ran for 5 years in the late sixties, proposed by University of Ottawa nuclear physicist David LeBlanc called the DMSR is forecasted at $200M/Gw shipped to you on rail from a factory and runs for 30 years fueled on a one time load of nuclear waste.
With finance costs included, Gordo's $65B instead of 1 Gw of worthless intermittent power, would buy many times more valuable baseload nuclear power - 20 Gw at the Japanese cost, 35 Gw with the forecasted 5 year down the road mass produced nuke and 120 GW with the DMSR.
Gordo's 65B will be totally worthless and BCHydro bankrupt with cheap nuke power available from Alberta, Montana and Washington.
Will the last industry that uses electricity in BC please shut the door, before moving out.
RickW
2 years ago
Y'all are Talking Like Gordo's Concern is British Columbia......
...and that he has somehow failed in this.
Gordo was (and is) never concerned with this province. His agenda from the get go was treasury depletion.
Van Isle
2 years ago
The only thing I could think
The only thing I could think of is that Gordo and his gang are a sick-bunch-of-fuck-ups. We should hold people like Bill Good, Michael Smyth, Vaughn Palmer and all the other mass-media prima-donna's accountable too, for they did not report this. As for the NDP, well, they're not even in the room are they?
KevinC
2 years ago
Rah rah sis boom bah!
Greenwash #1: Gordo's Clean Energy Act
Greenwash #2: Nukes http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2010/mar/09/obama-nuclear-power
boondoggle
2 years ago
Yet another example of Campbell's real environmental record
The Campbell Liberals like to tout themselves as leading the country on environmental issues yet when you look beyond the rhetoric, the exact opposite is the case. They have cut the Ministry of Environment staffing by more than 70%, the forest industry now self-regulates and Campbell is in favor of oil tanker traffic on some of the most treacherous waters on the inner BC coast. Of course it is full speed ahead for hydrofracking! In short the Campbell Liberals are lobbyists and cheerleaders for some of the most environmentally irresponsible industries in the world. I thought they were supposed to lobby for and protect the interests of the citizens of British Columbia! So much for Democracy. The smell is getting worse by the minute, time for a flush!!
sunshine coast girl
2 years ago
He doesn't have any problems breaking contracts.
Break these ones.
Jeffrey J.
2 years ago
Real News Reporting!
This is what top-notch reporting looks like. In years past, this would be front page news on BC's daily newspapers, telling citizens what is really occurring behind the scenes in our government. Such stories would then result in either governments changing their behavior or face electoral revolt. That's how democracy used to look like. But thanks to the intrepid Tyee (and other independent media), we still get to read real news. Great coverage about a sad, sad incompetent regime.
SteveA
2 years ago
"Clean Power"
Positive side of California's decision is that some of our free flowing rivers and streams may be safe from Campbells money mad friends.
Negative side is that BC Hydro has commited to paying way too much for power generated by Gordo's same friends.
Domestic electricity rates are going WAY UP because of his policies. Thanks Gordo. My family will soon have the choice to eat or have heat.
The Blackbird
2 years ago
Economic and Ecological Suicide
These are what we have to look forward to if we continue to allow politicians who are loyal to big oil and governments that have indebted to banks that fund the industry.
History "books" read by schoolchildren 100 years from now will refer to this era in BC history as the Age of Unrealized Potential. A whole chapter will be devoted to laying blame on the people of the day who continued to elect corrupt politicians and governments that greenwashed their way to fantastic pensions, SUVs with all the bells and whistles, and red mittens made in Chinese sweatshops (Mr. Furlong never did get around to visiting the red mitten factories. Did GG Jean? I doubt it. It's all about looking good for the cameras), vacation homes, enough air miles to travel around the world six times after they retire, executive jobs with multinational corporations if they decide they still feel like doing more damage.
Have you seen those new RBC ads on TV? Project blue water? Please! Enough hypocrisy. Everyone knows about the enormous amounts of water required to mine the Alberta tar sands for oil. The whole lot of you make me ill, Liberals and Conservatives, bankers and oil tycoons, corrupt officials in the bureaucracy. What's going on with you? Have you all got your pod booked on the space station when the earth can no longer sustain humans or when the masses storm across your lawns and garden and invade your homes like crazed savages you thought only existed in the movies, whichever comes first?
Notsure
2 years ago
Who's this politician
Who's this politician Kariya's waiting for, Marvin Bush? It appears as though the only proponents of IPP's are those who own them and their lap dogs (our elected representatives). Every reasonable person walking the earth today who hears of these is critical of them. I wish there was some type of algorithm to measure how corrupt our "leadership" is. As someone born and raised in small-town interior, I have much anger towards the voters on the coast who keep subjecting us to these criminals. Free BC, vote independent!
G West
2 years ago
Kariya
Well, at least Kariya isn't a hockey player...
Paul Kariya has been teaching Leadership in the Graduate School at Trinity Western University. He served as executive director of the Pacific Salmon Foundation from 2002 to 2008, chief executive officer of Fisheries Renewal BC from 1998 to 2001; and executive director of the BC Treaty Commission from 1994 to 1998. Kariya also served in various positions with the federal government from 1979 to 1994, primarily in the departments of Fisheries and Oceans and Indian and Northern Affairs. He has a BA from the University of B.C. and post-graduate degrees from Clark University.
He was clearly hired for his experience dealing with First Nations and to help address treaty problem(s)....
KWD
2 years ago
The Blackbird
has it mostly right, however, I think historians may portray a slightly differnt picture.
It’s unlikely that history books will lay “blame on the people of the day who continued to elect corrupt politicians and governments”. Despite the litany of greed-driven judgments that label those in government, there are no definitive criteria that distinguishes people from politicians and governments; they are one and the same.
What they will likely wonder is why it took so long to realize that the legislators of the time … that made it possible for corporations to pass themselves off as “real people” … made a collosal mistake.
Unlike most real people, corporations lack conscience and empathy. For the most part the law has allowed the folks that inhabit corporations to distance theselves, legally, from accountability. Wall St exists because it isolates Main St from the truth.
crh
2 years ago
woodstove
looks as though the woodstove will be making a massive comeback to suburbia
DPL
2 years ago
It seems that brown nosing
It seems that brown nosing Arnold and letting him enter the Circus run hasn't paid of for Gordo. Arnold is due out of office so let's see who Gordo will be buttering up next
RickW
2 years ago
KWD
I suppose some thought should be given to the all-too-real scenario that the 100 million or so of us left might have other worries and concerns over what their stupid ancestors did.
KWD
2 years ago
RickW
Yes, it's possible that reading history books or the Wealthy Barber could be low on the priority list.
samuidave (not verified)
2 years ago
Regardless of what we 'lefties' so desire...
...and despite what the Tolstoys and the Chomskys and the Betrand Russells of the world like to proselytise, 'reason' is not ultimately going to win the day.
The current of emotion is omnipresent while reason, though liberating, takes effort. The path of least resistance, predetermined by the laws of physics, is the way humanity has and will forever march. This appears to me to be our burden as a species.
For Gordon Campbell, it was easy money, power and prestige offered up by his co-conspirators; for the electorate, it was the assurance of a better tomorrow based on the easily digestible encyclopedia of lies made by during the Liberal's campaigns.
circle A
2 years ago
lets hope..
the path of least resistance for the california legislators is to show some principled courage and intelligence and not be conned as british columbians are so often.
circle A
2 years ago
thank you
Sean Holman!
mk-kids
2 years ago
Psrt of the Hydro sell-off strategy?
Well, at least when Campbell and his groupies sell off BC Hydro they won't be lying when they say the energy export part of the biz is not profitable. The Accenture fiasco only adds to my suspicion that Hydro is simply another notch in Gordo's sell-off all BC's assets to his friends capade. He and his buds are absolutely destroying us here in BC!!!
Sean Holman
2 years ago
You're most welcome...
...circle A. And thanks for all of the interesting comments everyone.
Bailey
2 years ago
Enron R Us
A few years ago, Enron nearly bankrupted California by creating fake shortages and gouging the state by selling them spot power at "premium" prices, mostly through nominees and suppliers at arm's length.
Afterward, California sued British Columbia for price gouging. Seems BC Hydro was selling them off peak power for multiples of the regular price at a time when they were in the hands of their enemies and quite desperate. Apparently, they resented the fact, having previously considered us a friendly neighbour.
And now, with us in the hands of those same enemies in our turn, we petition California to save our asses by paying us multiples of the going rate for the third most damaging power production method on planet Earth?
Why on planet Earth would they? Out of friendship?