dams

One of our neocon paid commentators has been making the statement that

"....many IPPs also have lakes for winter storage..."

Given that it will be virtually impossible to sell or use the Pirate power when it shows up in the early summer, I'm thinking that the Campbell/Harper Neocon cabal is secretly allowing the Pirate to run lake levels up and down as defacto dams.

Rafe is an optimist

"... $30 BILLION owing and it will be lucky to recover half of that on the market.."

With new technology breakthroughs appearing all the time it appears that half would be optimistic. While Gordo's average Pirate purchase cost is 12 cents a kwh, current spot price is 2 cents, new solar PV announcements are projecting near term 1 cent, ten year down the road pulse fusion is .5 cents, and mass produced new gen nuclear is 2 cents. Remember Pirate power appears in early summer when the western power grid is already awash with spring hydro runoffs. Almost the entire 30 to 40 billion to date, and 40 billion the reelected Gordo will sign us up for could be lost

Campbell deliberately sabotaged the sale.

"One might ask, however, given that the fast ferries were an NDP albatross, did the Liberal government try hard, or at all, to get a decent price for them?"

They not only didn't try to dell them they deliberately ignored a very comprehensive report on how to modify them for coastal service. A modification that would have been far less expensive than purchasing the German Ferries, and would have kept quite a few people working at our now non-existent docks pumping a few million back into the economy.

trying the alternatives

I'm just glad Van Dongen has made a commitment to travel by public transit or self-propulsion for the duration of his suspension, rather than taking the easy way out and just hiring a driver for which the taxpayers will end up having to pay.

I mean, the transit system is what he's going to use, right? Yeah, right.

Missing word?

In the second-last paragraph, I think you meant to ask why the Liberals did _not_ try hard, or at all, to get a decent price for the fast ferries. Otherwise, you're asking the same questions I've been asking myself.

Convention centre not a white elephant?

Liberal apologists point out that with the convention we have a usable finished product while that wasn't so with the fast ferries

I think it is simplistic to argue, at this stage, that the convention centre will be a "usable finished product". There is no more guarantee that will be true than there was that the ferries would not be a success when they came out of dry dock and went into service.

Following is an excerpt from a USA today story, and a link to another USA Today story.

The World Congress Center, long among the nation's top handful of convention centers, is best known for hosting mega-conventions that draw 10,000, 15,000 or 20,000 people to Atlanta. But the GWCC, as it's known, has fallen on hard times. "If four little old ladies wanted to rent a room to play poker next month, we'd rent them a room," says Dan Graveline, executive director of the state authority that runs the congress center.

A report Monday from the Brookings Institution indicates that the facility's story is one of unmet high expectations, lofty projections that never materialized and bad timing. It's a story repeated in cities around the country as they pursue "an arms race" for such projects, the report says.

http://www.usatoday.com/money/companies/2009-04-12-canceled-conventions-virtual-meetings_N.htm

The perils of demanding consistency

Van Dongen's EDITED driving makes him an unattractive human being and a menace on the roads, but does it affect his ability to decide policy?

If his decisions at work are bad, he's doing a bad job. If they are good, then he is doing a good job.

Talking about personal qualities is generally irrelevant. Rafe is right or wrong about fish, based on the reasonableness of his arguments, not because he was a Socred cabinet minister or has a wicked beard.

In turfing Ray Lam for his harmless, funny, private photograph, the NDP were, as usual, gutless and wrong in trying to appease phantom hordes of outraged middle-classers who weren't going to vote for them anyway.

Campbell's sentence

Let's not forget that the Fast Ferries were sold on the day Campbell's sentence came down. A good time to have a distraction from Campbell's poor performance. The corporate media lapped it up and when they referred to his drunk driving, they said that it's time to move on.

Lead Footed Moe

The last lead footed minister was NDP's Moe Sihota. I do nor recall how it played out as Moe resign many times. Can I be enlightened on Mair's and his new friends (NDPers) response to Moe need for speed?

Hey Yammer

You write that:

In turfing Ray Lam for his harmless, funny, private photograph, the NDP were, as usual, gutless and wrong in trying to appease phantom hordes of outraged middle-classers who weren't going to vote for them anyway.

Can we now assume that van Dongen who announced his resignation from cabinet this morning, and the BC Libs, are "gutless and wrong in trying to appease phantom hordes of outraged middleclassers"?

Why, yes, yes it does.

"Van Dongen's EDITED driving makes him an unattractive human being and a menace on the roads, but does it affect his ability to decide policy?"

If the minister can't live by his own rules, he has no authority to make or promote those rules.

Convention centre part two

The Sun web site is reporting:

A six-inch pipe burst at Vancouver's new convention centre on Monday, causing water to pour from the second floor into a first-floor ballroom and forcing 1,000 delegates of a Public Service Alliance convention out onto the street.

More to come...

How long has the Centre been open to the public?

let's go please!

Seeing that ministers in charge of traffic tend to drive too fast, maybe someone should draw the conclusion that our speed-limits are set to appease that same middle-class crowd?

The crowd who has not understood the technical development in vehicles over the last decade?

Instead of building more roads, let people begin to use all the horsepower they pay for!

Sure they gulp more gas, but they pollute less when driving, than when idling along (waiting for Grandpa to decide which lane he would like to travel in.)

The above post is so full of

The above post is so full of fail and stupidity that the poster deserves to be run over by Van Dongen going 40 kmh above the speed limit as a fitting punishment for his callous disregard toward all the people who have lost loved ones to reckless drivers.

stumped?

hey, I know this article is all about a trusted minister breaking his own laws, OK?

Sorry if I inject a side-issue, but do not reject it out of hand.

The simple fact is that we still obey laws that made sense in 1950!

It is not speed that kills, just as it is not the guns you should blame for shootings.

A mandatory driving course would be a good start to avoid accidents at any speed.

Also, if automakers would quite designing vehicles as if they were entertainment structures, that would be a bonus.

A car is meant for driving, but we get lulled into thinking that it is ok to get distracted by all the new gimmicks they offer for our "pleasure".

I am sure that most people do push the speedlimit, and perhaps have noticed that they need to pay attention when doing so?

We all need to pay attention when driving, but if everything is in slow-motion we do loose concentration.

My point is that anything that makes traffic move is a good thing, because it stops us from taking driving as an easy task.

B.C. Hydro

The disregard for BC Hydro is stunning. The legacy of W.A.C. Bennett that was indispensable in building this province and has shielded us from volitile global energy markets is usurped by greedy speculators with no obligation to the people of B.C.

I am worried about the consequences of this "rivers policy" on economic and environmental grounds. Where is the outrage and where is the proper debate this issue compels us to have?

It is not speed that kills?

Are you for real? Stump was right. Most accidents are caused by speed not being adjusted to the conditions. I've been on the highway between Chilliwack and Vancouver on a wet day. If the general traffic is going 10 k above the limit there are clowns doing 140 k. Insane, all it takes is a minor error and someone is dead. People who think they are such safe drivers at these speeds are delusional.

@alive

"Sorry if I inject a side-issue, but do not reject it out of hand."

I don't reject it out of hand. I reject it based upon my knowledge of the way fatalities climb with higher speeds.

I also question your assumption that higher speed means less pollution. Modern cars burn very little fuel when they idle.

If you really want to end road congestion, try putting more than one person in a car. Roads running at 25% capacity (or less) is just dumb.

Uh what?

"We all need to pay attention when driving, but if everything is in slow-motion we do loose concentration."

Your solution is to give idiots who are too stupid to pay attention when they drive more leeway to travel too fast on the basis that they will pay more attention? That's some strange logic there.