In the wake of the panel report on BC Hydro and the media firestorm over costly private power projects we plainly don’t need, our cartoonist Gerry Hummel gives us his take on the robbery of taxpayers and ratepayers this program represents.
Read this op-ed in the Vancouver Sun by BC NDP Energy Critic John Horgan on IPPs and the recent panel report on BC Hydro.
“The Liberals imposed a policy on BC Hydro that forced the utility to
only buy new electricity supply from private providers here in B.C. This
“independent power” purchase plan costs ratepayers as much as four
times the market rate for electricity and will see at least $45 billion
in unfunded liabilities over the next 30 years. They also introduced
unnecessary requirements to be electricity self-sufficient, boosting the
need for such purchases. With the damage done, BC Hydro was forced to
request rate hikes of more than 50 per cent over five years. The
Liberals called for a review of BC Hydro, prepared by a panel of deputy
ministers and released earlier this month.” (Aug, 24, 2011)
Read this story and watch video from CTV.ca on the historic defeat of the HST.
“A majority 54.73 per cent of voters sent in ballots to turn down the tax. More than 1.6 million people — or 52 per cent of registered voters
— mailed in referendum ballots during the eight-week voting period that
ended earlier this month. The number represents almost as many people
who voted in the last provincial election. The province will now return to a GST/PST system, in a process estimated to take between 18 to 24 months.” (Aug 26, 2011)
The admission by Dave Cobb, President of BC Hydro, that Hydro is spending 100s of millions for energy they don’t need came as a shock, except for Damien Gillis and me and others, notably the Wilderness Committee, who have been saying this for three years without a peep out of the government. It’s too bad that Mr. Cobb didn’t stand up and be counted by way of a press conference – instead his remarks were leaked. It could still cost him his job, although if he were fired, he would get a pretty penny in severance, to be paid by us of course.
The response by Energy Minister Rich Coleman is what I would expect from a member of this appalling government, though I did harbour hope, in vain, that the minister is made of sterner stuff. He simply replied that they had no plans for any more private power at this time, but they’d be sticking with the underlying policies that justified IPPs – criticized by both Cobb and the recent panel report on Hydro.
Coleman knows, or ought to know, that there will be no new private power, period. The political fall-out from Mr. Cobb’s statement has been enormous but if Bute Inlet, Glacier-Howser or other projects are approved, this government will never be allowed to get away with it. Without any doubt, such a happening would be ugly.
Let’s not overlook another problem: the environment. This is what got many of us involved in the first place. The environmental consequences of these plants is enormous and that alone would have kept any government of decent, caring people away from private power in the first place.
The issue of private power being both wrong economically and environmentally was raised by Dr. John Calvert in Liquid Gold, a book that every one should read. When Damien, Tom Rankin, I and others started raising the economic argument, it was greeted by silence, making me think of the famous Sherlock Holmes story about the dog that didn’t bark. Roughly, in the solving of the case, Holmes said that he solved it because of the dog. When it was pointed out to him that the dog hadn’t barked Holmes said, “Precisely.” We were, up until last week, faced by public dogs that wouldn’t bark, which confirmed we were right.
It wasn’t easy dealing with this matter, for the government insisted on the negotiations and the contracts remaining secret. Reflect on that for a moment – Billions of dollars of taxpayer’s money, given away in secret deals!
We had to fly blind with no help whatever from the mainstream media. Dr. Calvert’s book was published 4 years ago and the media remained silent. Op-ed pieces by industry and apologists for it were as regular as ones supporting fish farms but nary a discouraging word. The “hardnosed” columnists, Vaughn Palmer and Mike Smyth said nothing. Indeed the Province, the day after the Sun finally printed the statement of Mr. Cobb – and blockbuster story it was – was silent on the subject. Frankly, it’s been lonely as hell.
Now comes the issue of what next?
I can only tell you what an honest government would do. The minister would state that the policy had turned out to be too pricey for the shareholders (us) and it was hereby abandoned and would not be revived, Finis.
But this is not an honest government. It has been a corrupt gang from the start and Christy Clark was part of it, an integral part, as deputy premier. During her time in radio, she raised not a whisper about the Energy Plan – indeed she abstained from any criticism of the government. The hallmark of this bunch is one falsehood after another. They make the last NDP government look like paragons of virtue with brilliant economic policies.
When, in 2001, then attorney-general Geoff Plant introduced the legislation for fixed election dates in the legislature, he called it “an important tool for moving some of the power out of the premier’s office and restoring public trust in the political system.”
“When people are suspicious of the timing of an election, they become suspicious of the work their politicians do,” he said.
Deputy Premier Clark vociferously supported the move then, but somehow 10 years later – when a premier wants to exercise that very power we all assumed had been taken away – she recants. This is quite in tune with the insincerity and dishonesty of this government.
The revelation by Mr. Cobb could not come at a worse time. Premier Clark had hoped that the blue ribbon committee set up by Rich Coleman would fuzzy over the scandalous issue of costly and useless private power but, try as they might to be nice to the government, they disappointed the premier, who thought she could run an election with BC Hydro an issue for environmental kooks only.
It fortifies an old and cynical rule that governments should never appoint commissions unless they know what their answer will be or don’t care. Ms. Clark cares about this answer, that’s for sure!
Whether there’s an election in the fall or on its proper day in 2013, Premier Clark will have to tell us why she supports a policy which gives private power a monopoly to create new power which BC Hydro doesn’t need but is compelled to buy at a huge loss – while the IPPs ravish the environment.
I sense that no matter when she calls an election, Premier Clark will learn that being a photo-op is not enough.
Watch part 2 of Rafe and Damien’s discussion on Shaw’s EVOTV, with host Irma Arkus. In this episode, the pair talk wild salmon and aquaculture, private power and environmental politics in BC. Damien Gillis: “This isn’t free enterprise – it’s piracy. It’s a bunch of people looking out for their pals – global corporations that have taken over our whole system of governance; and it’s about whether we’re going to get back to common sense, public-oriented policy.” (30 min – taped in late July) Watch Part 1
Read this obituary from CBC.ca on the passing of Federal Opposition Leader Jack Layton, from cancer, at 61. (Aug. 22, 2011)
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/story/2011/08/22/layton-obituary.html
Read and watch these video and print reports from CTV News on the start of week-long protests in Washington, DC over the proposed Keystone XL Pipeline from the Alberta Tar Sands to the US Gulf Coast – where some peaceful arrests are already being made. (Aug 20, 2011)
Additional story at Huffington Post: Tar Sands Action Protests In Washington, D.C.
YouTube video: Climate Wars: Episode 1: The Tar Sands
Read this blockbuster story from the Vancouver Sun revealing an internal conference call on August 12 in which Hydro CEO Dave Cobb criticizes the government’s IPP policy and predicts an end to its artificial “self-sufficiency” and “insurance” requirements that have helped justify the program.
“If it doesn’t change, it would be hundreds of millions of dollars per
year that we would be spending of our ratepayers’ money with no value in
return,” said Cobb. “The way the self-sufficiency policy is defined now
… would require us to buy far more long-term power than we need.” (Aug 20, 2011)
http://www.vancouversun.com/news/Hydro+head+predicts+energy+self+sufficiency/5283019/story.html
I have called it the Campbell/Clark government because that’s what it is. Premier Clark was in on the beginning of most policies including the disastrous energy plan that sees private power companies (IPPs) destroying our rivers to produce power for BC Hydro which it doesn’t need and must take anyway, bringing Hydro to the brink of bankruptcy. (In the private sector BC Hydro would be bankrupt, except as a Crown monopoly it can always pass its grief over to us the ratepayers.)
You could have blown me over with a feather when I read in the Weekend Sun excerpts of an internal conference call in which Dave Cobb, president of Hydro, condemns the government’s IPP policy. A recording of the call – which occurred August 12, on the heels of the recent panel report on the utility’s financial situation – was leaked to the paper. Cobb pulled no punches, detailing his concerns with the government’s exaggerated “self-sufficiency” and “insurance” requirements:
“‘If it
doesn’t change, it would be hundreds of millions of dollars per year
that we would be spending of our ratepayers’ money with no value in
return,’ said Cobb. ‘The way the self-sufficiency policy is defined now…would require us to buy far more long-term power than we need…I think they’re going to make a major change there, which will
significantly reduce the amount of power we will be buying from
independent power producers and anybody else,’ he said. ‘Government has
to make a change.'”
I found myself asking why this headline story, so clear about the IPP financial millstone around Hydro’s neck, was not reported after the panel report and why, last week the once intrepid columnist, Vaughn Palmer, dealt with this panel report, noting Hydro’s financial grief at considerable length without even mentioning IPPs.
In the Weekend Sun report, much coverage and a picture of Paul Kariya dealt with the responses of his Clean Energy Association of BC and their appallingly shallow concerns. Whatever these industry apologists may say their concerns are, you can be sure that the interests of British Columbia are not amongst them. The Clean Energy Association is the private industry in drag, and refuses to tell us where they get their funding. NB the name – with the clear influence of George Orwell’s 1984 the association calls itself precisely what it is not.
It’s hard to believe that Minister Coleman had any advance warning of this conversation – it was, after all, a leaked conversation and at any rate, deliberately leaking a policy change of this unbelievable proportion is not Coleman’s style.
What’s the government going to do now? It can hardly fire Mr. Cobb and deny the truth of what he said for no one would believe that for a moment. Clearly, Mr. Cobb didn’t make this all up but was concerned that his staff would be caught by surprise and wanted to give them a heads up. If Mr. Coleman doesn’t fire Mr. Cobb, he might just as well have made the statements himself.
That this is the government’s unannounced (yet) policy makes political sense, insofar as one can make sense out of the appalling Campbell/Clark energy policy because the policy will kill them in the next election and they know it. It also explains why (I have this on the best authority) the industry big wigs were lower than a snake’s belly when they got the panel report last week and why it was when I met Mr. Kariya coming out of the CBC last Monday morning, he was so defensive and uneasy.
One thing’s for sure – the cat’s out of the bag, and to mix metaphors, the contents of Pandora’s box can never be put back.
The question for the Premier is obvious and simple: What now, madam?
The issue is in the public domain and will be a big time political issue.
Here’s where Premier can separate herself from the disgraced Gordon Campbell and put her own brand on her government while stealing a march on the NDP.
It will take guts to do what is right and Ms. Clark must bite the bullet and announce the end of IPPs and clearly state that it’s for two reasons: the environment and the Energy Plan itself.
She does this in several ways:
This is hardly the full picture because of the Ministry of Transportation running roughshod with highways over wildlife preserves and agricultural lands, and the proposed pipelines and tanker traffic.
The premier’s eminent grise, Patrick Kinsella, will be appalled but Ms. Clark, who has active political antennae, knows that Families and Children will not be the big election issue but that BC Hydro and the environment will be.
Ms. Clark, in order to extract the government from the devastating policy of Campbell must understand and face the hell, fire, brimstone from her corporate backers and lose election funds if she does what I suggest.
The decision will mark clearly whether the premier is just another pretty face or a leader the people of BC and generations to come will mention her name in gratitude… or if she remains a Campbell clone and one can fairly call her administration the CampbellClark government.
Read this story from CBC.ca on the sudden and unexpected announcement by BC Attorney-General Barry Penner that he is stepping down from his cabinet post and will not seek re-election in his Chilliwack riding.
“His resignation from cabinet is already effective, but a new attorney
general has not yet been appointed by Premier Christy Clark. Penner will continue sitting as an MLA until the next election is
called, but said he expects the nomination process to find a new
candidate for the party in the next election to begin soon.” (Aug 18, 2011)
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/story/2011/08/18/bc-penner-resigns.html