Read this short article from the Public Eye Online – showing how BC’s Hydro’s supposed Over-staffing” alluded to in a recent Liberal Government-friendly report has been vastly exaggerated. (August 15, 2011)
Just before I get down to business, I know that all environmentalists will be saddened that a former member of the group, Patrick Moore, allegedly got stiffed by a client for $120,000. I hate to sound like a “Johnny-come-lately” with good advice but, Pat, there are some professions where it’s wise to get your money up front.
Those who specialize in conspiracy theories – I’m a sometime member but inching closer to full membership – might wonder if the despoilers of our environment are ganging up on us. This thought came to me as someone representing yet another very worthy cause came to me asking for advice – this one was on the “smart meters” proposed by the bankrupt BC Hydro, which somehow has a billion plus rattling around in their jeans. This is interesting because the difference between this and a tax is invisible and the Campbell/Clark government hasn’t even bothered to go through the motions of putting it to a vote in the Legislature – in addition to removing oversight authority from the public’s supposed watchdog, The BC Utilities Commission (also stripped of authority over Site C Dam and private power projects).
The fish farm debate heats up, if that’s possible, as we learn the scientist who advised the provincial government – standing against all other fish biologists dealing with this subject – was practicing voodoo science. That’s not quite what a colleague said about Dick Beamish but one must infer it from what he did say as he dissociated himself from anything Beamish said or did.
We have Independent power being proved by the hour to be an environmental catastrophe as well as being fiscally mad as they drive BC Hydro over a financial cliff.
And what is the latest cost of the original $1 billion dollar Site”C” at now? Did I see $8 billion with independent estimates topping $10 billion all for power we won’t need but is deliciously placed to extract natural gas and “mine” the biggest polluter on the planet, the Tar Sands?
We still have the Fish Lake (Prosperity Mine – don’t you love the PR slant on that name) supported by Premier Clark.
We have a brand new environmental threat in what is called “fracking” where gas is “mined” horizontally with enormous amounts of water taken out of an already overburdened supply. We haven’t even considered the NAFTA ramifications.
We have Premier Clark, if not approving pipelines from the Tar Sands to Kitimat and greater capacity of the Kinder Morgan line to Burnaby certainly not disapproving even though the record of the companies involved is appalling. On the same subject, the Campbell/Clark government some years ago wrote the feds saying that they didn’t oppose large oil tankers plying the most spectacular and dangerous waters in the world. The Campbell/Clark crowd are utterly unfazed by the fact that spills on land and sea are not “risks” but mathematical certainties.
While all this is going on, the C/C government is paving farm land and threatening wildlife sanctuaries.
It’s hard not to sniff a corporate/government conspiracy, with the government thinking they can pile so much on us at one time we can’t get our acts together.
They are wrong.
It must be a good
line because this is the third time in a week I’ve used H.L. Mencken’s great
line “Every normal man must be tempted, at times, to spit upon his hands,
hoist the black flag, and begin slitting throats.” After reading the
news item that BC Hydro is asking to raise its rates by 27% for upgrading their
facilities, then reading the next day it was 55% for “badly needed projects” I
found myself once more reaching for my trusty cutlass.
Is there no end to
what we’re asked to believe? John Horgan, NDP Energy critic, was bang-on when
he linked this to the outrageous $50 BILLION that BC
Hydro owes Independent Power Producers (IPPs) for dams that destroy our rivers
and send power not to BC Hydro but to the United States. Would that the
NDP deals with private power in stark, unadorned English instead of the sloppy
diarrhea that oozes from its program as laid down a few days ago by their now
soon to be former leader.
How dumb do they
think we are? Are we to believe that there’s a magic energy fairy at the bottom
of the garden who will give Hydro that $50 Billion and rising? This is close
to, if not there, plain fraud.
The plain fact is
that every householder not courting bankruptcy knows that you cannot hide a
massive debt that is going to build IPPs on our dime, then soak Hydro (meaning
us, folks) to the heavens when it’s forced to buy private power that they don’t
need.
I want to say this
succinctly and in plain English. Our BC Hydro, one of the best
energy companies in the world, has no need of more energy yet is forced to buy
power from IPPs that they don’t need – meaning they either sell it on the
market for ½ or less of what they pay for it or use it instead of their own
power at 12 times their own cost of making it.
All together,
now, let’s read that paragraph again and march to our nearest antique shop for
cutlasses.
One would think – at
least an outsider not au fait with BC politics might – that some politician
would take up the cudgels on our behalf! (By the way, if you’re sensitive to
bloodshed, buy a cudgel rather than a cutlass). Here we have a Liberal
leadership with half a dozen or more candidates and not a word will be uttered
about the following: IPPs, farmed salmon, destruction of agricultural land, oil
pipelines and tankers filled with Tar Sands sludge. Not a peep will you hear!
Not a word even in defence because none of them has the guts to even defend
Liberal policies much less oppose them.
In the unlikely event
that the NDPs recover enough to be in the hunt in the next election, where the
hell is their courage?
I’ll tell you where.
The NDP’s now soon-to-depart leader, Carole James, has been reaching out to the
business community, as if that has a chance, and doesn’t want to unduly worry
the captains of industry who look upon the environmental disgraces given us by
Pinocchio Campbell & company as great steps forward.
Ms has James talked
about the IPP fixes in terms of “sanctity of contract.” These deals are
more like those of a hoodlum mayor of a city who hands out plush contracts to
his brother-in-law – they would make “Boss Tweed” of New York, “Boss
Prendergast” of Kansas City, or Chicago’s Richard Daleys, pere
et fils, blush with pride yet the NDP position is “sanctity of contract!”
What are the options we’re
left with?
One is to join one of
the major parties and try to make them change their policy. That should be a
remedy but, alas, it won’t work. Political parties are run by the few at the
top and all resolutions they don’t like are either not brought forward for
debate or are so watered down as to be pre-digested mush.
Another would be to
support the Greens, something I would do in a flash if I thought they could
even win a seat but they can’t and won’t. The Greens, decent honourable people
who want to save and protect the environment often get anger with me at public
meetings when I say this but have no answer when I point out that after 25
years they haven’t elected a soul, indeed haven’t even been close. (At a recent
speech I gave in Courtenay, a “Green” lady went to the floor mic, obviously
annoyed at what I had said, and said this:- the reason the Green Party hasn’t
elected anybody is that they don’t get enough votes!” God’s truth!
You could encourage
and join a third “middle-of-the-road”
Party if one comes
forward. The logical people to make this happen are Chris Delaney and/or Gordon
Wilson. Delaney already has a party, BC First, and if meat can be put on those
bones it becomes a rational option.
There is something,
however, we all can do and indeed must do – raise Hell; such Hell that whoever
runs for office will know that the electorate is white hot with anger. We must
show all politicians that we will take action no matter where the latest
environmental abuse occurs – action even including civil disobedience. We must
do this even if it isn’t the particular “outrage” that grabs us most.
Damien and I have
started to tour the province and starting next February we will bring our
presentation, including videos, a local voice, and my own.
Let me close with
this: you can always get rid of a bad government and restore the economy with
another.
What you can’t do is
get the environment back – once lost it stays lost.
If you haven’t
started to fight yet, now’s a very good time to start. If you have started, it’s
a great time to intensify the fight and encourage others to do the same.
We have a long way to go and the bad guys have
all the money. Yet, if we all do decide with sharpened cutlasses to get into
the fight and stay with it, we can and will beat the bastards and leave a
legacy for future generations.
An excellent summary by Lannie Keller from Friends of Bute Inlet of the campaign to stop the largest proposed private hydro power project in Canadian history – GE and Plutonic Power’s plan to dam and divert 17 rivers at the head of Bute Inlet on the Sunshine Coast. Lannie updated the crowd at the “Take Back Our BC” event on Quadra Island on November 7, about the latest details of the 1,027 megawatt proposal (worth at least $20 Billion to the corporations involved) and the citizen campaign to save the ecologically diverse and visually spectacular Bute.
Thanks to the work of economist Erik Andersen we have a much clearer view of what the Campbell government has done to British Columbia Hydro, what they are obviously going to do, and what the consequences will be.
BC Hydro is, so to speak, an integral part of the Province’s family jewels. It was created by Premier W.A.C. Bennett to be a tool of government policy. Bennett could see that if BC was to develop it had to have cheap, available electric power, so he implemented the “Two Rivers Policy,” whereby large electric dams were built on the Peace and Columbia Rivers. This was at a huge environmental cost but it produced just what Bennett wanted – cheap, available and uninterrupted electric power. His success was little short of miraculous.
Let’s look at what’s happened in the past decade. Our great public power company has been forced to make unconscionable bargains with private companies (IPPs) which dam our rivers and sell the power to BC Hydro when they are able to do so, i.e. their rivers are high enough, which is mostly during the period BC Hydro has lots of electricity and full reservoirs.
Here’s the kicker (to our backside, big time): this means that BC Hydro faces two options – it can export this power at half or less than they paid for it, or they can use it at 12 times what they can make it for themselves. (this is your business oriented government at work, folks!)
Clearly, this state of affairs can only be dealt with in two ways – BC Hydro goes broke or we pay enormously increased electricity bills. In fact, if BC Hydro is sold or goes broke, the public loses all control and we get huge increases anyway.
What we have from Erik Andersen is confirmation of this catastrophe. Erik has also taken a look at some of the accounting “methods” of BC Hydro.
For example, the BC Auditor-General has had a similar look. The books disclose how Hydro in fiscal 2009 went from a real loss of about $700 million to a “profit” of about $550 Million. (When you’ve read this, try it on your own bank manager).
Here’s what they do. They have what they call a “Regulated Asset Account”. (I warn you that the old shell game is going to look honest in comparison). They then take their expenses for that year and bundle this into the RAA and, because we the taxpayers pay BC Hydro’s bills, make this RAA into an “Account Receivable” and, are you ready for this, it becomes an asset (based on their ability to jack up our power bills to cover the difference) and POOF! There go their losses. The Auditor General has told BC Hydro not to do that anymore!!
How much is involved in this (in Andersen’s words) “hanky panky?”
Hold onto your hats again. In 2005 the amount in the RAA was zero – now it’s about $4 BILLION. This scheme is, according to Andersen, a “reckless endangerment” to the province and BC Hydro.
Why is this happening?
Mr. Andersen states the obvious, which is important because the government won’t. Andersen points out that this simply cannot be accidental – therefore BC Hydro must be being deliberately set up to fail.
What we have from Erik Andersen’s work is confirmation that BC Hydro is going down the tube and will only last as long as it can continue to raise our rates in order to stay afloat!
One is reminded of an adage of Woody Allen’s which I’ve cited, only changing “world” to “BC Hydro”:
“More than any time in history BC Hydro faces a crossroads. One path leads to despair and utter hopelessness, the other to total extinction. Let us pray that we have the wisdom to choose correctly.”
If, like the Campbell Liberals, you want BC Hydro privatized – because you believe in the Fraser Institute’s doctrine that publicly-owned assets must go to private companies – it doesn’t matter much whether you sell or abandon. The numbers with BC Hydro are huge on both sides of the ledger but its actual profit is only big time if a private owner can own it and run it free of government intervention. It is for that very reason W.A.C. Bennett bought ought the BC Electric Company and created BC Hydro.
From the Liberals’ point of view, selling off BC Hydro, after the fuss the public made when BC Rail was sold, makes no political sense, making bankruptcy a more attractive way to go.
Thus it’s clear that to save our rivers and their ecologies, we must save BC Hydro.
To save BC Hydro, we must all get angry as hell and, in every way we can, take that message not only to the Liberal government but the NDP as well. From every corner of the province must come the cry “Save Our BC Hydro!”
The government must know, with no room for doubt, that not one more IPP project will be permitted and that we will take every available measure to stop them – starting right now!