Thoughts on BC Politics and More

The NDP is making billion-dollar promises with BC Hydro, but British Columbians still don’t know who will pay the bill. Last week’s memorandum of understanding isn’t what the federal government and the NDP are making it out to be. It’s an admission that the NDP failed to make the long-term investments needed to keep B.C. powered. Now British Columbians have serious questions about the cost and whether BC Hydro ratepayers will end up paying the price. David L. Williams, MLA for Salmon Arm-Shuswap and Shadow Minister for BC Hydro and Electrical Energy Development , said British Columbians deserve clear answers about the full implications of the Canada–British Columbia Cooperative Prosperity Agreement. “British Columbians deserve the full truth,” said Mr. Williams. “This multi-billion-dollar announcement does not answer who pays for cost overruns, who pays for new generation, who carries the risk if industrial customers do not materialize, or whether ratepayers will be forced ...

  In BC, residential electricity customers pay almost twice as much as big businesses.  As demand for power spikes, the cost of infrastructure and daily use is only going to go up... CLICK HERE for the full story

Conservative Interim Leader Trevor Halford issued the following statement in response to the government’s newly approved regulation for the North Coast Transmission Line: “Just two weeks after we warned the Premier he would flip-flop again on a northern pipeline, his government has done exactly that, quietly authorizing BC Hydro to power the very petroleum and natural-gas facilities that would support a North Coast pipeline. On page 35 of the NDP’s own Order in Council , these facilities are now defined as ‘Eligible Projects’ for connection to the transmission line. We have always been clear: a northern pipeline is an opportunity for jobs, economic growth, and long-term stability for British Columbia. While the Premier was calling a northern pipeline a ‘fantasy,’ his Cabinet was quietly updating BC Hydro’s rules in a way that enables the very projects he insists aren’t real. So, which is it? Is the Premier against a northern pipeline, or is he preparing the regulatory ...

Even as it focuses on greenlighting new wind power projects, British Columbia could eventually return to building massive hydro dams if electricity use spikes in the coming decades, according to BC Hydro chair and former BC premier Glen Clark. Right now, BC is banking on wind to supply its residents and businesses with the electricity they will need in decades to come. Clark told The Tyee he hopes energy efficiency improvements will obviate the need for any new massive dams in the province. But in a wide-ranging interview, Clark added a caveat: if electricity demand does significantly rise in the coming decades, the province could end up revisiting the potential for more dams — including the long-shelved Site E proposal along the Peace River ... CLICK HERE for the full story 

Premier David Eby recently described British Columbia as Canada’s future “economic engine,” one that, in a nod to climate change, would be powered “by clean, reliable, affordable power.” Lots of it. Ten days later, the province’s Crown energy corporation, BC Hydro, quietly released a more muted vision of the path ahead. Its draft energy plan reveals the utility has scaled down its expectations for energy demand and has no plans to procure the energy BC would need to meet its climate targets by electrifying its industries, cars and homes. “It seems like we’ve just put climate in the drawer and forgotten about it,” said Marc Lee, a senior economist for the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives ... CLICK HERE for the full story

Ten years ago, one of the arguments against Site C dam was that BC would be spending billions for more power generation than it could possibly use.  Industrial power demand had fallen, thanks to the shuttering of big energy users like pulp mills. Now there is such a growing demand for industrial power in BC that Premier David Eby’s government is now having to ration it to select industries—namely mines and LNG—while shutting out or limiting other energy intensive industries like green hydrogen production, bitcoin mining and data centres. And it is circumventing a lot of its own rules to get new power lines and generation to resource projects ... CLICK HERE for the full story

Questions about whether consultations with First Nations not involved in projects have been adequate are coming up in the Utilities Commission's process ( my emphasis ) BC Hydro opened its second call for new sources of electricity barely two weeks ago, but the projects in its 2024 call for power remain under review by the BC Utilities Commission, with questions raised about cost and overlapping claims of First Nations during the process. The province has promised to expedite the addition of new, renewable power sources to BC Hydro’s inventory, using Bill 14 to exempt projects from environmental review processes. Last December, BC Hydro picked 10 such projects to add up to 4,800 gigawatt hours per year of electricity, with some starting to deliver electricity by 2028. However, the Utilities Commission’s panel reviewing the energy purchase agreements has extended the timetable for the written review seven times ... CLICK HERE for the full story

The BC NDP government took another step in its urgent push for more electrical power last week, with a second call for independent power projects in as many years. The Site C dam on the Peace River, bitterly opposed and then grudgingly completed by the NDP, is only now coming into full operation. And it’s not enough to keep up with demand, as industrial power applications pile up and BC is forced to import electricity from the U.S. Meanwhile, the province pushes ahead with policies that require even more electricity ... CLICK HERE for the full story

Premier David Eby used British Columbia's latest call for more power sources to invite American clean energy producers to the province after U.S. President Donald Trump criticized "ugly" windmills in Scotland. Trump called the wind turbines near his Turnberry golf resort in Scotland "ugly monsters," prompting Eby to issue the call to producers in the United States to come to BC, where there's support for clean energy. In the latest call to power, BC Hydro is looking for renewable sources to generate almost as much energy as the new Site C dam in northeastern B.C. BC Hydro's request for proposals is looking for up to 5,000 gigawatt hours of electricity from large clean or renewable projects in partnership with First Nations and independent power producers ... CLICK HERE for the full story 

It's big, bold and expensive: just the kind of project that would appear to meet the moment for Prime Minister Mark Carney's call for nation-building projects from Canada's premiers. Late last month, the Yukon and B.C governments signed a memorandum pledging to work together to study the idea of a 765-kilometre power line that would connect the territory to the rest of the North American power grid. Ottawa is putting up $40 million to help fund a feasibility study. And earlier this week, Yukon Premier Ranj Pillai lobbied both his fellow premiers and federal cabinet ministers for infrastructure money, including for the grid connection ... CLICK HERE for the full story

British Columbia’s power utility is facing transformational challenges of drought, rising costs and a trade war with the United States as it works to meet electricity demand that’s surging after two decades of relative stability. An expected demand increase of 15 per cent by 2030 is sparking questions about whether BC Hydro is ready, with one former BC environment minister saying the province faces a power gap. The Crown utility says it imported a net 13,600 gigawatt hours of power in the 2024 fiscal year, a figure representing about 22 per cent of all supply sources according to a service plan forecast issued last February ... CLICK HERE for the full story

British Columbia could be left importing electricity for a third consecutive year, according to one industry expert. Ongoing drought conditions in the province are again cutting into BC’s ability to generate hydroelectric power, according to Energy Futures Institute chair and former environment minister Barry Penner. That will leave the province importing power from the U.S. once again, he said ... CLICK HERE for the full story  

When you start looking at what’s going on with these projects, with overlapping boundaries with First Nations and all through the consultation process, I’m just wondering how this is actually going to work if it’s only up to cabinet to make that decision and not allowing the people of this province, the people that are in this room right now, to be able to be part of that process ~~ Ward Stamer – MLA for Kamloops North Thompson, and Opposition Forestry Critic The reality is we have an energy electrification deficit in this province. We knew this was coming years ago. BC Hydro did not adequately plan for the future. Now they’re trying to wrap everything together in clean energy because of some unknown reason other than we’re supposed to save the planet all by ourselves. The reality is we need to have certainty of supply not only for electrification and electricity but for a wide variety of things in this product. Without input, we don’t have output ... ... some of the concerns th...

BC has become increasingly dependent on electricity imports, and that’s a problem, according to Barry Penner, chair of the Energy Futures Institute (EFI) and former MLA. “For the last two years we’ve imported the equivalent of two Site C dams’ worth of electricity,” Penner said, referring to the $16-billion hydroelectric project in northeastern BC. “We’ve become dependent on the United States for electricity because of our own complacency.” He noted that it cost BC Hydro $1.4 billion dollars to import electricity in 2024, due in part to ongoing drought in many areas of the province ... CLICK HERE for the full story

According to a November 28, 2024 Global News story, BC Hydro imported one quarter of the provinces power needs in the 12 previous months . The story stated that for the fiscal year ending March 2024, BC Hydro imported 13,600 gigawatt hours of electricity at a cost of nearly $1.4 billion. Still, Clean Energy Canada (a climate and clean energy program within the Morris J. Wosk Centre for Dialogue at Simon Fraser University) wants us to believe that : B.C.’s electricity grid can handle increased demand from EVs, heat pumps and extreme weather events ... AND THAT ... recent claims to the contrary are not based in reality. Here's the thing though, according to the Government of BC the recent call, for new renewable energy projects, will provide less than 5,000 gigawatts of power per year (just over a third of what we imported in fiscal year 2024).  That power of course flowing only once construction is completed, and starts flowing into BC Hydro’s system. The fact is, BC Hydro has bee...

According to the B.C. Environment Ministry, up until recently, wind projects generating more than 50 megawatts of power or involving 15 or more turbines have been subject to an environmental assessment through the B.C. Environmental Assessment Office (BCEAO). The Ministry has stated that wind projects have typically taken one to two years to complete the environmental assessment process — although no wind projects have been reviewed since B.C.’s Environmental Assessment Act was updated in 2018. An important feature of the environmental assessment process is to analyze valued components (VCs) (either environmental, social or economic) that may be affected by the wind project. The overall goal of the environmental process is not to stop projects but to ensure that harms identified are mitigated. There are nine new wind power projects approved, with projects ranging from 94 megawatts to 200 megawatts. The Province wants to develop projects quickly, stating they are moving approvals thr...