Rafe Mair to Gordon Campbell - BC Private Power Nonsense

Open letter from Rafe Mair to Minister Gordon Campbell: “How can your government deny that private power is overwhelmingly for export when it can only be produced in any quantity during Spring run-off when Hydro's reservoirs are full?
 
“How can your government force BC Hydro to give private companies sweetheart deals while only able to get 50% or less of it back when exported?
 
“How do you expect BC Hydro to stay in business when it has obligations to private producers for over $30 BILLION for which they'll be lucky to recover 1/2? And this is only for the private projects now approved. You've taken away BC Hydro's transmission lines, saddled them with spiraling costs for ever increasing private projects, privatized 1/3 of their employees in a secret deal with Accenture, the bastard child of Enron, taken away their right to bring on new sources of power and left them with their ongoing capital debt of $7 BILLION?
 
“Why don't you admit that you and the private pirates are lying about our energy needs saying BC imports power using only figures from BC Hydro; the truth (a stranger to your government) being that if you include Alcan, Teck Cominco and Fortis, all of which produce power domestically, for export or both, BC is a net exporter? And when are you going to stop peddling the nonsense that we must import from Alberta when you know that BC Hydro buys from Alberta in off peak times and "flips" it to the US for high peak prices?
 
“Why do you continue the untrue nonsense that with private power we will be energy sufficient in 2016 when you know that, for the reasons above, private producers can never produce power when we need it? If we will get there by conservation, upgrading Hydro generators, putting in new generators and taking back power under the Columbia River Treaty without private power - and we can - what's your excuse for decimating our rivers and streams to make shareholders in private companies like Warren Buffett of General Electric, richer?
 
“Why don't you level with BC citizens and tell them that they will, if God forbid you get re-elected, be paying the North American market price for energy meaning 3 to 4 times what they pay now?
 
“Why has your government brought in this "Energy Plan" without any input from citizens, Don't try to tell us that these environmental assessment hearings are consultations on the merits of private power because they're not. I've been to them and any attempt to ask questions on the merits is ruled out of order.
 
“Why did you pass Bill 30 taking away the rights of local government to zone for these projects or not? 
 
“I'll tell you minister what your game is. Bankrupt BC Hydro, sell off the dams, privatize the dams and Powerex thus keeping your pledge to the Fraser Institute to be rid of publicly owned companies. At the end of your next term - if God forbid you get one - your government will have succeeded in destroying the great instruments of public policy - BC Ferries, BC rail, BC gas and BC Hydro. What a ghastly legacy!
 
Rafe Mair - Official Spokesperson for Save Our Rivers Society, a former Environment Minister who cares http://www.rafeonline.com

Go to: http://saveourrivers.ca
THIS IS NOT "GREEN" POWER FOR OUR NEEDS - IT'S A SCAM AND A HESIT ON A LEVEL WE HAVE NEVER BEFORE SEEN.  NOTHING COULD BE MORE IMPORTANT TO OUR FUTURE THAN KILLING THE CAMPBELL PRIVATE ENERGY PLAN.

Go to: http://saveourrivers.ca/video-library-mainmenu-29/351-rivers-at-risk-complete
Save Our Rivers Society is proud to present the final chapter of the documentary series that has taken viewers all around the province to witness precious rivers threatened by private power project proposals. This 4 min film, entitled "Rivers at Risk: British Columbia" brings the series to a close with a visual tour of rivers in every corner of the province - shot by filmmaker Damien Gillis throughout the past several years - including those threatened by proposals and those already being torn apart by private river power construction. This film is essential viewing for all British Columbians as they prepare to head to the polls on May 12 2009 - BC's Watershed Election.
Now all six short documentaries in the "Rivers at Risk" series are available here as well - http://saveourrivers.ca/video-library-mainmenu-29/351-rivers-at-risk-complete
 
or go to http://www.raincoastresearch.org by Alexandra Morton R.P.Bio.
Adopt a small fry, and save BC’s wild salmon.

“Here in British Columbia we are in the last two weeks of electing a Provincial government and this will have critical affect on wild salmon due to privatization of rivers and ocean spaces, even schools of fish.  Many of you received responses from the BC government currently in power, the “Liberals,” headed by Premier Gordon Campbell.  They said the BC government is not allowed to intervene in the Appeal of the Constitutional Challenge I won regarding fish farms. This is not correct they do have this power. I have written a response on the website http://www.adopt-a-fry.org. It is becoming very clear that while the current  BC government has allowed the salmon feedlots to expand despite the science, public outcry and impact on rural economies they realize they are a political liability and thus are making every effort to distance themselves from the industry.

There are simple answers to this mess which now threatens the entire eastern Pacific and the BC economy.  Aquaculture is not the problem, the problem is lack of political will. Alaskan salmon have political will on their side and they are thriving.

For those of you in B.C., please view this film below and vote: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tPuJfbS2qMY
The existence of our wild salmon depends very much on this election.

And a great article by Mark Hume - The government's risky push for 'green power'
from The Globe and Mail - page S1 - Monday, October 22, 2007

"When Miller Creek nearly ran dry one day this fall, it did more than expose the gravel bars that whitefish, bull trout and salmon spawn on. The incident, which took place because of a malfunction at an independent power project, or IPP, revealed just how environmentally risky the government's push for "green power" is in British Columbia.

"In 2002, the government introduced a new energy plan, which opened the  way for the privatization of B.C.'s rivers by forcing BC Hydro, which had been doing a brilliant job of serving the province, to stop building new power plants and start buying energy from private producers. Soon investors were rushing to stake claims to rivers all over the place.

"According to Gwen Barlee, a Western Canada Wilderness Committee director who is alarmed by the growth of IPPs, there are 35 now in operation, with 60 more coming online soon, and about 500 water licenses for potential IPP's have been approved. This "massive onslaught of poorly regulated private hydro projects," she says, is taking place without adequate environmental oversight.

"This is about much more than Miller Creek and the fact that a creek nearly ran dry," she says of the recent incident. "It's about the lack  of checks and balances in the province to monitor these independent private power projects."

"Government and industry promote IPPs as environmentally friendly because plants are built upstream of natural barriers to fish and because the water is returned to the stream after being diverted through turbines.

"Certainly such run-of-river power is relatively clean. But the projects are not environmentally benign. To build IPPs, roads are pushed through pristine wilderness to the banks of some of the most beautiful streams in the province. Power lines march off through the forests to connect to the grid. One shocking proposal, that would dam eight tributaries on the Pitt River, wants to put power lines through Pinecone Burke Provincial Park.

"How can damming all the major tributaries on a salmon stream and violating a Class A park be green? The Miller Creek incident shows how
IPPs can damage fish habitat.

"On Sept. 8, the headpond for the EPCOR plant ran low on water. Here's how Marc Nering, EPCOR plant manager, Hydro Operations B.C., explained the incident in an e-mail to concerned Miller Creek residents: "For reasons we are continuing to investigate, the water level at the headpond dropped overnight.

"On Saturday morning at 08:01 hours, the plant went off-line when the plant-monitoring system detected that penstock pressure was low, which can represent a possible penstock rupture. For this reason, the turbine inlet valves and penstock isolation valve closed. This prevented water from flowing through the penstock and plant. This effectively stopped water entering the creek below the power plant while the headpond recharged."

"So Miller Creek was turned off for about four hours, allowing the plant to recharge and get back to generating power. Alarms, which should have alerted controllers off-site, didn't go off. Jay Shukin, a company public relations spokesman, said EPCOR is taking  steps to ensure the same thing doesn't happen again. He also said a contract biologist found only nine dead fish downstream, suggesting little damage was done.
Had the accident occurred when fish were spawning, however, it could have been disastrous.

Veronica Woodruff, a member of Stewardship Pemberton, a communitygroup concerned about the environment, is worried because there have been other problems on Miller Creek. There are reports that families playing on sandbars in the summer have  had to scramble to dry land when the stream level suddenly rose. Asked about this, EPCOR wasn't aware of any such problems, but promised to look into it.
"I'm sort of on the fence a bit with green power, because I know we need to find ways to generate green power, but I don't know if this is  the way," says Ms. Woodruff.

"Others are beginning to wonder, too. After all, if a good company like EPCOR can do something like this, one has to wonder what others might do as they wring power from B.C.'s priceless streams.

"For more information: John Calvert's important book: Liquid Gold: Energy Privatization in British Columbia. In it, the Simon Fraser University professor describes the economic and environmental questions raised by the government's new energy policy.

"Tireless crusaders have been working to educate us for a long time. As far back as November 2007, we were alerted as to what was coming: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p48ra_657M4

And about Rafe Mair:

Rafe Mair is a former lawyer, cabinet minister and scratch golfer who went into honest work and became a broadcaster and writer on public affairs.
During his public career Mair was the British Columbia minister responsible for constitutional affairs leading up to the patriation of the Canadian Constitution and through 1980 attended all the critical meetings either as Premier Bennett’s representative or adviser. He has a unique insight and training into political and constitutional matters having traveled extensively researching these matters. Included in this research were trips to Germany to evaluate their bicameral federal system, Switzerland to learn about their federation with its theme of participatory democracy and the United States, courtesy of the State Department, for an in depth study of the inter-relationship of the White House and Congress as well as relations between state governments and Washington.

Rafe Mair hardly confines his efforts to politics. In his editorials he often talks about sports, his slow, unsteady return to his Anglican roots, fly-fishing and travel.

Basically, though, Mair is a political junkie and, because he’s been there, a highly skeptical one who combines gut reaction with pungent reaction punctuated with what has been called his “wicked sense of humour.”

Rafe Mair has written several books. The first, a labour of love which may soon be re-published across Canada is called “The Last Cast” and chronicles his adventures as a fly fisherman which one unkind wag characterized as a chronicle of Rafe falling in rivers around the world.

His second book is called Canada: Is Anyone Listening? It has been widely praised. Former Prime Minister Kim Campbell called it a book which all Canadians should read, and in the highest compliment of all, a good read. It offers wide ranging views on health, the environment, Canada’s unity.

His third book, Rants Raves and Recollections, for many weeks on the B.C. best seller list. His last book, Still Ranting, came out in October 2002. In October 2004 Rafe published, Rafe: A Memoir.