BY BILL PHILLIPS Writer’s Block
Our provincial political leaders are amped up. Power hungry even. No, not that kind of power. Real power … the stuff that keeps our televisions on so we can watch said leaders drone on about … electricity.
Take a deep breath and say “ohm.”
Despite what our diesel-fuelled dually-drivers keep telling us, Tesla is taking over. OK, not quite, but it’s apparent to anyone who has their eyes open that we need more electricity. It’s more than powering up our Teslas, after all, who can actually afford one (other than those Calgary oil barons, of course?). It’s a simple fact, our need for electricity is increasing.
And, our leaders have plans.
At the recent B.C. Natural Resources Forum in Prince George, Premier Eby announced a $36-billion plan to increase electricity output in the province. It includes building new high-voltage transmission lines and supporting infrastructure from Prince George to Terrace; building or expanding substations and installing new equipment to support residential housing growth and transit electrification in high-growth areas across the Lower Mainland and Vancouver Island; and upgrading B.C.’s dams and generating facilities to make them safer, more reliable and more efficient.
BC Hydro’s goal is to acquire new sources of clean, renewable electricity, including wind and solar.
Not to be out done, BC United Leader Kevin Falcon unleashed his party’s Resource Prosperity Plan.
“The NDP’s abandonment of clean power projects and self-sufficiency in renewable energy has made B.C. reliant on power imports, despite the incredible potential for clean power to electrify the economy right here in British Columbia,” reads the plan, which was probably written before, or maybe after, the NDP unveiled its plan (see above) and somehow forgets it was the NDP that gave Site C the go-ahead. “BC United will explore opportunities for major new electricity generation, electrification, and transmission projects to enable natural resource development, including fast-tracking much-needed electricity transmission to B.C.’s North Coast.”
The BC United plan sounds like there could be a return of IPPs, or independent power producers, in B.C. The NDP pulled the plug on IPPs in 2019.
According to the report which recommending casting IPPs into the darkness in 2019, “the previous provincial government pressured BC Hydro into signing long-term contracts with independent power producers (IPPs) that will cost B.C. customers more than $16 billion over 20 years.”
It said the run-of-river projects, which 71 of the 105 contracted projects were, were the ‘wrong energy profile.’
OK, let’s hope that plan won’t be back on the books.
The previous Liberal government did pull the Site C dam project out of the mud and got that going. Despite all our consternation at the time, turns out it was the right thing to do. The NDP government almost waffled on it, but gave it the go-ahead shortly after they were elected.
All that glitters is not amperage sparks though. Much of the power generated at Site C will go towards powering the new liquefied natural gas plant at Kitimat and Falcon has promised to go ‘all in’ on LNG should the BC United get elected. So, it’s not the Tesla owners we’re gearing up for.
The Greens? They support projects that aren’t more electrified LNG projects.
What about the Conservatives? Leader John Rustad wants to nuke them all. Well, more accurately, “to open the door to more electricity for cheaper the (we) will end the old, out-of-touch NDP-BCU/Liberal ban on nuclear power in B.C.”
The former Liberal government did that back in 2010 and the current NDP government hasn’t changed anything.
There you have it. Crazy B.C. politics at work. But hey, at least looking at options, not like our neighbours to the east who are actively discrediting any power generation that doesn’t rely on fossil fuels.
Bill Phillips is an award-winning columnist with 35 years of experience in community journalism.