PEOPLE POWER is a six-chaper 50 minute DVD designed to help activists launch grassroots community-based campaigns to protect public power and the environment.
Proponents, critics seek 'clarity' from Victoria on clean power strategy: BC legislation will serve as template for sector devel
Posted March 1st, 2010
in
Source: Vancouver Sun
Page:
Both proponents and critics of private-sector power development are ready for a quick shift into post-Olympic mode as the provincial legislature reopens this week.
The British Columbia government has promised to introduce a Clean Energy Act that may emerge as a highlight in the introduction of Tuesday's budget, if only because the government is facing a huge deficit as the global recession continues to resonate through the provincial economy.
Premier Gordon Campbell has been promising the act will simplify and stabilize the process to develop renewable energy projects in B.C., and attract new investment and job opportunities.
The Independent Power Producers Association of B.C. recently released a PricewaterhouseCoopers study suggesting the sector could attract $29 billion in capital spending by 2020.
Scrutiny of the government's actions will be intense.
The province and BC Hydro have selectively and secretly rewritten in the recent month the terms of two electricity purchase deals that were accepted in a competitive bidding process in 2006, likely raising the ire of rival independent power producers who are carrying through their projects in good faith, as well as those whose bids were rejected in that call.
Critics will also be looking for proof the government's electricity export strategy can overcome fundamental obstacles such as a lack of transmission lines to carry new B.C. power to the U.S. market.
Independent Power Producers Association of B.C. executive director Paul Kariya said the premier's message has been well-received by his association's members.
Independents are anxious for the government to find a way to re-invigorate a 2008 BC Hydro call for renewable electricity that has become too protracted to portray B.C. as a good place to invest.
Kariya said there is now a "lack of clarity" about how the government will act on its verbal commitments.
"Right from the procurement process through to purchase agreements and permitting and all of that, to transmission and transport through to export, to markets ... we need that solidified," Kariya said in a recent interview.
Mark Tonner, managing director for Canada for GE Capital energy financial services, noted that the company in partnership with Plutonic Power has committed $175 million to two projects, the Dokie wind farm project and Toba-Montrose run of river hydro.
"Canada, collectively, is high on the global radar right now in terms of places to invest," Tonner said in an interview. "Within Canada, B.C. is sending a loud signal that [it wants] to be a premier player in this."
He said GE actions will be "clearly driven" by what the government sets forth in the Clean Energy Act.
"We are waiting to see what the final direction will be, because that will ultimately set policy and the mandate. Capital and investors will take the path of least resistance, so it's important that B.C. compete and create an environment that is easy to invest in," he said.
BC Citizens for Public Power, which opposes private-sector power development in favour of BC Hydro acting as sole developer of new electricity resources in B.C., is skeptical
BC Citizens' executive director Melissa Davis is concerned the government is taking action on the basis of a hasty and secretive six-week process in which a "Clean Energy Task Force" purportedly developed a blueprint for an economic initiative that will resonate across the province for decades.
"There is no economic rationale to justify the public good associated with the privatization of B.C.'s electricity sector," Davis said, noting the group has filed a freedom of information request for copies of all submissions to the Clean Energy Task Force.
"If the privatization of B.C.'s electricity sector was truly advantageous -- economically and environmentally -- for the province, the government and the private sector would have nothing to hide," she said.
Richard Stout, executive director of the Joint Industry Electricity Steering Committee, which represents Hydro's largest industrial customers, does not reject the development of green power, as long as it fits into the Crown corporation's traditional mandate of providing reliable service at the lowest possible price to customers.
The steering committee is worried that the government, which has committed to a rapid expansion of electricity generation capacity, could overdevelop the sector and be stuck with power it cannot sell at the price it is paying independents to deliver it.
"We support clean power, we support IPP development, we support the market development, we support the export of it, provided that these developers are not expecting a cross-subsidy from the ratepayer to either cover the cost or cover the risk that these contracts could be money-losing," Stout said.
Page: