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.
Power Privatization the Cause of BC Hydro Rate Hikes That Will Skyrocket Residential Electricity Bills, Says BC Citizens for Pub
The Joint Industry Electricity Steering Committee, representing large BC Hydro customers, commissioned a study that predicts a typical residential Hydro customer paying $715 a year for electricity now will see that rate jump to $1,618 by 2016. The Vancouver Sun obtained the study.
"The high cost of privatizing British Columbia's power production is now falling on to the people of British Columbia-especially residential customers-in the form of huge electricity rate hikes," says Melissa Davis, Executive Director of BC Citizens for Public Power. "BC is squandering its public power legacy of low rates."
BC Citizens for Public Power, a grassroots, non-profit advocacy organization, was formed in 2002 to fight the privatization of BC Hydro operations. A class action lawsuit that the group launched in 2003 to attempt to block that privatization gained the support of 75,000 people across the province but was dropped when it became clear government legislation affecting the case and high costs made it impossible to pursue.
Davis said it is no accident that the lowest electricity costs in North American can be found in BC, Manitoba and Quebec, three jurisdictions which all have publicly-owned power utilities.
"The BC government should not be subsidizing the profits of so-called independent power producers and increasing consumers' rates," Davis stated. "By 2020 a full 40% of all electricity in the province will come from for-profit corporations rather than our publicly-owned BC Hydro."
"For seniors, students and low-income earners, these BC Hydro rate hikes will be particularly cruel but every British Columbian should be angry that one of the province's biggest competitive advantages and benefits-the public power legacy created by former Premier W.A.C. Bennett-is turning into an unnecessarily expensive disaster," Davis said.
For more information: Contact Melissa Davis at 604-681-5939 or cell 778-887-5878.