In advance of the BC government’s anticipated report on BC Hydro, the Wilderness Committee says the report must call for meaningful reform of the Clean Energy Act to protect BC Hydro, ratepayers and hundreds of wild rivers.

On April 7, the provincial government struck a panel of government bureaucrats, including BC’s new Energy and Mines Minister Rich Coleman, to review BC Hydro’s rapidly rising costs. The review was prompted by Hydro’s three-year 32 per cent rate increase proposal and plans for a $6 billion capital works initiative.

The Wilderness Committee calls on the BC Government to substantially reform the Clean Energy Act:

• Reinstate full oversight of BC Hydro by the BC Utilities Commission;
• Remove the requirement for BC Hydro to meet arbitrary and inflated electricity “self-sufficiency targets,” and repeal the 3,000 GWh “insurance” target;
• Implement an immediate moratorium on all private power projects;
• Ensure that the downstream benefits of the Columbia River Treaty are treated as “domestic” power;
• Abandon plans to build the $7.9 billion Site C dam.

“The BC Government feigns surprise regarding the sky-rocketing BC Hydro rates, but truth be told none of this should come as a surprise because Hydro has been following the government’s marching orders,” said Gwen Barlee, policy director with the Wilderness Committee. “Pulling the plug on expensive and unneeded private power projects and the behemoth Site C project is the first step to resolving BC Hydro’s problems.”

There has been criticism regarding whether the panel members, who are all BC Government insiders, will make the substantial changes needed to get BC Hydro back on track.

“Minister Coleman and the BC Cabinet have created a multibillion dollar boondoggle that threatens to sink BC Hydro, which is our best tool against climate change,” said Joe Foy, national campaign director for the Wilderness Committee. “The rush to build more and more hydro power is a financial and environmental train wreck in the making – Minister Coleman needs to put the brakes on now.”

Contact:

Gwen Barlee, Policy Director, 604-202-0322 (c) or 604-683-8220 (w)

Joe Foy, Campaign Director, 604-880-2580 (c) or 604-683-8220 (w)