[N_Fiddledog]

What are the chances this story I just read about in an American Blog concerning BC's energy dealings with California is true, or has some truth to it?

http://biggovernment.com/cdevore/2010/0 ... ore-158165

Us BC locals all remember Schwarzenegger coming up to BC years ago shaking hand with Campbell, and agreeing to set up some sort of energy green zone, right? I don't remember the details of that. I got the feeling at the time it was more or less symbolic.

According to the blog post though, BC sells supposedly green hydro electric energy to California at an inflated price. It then imports dirty coal and oil energy from Alberta for its own use.

See, I'd heard about sending California energy, but the local media always led me to believe that was because we were such nice guys, and we were helping the Californians out in the case of emergency, and only after western states like Washington ran out of spare electricity to send south. I also heard we were in the process of allowing businesses to set up small energy gatherers along the rivers, but I thought that was part of going green, and helping with the green jobs.

What I didn't hear is we were sending our green energy south, and buying the dirty stuff from Alberta.

If that's true doesn't that make this carbon tax we pay even more of a scam? I don't see how we BC boys (and girls) are saving the world from global warming with our carbon tax, if we're just buying dirty fuel instead of using the clean stuff we used to use.

So is there any chance this story is true? I'm thinking maybe parts of it are.

The story is from BigGovernment.com. That's run by Breitbart. You know him, right? Shirley Sherrod, edited tapes, and all that. Yeah, I know...grrrr. Nevertheless...

Also it's written by Chuck DeVore. He's a California state assemblyman. He's also the guy who lost out in the Republican primary to Carly Fiorina who's going to be running against Barbara Boxer in November for Senator. He's hard right Conservative, and I think the tea party likes him.

[Dragom]

BC runs an energy deficit.

If they are supplying California with energy then it is in truth from Alberta.

And if BC actually just built unfiltered coal-burning power plants in every one of our cities and towns then they'd generate less of a carbon footprint.

Any presumption of environmental-mindedness in BC is fabricated.

[andyt]

Here's what the Globe and Mail said in 2007.

Quote:

Since 2001, B.C. has been a net importer of electricity, bringing more power into the province than it ships to customers such as California. Much of the imported electricity comes from emissions-heavy coal-fired plants in Alberta. B.C.'s new energy plan calls for the province to be self-sufficient by 2016.

Until then, the province's emissions picture may not be as virtuous as its hydro-heavy reputation would suggest. B.C. Hydro reported 1,223 kilotonnes of greenhouse-gas emissions in 2005. If emissions from electricity imported from Alberta and the U.S. were taken into account, that total would more than double, to 3,259 kilotonnes, the David Suzuki Foundation estimates.

[Scape]

Most new energy projects controlled by big firms outside BC.

Edmonton Profits Big from BC Private Power

Is B.C. running out of electricity?

Quote:

And even if a transmission line to B.C. from the Columbia River generating plants was constructed, Field says the electricity B.C. would obtain would not be enough to match the growth in our province’s population over the next few decades, not to mention the loss of Powerex sales revenue that would cause hydro rates in B.C. to go up accordingly.

[Dragom]

And BC sells it's recycled cardboard to China to be burned in factories for power.

If anyone should be burning BC cardboard for power it's BC.

Not to mention how BC Hydro shut down the proposed waste wood power plant.

Not to mention the survey I got from from BC Hydro that asked if I thought it was a "Moral obligation to use less power" or a "Hope to avoid having to build new power plants to preserve the pristine beauty of our local landscape" and completely failed to include a "Just build a freakin power plant already, you useless excuse for a power company!" option.

[andyt]

The one I like is where we pay a carbon tax on energy used here, but no tax is charged for coal shipped to China, so they can make crap to sell back to us, but somehow we think we're being virtuous.

[Dragom]

Hypocrisy and hippies go hand in hand. Unfortunately so do hippies and BC.

[N_Fiddledog]

Sounds like a monster shell game though, don't you think?

We buy dirty, then sell clean at inflated prices. On top of that there's these Run-of-the-River projects where mini-dam type things are set up on BC rivers.

http://www.sierraclub.bc.ca/local-group ... -gold-rush

Those are owned by independent power producers. I heard most of them are foreign, and they cause environmental damage to the river. I imagine they're selling that power south for the inflated prices. Somebody's making a lot of money. We're not even sure who. We're still burning dirty energy, pretending to give a dam about clean energy, telling everybody to worry about what sort of light bulbs they use, and how much they should drive what cars, then they tax us all for carbon pretending they actually give a dam about green energy. It's a scam.

Then the socialist Vander-zalm comes along with his HST tax revolt pretending he cares about high taxes. The carbon tax is never mentioned, but that's the one that's actually the bigger scam. They like that one though, so they ignore it. It's not about tax scams. It's about favored tax scams.

And why don't we all know more about this. I listen to the local evening news, and read the local papers. I didn't put all the pieces together until I read an American blog of questionable repute. Now, from what I hear there appears to be something to the story.

[andyt]

Well, building another Peace river dam would also cause "environmental damage" to that river. (But I support it - we need the power). My impression is run of river can be built to do minimal damage and can easily be decommissioned and rehabilitated. The problem I have with them is that they are private enterprises. But of course with Campbell, private enterprise doesn't mean private risk - those run of river projects get deals from BC Hydro to sell their power at very high prices. I think Bennett was onto something when he socialized BC Hydro.

[N_Fiddledog]

Then there's this...

"when we sell surplus power to the United States, under the "proportionality" clause of NAFTA we must continue providing that relative level of power regardless of our own needs."

So we make more clean energy, send it south, and we're locked into continuing to provide it by NAFTA. California's a big place. We don't have any guarantee that no matter how many BC salmon we kill sending clean energy south, we still won't have to buy the dirty stuff from Alberta.