Platforms are for campaigning, not for governing
I remember reading Gordon Campbell’s platform in 2001. Based on the promises, I concluded Liberals were the logical choice for government. The trouble was, Gordon Campbell and the BC Liberals…
Norman Farrell
Why fixed election dates?
A person wise in the way of politics gave me his insight about fixed election dates. It’s worth a wider audience…
2020 election
A close observer of BC politics recently asked if I expected John Horgan to call an election before the scheduled date 13 months from now. My quick response was yes,…
Now for something completely different
Of course, these photographs represent something more to me than a 13 year-old’s regard for the beauty of our world. It represents the hope that the next generation will protect…
BC Hydro Annual Report
In the fiscal year ended March 31, to its residential, commercial and industrial customers, BC Hydro sold 1.6% less electricity than in the previous year. The volume in 2019-2020 was…
Energy policy undermined by special interests
Difficulty justifying billions of dollars spent to meet a need that has not existed is no real problem for people who benefit from the expenditures. After years of arguing falsely…
Population change, economic growth and electricity consumption
It seems logical that a growing population and an expanding economy would need greater supplies of electricity. But de-industrialization and lighting, motor and other efficiencies changed the proposition. Reality over…
Site C per MW capex 7x that of Egyptian near-shore wind projects
Because domestic demand by BC Hydro’s residential, commercial and industrial customers has been flat since 2005, the need for Site C is doubtful. Because costs of alternative sources of electricity…
Saving or foregoing oil dollars is a choice
On the day Jason Kenney’s Alberta announced their single year budget deficit will exceed $24 billion, Norway advises it’s national wealth fund had passed C$1.52 trillion in value…
Good advice ignored
More than ten years ago, economist Erik Andersen and famed commentator Rafe Mair warned that BC Liberals had planted seeds of destruction in the bowels of BC Hydro. Indeed, the…
Errors and alternatives
Three years ago, John Horgan’s Government promised the 2017 upward budget revision for Site C would be firm, final and effectively managed. Three years before that, Liberal Energy Minister Bill…
Absent watchdogs
Most journalists, particularly ones occupying the BC Press Gallery, have spent little or no time examining Site C, the costliest public project in BC history. In contrast, I remember daily…
Site C losses will be massive
With domestic demand in 2020 below that of 2005, the lies of BC Hydro’s spin doctors about demand growth are exposed by the company’s audited sales numbers. Site C power…
Heads they win; tails we lose
The fiscal year that ended March 2020 was not a rewarding one for public pension funds run by BC Investment Management Corp. The rate of return earned was less than…
Sarah Cox on CO-OP RADIO
Co-op Radio’s interview with Sarah Cox, the preeminent journalist covering issues surrounding British Columbia’s effort to ensure that NL’s Muskrat Falls is only the second worst hydro-electric project in Canada.
Site C: Government failure to safeguard the public interest
That Ralston, Horgan and colleagues knew about cost pressures and risks three years ago and chose to proceed shows the NDP wholly owns this fiasco. Had Site C been stopped…
Private profits but public risks – Updated
Commercialization of small-scale nuclear power has turned out to be far more difficult than investors expected a decade ago. Even one of the world’s richest entrepreneurs cannot finance a multi-billion-dollar…
Scraping the barrel bottom
The Trump campaign suggested journalists to be considered as moderators in 2020 Presidential debates. Jonathan Swan and Chris Wallace were not on the list. These people were…
Self-interest or public interest?
People promoting continuation of “energy self-sufficiency” are really saying that British Columbia should continue giving a unique and costly advantage to one particular industry, a sector that has grown used…
You have no choice; you have owners.
George Carlin: “It’s called the American dream because you have to be asleep to believe it.”