Fugitive emissions and fugitive revenues
Between 2004 and 2017, the quantity of natural gas produced increased by 64% and the royalties, which once measured over $1.5 billion annually, disappeared.
Norman Farrell
Open letter to BC NDP
The recent revelations about the supposed “decision process” regarding continuing with Site C, as detailed by Sarah Cox, are totally unacceptable. The public now knows that there never was any…
Government review of BC Hydro is specious
Some may be able to moderate use of electricity from the provincial grid but almost no individual can stop being a BC Hydro consumer. That fact obliges politicians to ensure…
Canada’s plan: do the opposite of what is promised
Delegates from 195 countries met in Paris for the 2015 United Nations Climate Change Conference. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau had a plan to address climate change and “take on a…
Canada inflating the carbon bubble
Canada, British Columbia, Alberta and Saskatchewan are today committed to pumping billions of dollars into the inevitable carbon bubble. Delaying transition to renewables to extract additional wealth from fossil fuels…
Corporate interest outranks public interest
Many citizens — although not In-Sights readers — will be shocked to learn that credits owed natural gas producers soared by more than $1 billion from April to November 2018.…
Ferry innovation? Wazzat?
The Havyard shipyard announced that it received a contract to build seven battery-powered ferries for Fjord1, Norwegian transport conglomerate. The news comes after the operators of the first all-electric ferry…
Climate change denial and the economic policy of idiots
Committing billions of taxpayers’ dollars to ensure the public carries all economic risks of the Trans Mountain project is not only financially unsound, it requires a commitment to climate change…
Unreliable narrators
In British Columbia, ethical rules of news gathering are not always followed. Some offences are minor, others are significant…
Financial destruction of BC Hydro
Simple financial analysis demonstrates that management of BC Hydro during recent years was thoroughly incompetent. Largely, that is explained by policies and people imposed by BC Liberals on a utility…
Masking BC Hydro’s financial condition
Under BC Liberals, BC Hydro stopped using regulatory accounts for rate smoothing and used them instead to hide the true state of the utility’s financial condition.
The race to the bottom is over
In the fiscal years 2016 and 2017, natural gas royalty payments totalled $291 million. However, credits owed producers increased $748 million so, if the province bothered to record these obligations…
BC Hydro aims to mislead citizens about domestic consumption
If we had experienced more truthfulness from BC Hydro, the province would not be spending billions on Site C. Not only is the project an option more expensive than alternatives,…
Organizational inertia and Site C
While the NDP has done much to change the direction of government in BC, they’ve been paralyzed when it comes energy policies. BC Hydro has been a troubled organization for…
Priorities
There is a small group of people — BC Liberals and friends — who viewed BC Hydro as a giant faucet for disbursement of cash. It is a costly reality…
We’re robbed and federal competition agency is silent
Removing the impact of gas tax and GST, our American neighbours pay as much as 38¢ a litre less. That amounts to $23 for a 60 litre fill-up. Based on…
Canadians spit into the wind
Slowing of growth in carbon emissions falls well short of the sharp drop in carbon emissions thought necessary to achieve Paris climate goals. We need a far more decisive break…
Solar power unstoppable, even on the wet coast
Dave Melrose, a reader who is in the solar installation business, commented on my previous article Death knell for net metering. He worries that people could be misinformed because I…
Vested interests dictate energy policy
The coming shifts in power distribution is referred to as the democratization of energy. It is resisted at BC Hydro and other utilities but it is inevitable…
Liberal amounts of fake accounting
Residents of British Columbia understand financial pain that follows when officeholders subvert public utilities to gain political advantage and reward special interests. BC Liberals aimed to privatize public assets and…