Shilling for dollars
Updated from June 2016. In an earlier article, I made reference to BC Legislative Press Gallery members producing commissioned articles. These are public relations pieces intended to serve particular needs…
Norman Farrell
Republican’s genius strategy
History Professor Alfred McCoy produced The Politics of Heroin in Southeast Asia in 1972. The CIA interfered with the book’s publication but its condemnation of American complicity in the drug…
What Hydro, Government and corporate media hates reporting
BC Hydro’s sales of electricity to residents and businesses have been flat since 2005, despite population growth of 15% in BC and minimal effort by the provincial utility to reduce…
CBC offered “pure propaganda”
After a CBC radio offering that made little effort to provide a complete story, economist Erik Andersen sent a message to CBC Early Edition. Erik keeps a close eye on…
Misappropriation of public wealth
This article was first published in April 2016 and is repeated because is explains how BC Hydro got into the private power mess that continues to cost ratepayers hundreds of…
Governmental pandering and corporate fiction peddling
Following is an item contributed by an In-Sights reader who chooses to be known as “Anonymous.” Most people are unlikely to remember the following… from J. Wellington Wimpy “I’ll gladly…
Taxing and subsidizing carbon
While BC consumers of carbon pay an ever increasing tax — $10 billion since 2009 — carbon producers are enjoying billions of dollars in subsidies. In the fiscal years 2007…
One man’s struggle against boredom
In the article More Energy Ministry duplicity, I wrote: Deputy Minister Dave Nikolejsin’s employment cost taxpayers almost $350,000 in the last fiscal year, including $90,255 in expenses, an amount that…
The fix was in
In a November 2017 post at his blog, York University Professor Mark Winfield, notes the failures of politicians when tasked with making energy decisions: The Government of Newfoundland and Labrador…
Fossil fuel pollution we forget
After Canada’s federal government and its energy regulator chose to examine broader environmental effects of Trans Mountain’s Energy East pipelines, including upstream and downstream emissions, the American owned company abandoned…
BC’s failing grade in climate change
In a report issued today, Auditor General Carol Bellringer says the BC government is not adequately managing risks posed by climate change. She finds: Government has work underway to adapt…
BC Log export numbers raise questions
BC Stats, an agency of the provincial government, reports regularly on raw log exports. The most recent detail shows the quantity of logs shipped out of British Columbia has grown…
Site C, a Kodak moment
For many years, I worked in the motion picture film laboratory business. One of our profit centres was processing TV News film footage. We had machines in or near TV…
The art of deception
Proponents of Site C always label it a “clean energy project.” BC Hydro says “It will be a source of clean and renewable electricity for more than 100 years.” Those…
Someone is telling us lies
When BC Liberals said the Site C completion budget was $7.9 billion, the cost of power from the project was stated to be $87 – $95 per megawatt-hour (MWh). Now,…
Sunk costs
I once owned a car that my family had driven almost 400,000 km. The engine was becoming unreliable, down on power while dripping and burning oil. We enjoyed the car…
More Energy Ministry duplicity
Four months ago, concerned that BC Hydro had failed to make public its second quarter report as required by law, I wrote this message to Minister Michelle Mungall: From: Norman…
An open letter to the BC Government
An item in my email today seems worth reprinting. February 7, 2018 Dear fellow New Democrats: We are New Democrats whose critical stance is based on social and environmental justice.…
Deceit is still a BC Government tool
A BC Government “technical presentation” regarding its decision to continue construction of Site C is filled with misinformation, deceit and false justifications. If this is the quality of the advice…
Inactivity will continue
I hope to resume online participation soon but illness continues to be a problem. I regret not having had a flu shot this season because I’ve experienced the worst case…