A Reader asks…
Regarding Hydro boss Mr Clark’s odd and unsubstantiated assertions that geothermal is just “too expensive”? Says who? Where? In what scientific context? Enhanced geothermal systems: An underground tech surfaces as…
BC Hydro
Lew Edwardson on BC Hydro
Always articulate and thoughtful reader Lew Edwardson left a comment on the IN-SIGHTS article THE HEAT BENEATH OUR FEET. I think it needs to be amplified. Drought in northeast BC…
Record growth in European solar photovoltaic, but not in B.C.
The cost of electricity produced with solar and wind technologies has been declining for 15 years. Because of corporate inertia, BC Hydro has been paying little attention. The company has…
“Predation has contaminated BC Hydro”
I was first introduced to now-retired economist Erik Andersen by lawyer/commentator/broadcaster Rafe Mair. Using his professional experience, Erik analyzes several economic subjects. His recent comment about BC Hydro caught my…
A governance failure at BC Hydro
The NDP has appointed a Board that is gender balanced and includes Indigenous people. However, the Board of 12 is drawn exclusively from people with backgrounds in business. Resource extraction…
Prepare for electric rate shock
In a recent piece, I demonstrated that successive British Columbia governments have seriously reduced the public share of the value of natural gas produced in the province. Now, there is…
Privatizing $24 billion public dollars
IEA says energy efficiency provides some of the quickest and most cost-effective CO2 mitigation options while lowering energy bills and strengthening energy security. Because the immediate benefits of efficiency go…
Greed is good?
After the IN-SIGHTS article BC Hydro second quarter report, fiscal year 2025, retired economist Erik Andersen provided the following...
BC Hydro second quarter report, fiscal year 2025
BC Hydro waited until the last days allowed by law to release the utility's second-quarter report for the fiscal year ending March 2025. The utility's financial reports show politicians consciously…
BC Hydro, first quarter sales
So BC Hydro plans to spend $57 billion over the next decade to meet what CEO Chris O’Riley and NDP Minister Josie Osborne say is to meet the rapidly growing…
BC Hydro wasn’t privatized, but billions of dollars were
In 2001, BC's party of big business was called Liberal; in 2024, it is labeled Conservative. Different names; same purposes. Some voters in the October election were not even born…
Journalism without fact-checking
Beware of what you read about BC Hydro in news sites operating to benefit those who aim to privatize billions of public dollars. One example is a Derrick Penner article…
20 year demand growth 1/5 of BC Hydro predictions
Three days after the final date allowed by law for making public its Annual Service Plan, BC Hydro made the document available on its website. Electricity sales to residential, commercial…
Rip ‘n’ Read, 2024 style
There are many good journalists working in corporate media today. But, lack of resources stifles their work. At times, news people simply accept press releases as accurate and report the…
Manufactured ignorance
Many readers of IN-SIGHTS examine public issues with great care and email private comments to me along with links to worthwhile material. What follows comes from a paper sent to…
Douglas, Lewis, Broadbent, and Layton spinning in their graves?
This item, contributed by a reader, comments upon BC Hydro now offering a ten to fifteen billion dollar commitment to private power producers. This continues Gordon Campbell’s aim of twenty…
Tell the dam truth
Tell The Dam Truth (TTDT) is a California based non-profit with initial funding from outdoor clothing retailer Patagonia. TTDT’s aim is to protect and restore free-flowing rivers by educating people…
BC Hydro sales flat, spending not
After forecasting 40 percent growth over 20 years, BC Hydro has been spending billions of dollars. But the utility’s sales to residential, commercial and industrial customers in calendar year 2023…
Condensed history of BC Hydro
Repeated here is something I wrote about BC Hydro in early 2017 for The Common Sense Canadian, an online journal covering Canada’s economy and environment. The site was co-founded by…
Socialism when necessary but not necessarily socialism
Years ago, Rafe Mair wrote that W.A.C. Bennett, if he were alive in 2009, would have been a member of the NDP, in those days a party firmly positioned on…