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…
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…
In late January, Manitoba Hydro CEO Jay Grewal said the utility would need new sources of electricity within five or six years. She reiterated a plan to meet new demand…
BC’s government seems determined to continue the present model for private power in the intended 2024 call for additional electricity. The difference in 2024 will be that large contracts for…
Gaining billions of dollars, with a promise of $50 billion more, by selling an unneeded product to a single customer for a multiple of market value ought to earn IPPs…
BC’s Auditor General says the 2022 surplus would be $6.5 billion higher if government followed Canadian Public Sector Accounting Standards. The surplus would have been $8 billion had government also…
It may be too late to save the billions of dollars that will flow to private power producers because corrupt practices are not easily resolved in court. But it is…
An extensive private power industry was created by Premier Gordon Campbell and friends early in the 21st century. A government that had little regard for nature opened vast areas of…
In the early 2000s, Liberals changed BC Hydro’s primary purpose from utility service for the public to financial service for party friends and other special interests. BC NDP carries on…
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…
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…
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…
A comment on my article at The Tyee is repeated here along with some hints about how dollars might have influenced reporting on IPPs by members of the corporate media.
Despite flat electricity demand since 2005, BC Hydro increased dollar value of IPP purchases by 185%, added 17% to its own generating capacity and bumped total assets from 12 to…
Electricity ratepayers, mostly residents and small to medium sized businesses, suffer because of failures by politicians and major media. The public was badly informed and that has enabled losses that…
The 40% demand growth over 20 years is a fantasy spun for so long that it is baked into BC Hydro’s DNA. No surprise. Not spending billions of dollars to…
Billions of dollars in the accounts of vested interests instead of the pockets of residents and SMEs. That’s will be the outcome after Clark Liberals and Horgan’s NDP greenlighted Site…
Political and power industry insiders dictated terms for the original IPP schemes but corporate inertia keeps them alive. BC NDP enjoyed the short-lasting attention paid Ken Davidson’s ZAPPED report since…
Years ago, SFU Professor and private power promoter Mark Jaccard assured us “independent power producers who will lose their shirts — not ours – – if they get it wrong.”…
Excepting BC Green Party leader Andrew Weaver, politicians on both sides of BC’s Legislature are reluctant to discuss natural gas policies. This week, the BC NDP raised gas subsidies. That’s…
Throughout that time, I couldn’t understand why the obvious insanity of costly private power programs didn’t raise the ire of many citizens. For that, I lay a large part of…