Buried on Page 2 of the Vancouver Province today, October 20, is a headline “Province halts major transmission system inquiry." This means that, when you look behind the Campbell government’s never abating never ending fog about energy, this means that the BC Utilities Commission, the public’s watchdog will not carry on its independent investigation into the Campbell government’s horrific Energy Plan.

This Plan took away BC Hydro’s right to create new energy and gave that job to the private sector. It also forced BC Hydro into making sweetheart “use or pay” contracts with private producers which gives the term “sweetheart deal” a whole new meaning.

Evidently the light has gone in the Premier’s office and he has, at long last, seen the consequences of this deal.

The consequence for BC Hydro is Grade I arithmetic. It can’t avoid for long the fact that either it will go bankrupt if it must pay to the private sector double what it can sell it for in the US or charge British Columbia usurious electricity rates.

Why does that happen?

Because the vast bulk of private power comes when we don’t need it! Private plants develop their power during he Spring run-off, the very time BC Hydro has full reservoirs with plenty of power to meet its demands. The BC government have been very silent on this matter and much of the blame falls upon the NDP who didn’t understand the this issue during the May election and didn’t press it. To this day only a handful of NDP MLAs have a clue about the Energy Policy.

The consequences of the Energy Policy are that either  Hydro must go broke because it cannot pay the billions of dollars it has in obligations to private power or it must substantially raise its rates to BC industry and homeowners to cover off its losses. If the latter is the option, you and I will be subsidizing Hydro exports to the US – big time!

Both policies will hit British Columbians very hard indeed. The marvelous power creation we have in this province of ours, BC Hydro, faces the dilemma “do we bankrupt our company or do we bankrupt the public?

The BC Utilities Commission has stepped on Mr. Campbell’s corns and the premier is thrashing around to find an easy way out. But there isn’t one. BCUC has already found that the Campbell Energy Policy is “not in the province’s best interests”. For Premier Campbell to allow BCUC to continue to overturn rocks and find government crawlies is not on he’s shut it down.

The government has been lying about this issue from the outset. Two statements suffice to prove that. One Campbell has stated that BC needs this new energy which is utterly false. Then he says the private power companies ruining our rivers, clear-cutting for roads and transmission lines will make up this mythical need we have for more energy. This is horse buns for as noted above, we certainly wouldn’t be able to use private power which is of no help to British Columbians because of the time it’s produced.

Campbell has shut down the public’s sharp eye on power production and has turned that obligation over to himself and the nit wits that make up his government.

The chickens are indeed coming home to roost.

What the head rooster does now will be interesting – and very costly – to see.

Rafe Mair is a member of the Save Our Rivers Society Board of Advisors

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