Enbridge Gateway Pipeline Articles
Independent Power & River Diversion Articles
Terrace Standard April 29,2009
Run of River Sparks Debate
click here to view full article
Title Text.
Prince Rupert Daily
April 23, 2009
Definitions of Green Energy
Calvert sounds alarm over energy privatization
April 22, 2009
Author warns about privatization of B.C. run-of-river energy projects
April 22, 2009
CFTK News Video Clip April 17 2009
Terrace Standard April 15 2009
Spawning Habitat found in run of river project
Terrace Standard April 15, 2009
Environmental groups at odds over river power
Prince Rupert Daily News
April 14, 2009
Run of River Interest on the rise
Forum examines hydro production,
Northern View, April 14, 2009
April 14, 2009
Run-of-river interest on the rise; A northwestern environmental group is bringing a public seminar on run-of-river projects to Charles Hayes Secondary School on Saturday.
Run-of-river interest on the rise; A northwestern environmental group is bringing a public seminar on run-of-river projects to Charles Hayes Secondary School on Saturday.
The Daily News (Prince Rupert)
Tue 14 Apr 2009
Page: 2
Section: Local News
Byline: George T. Baker
Source: The Daily News
The group is asking the provincial government to suspend approvals for private power generation on BC rivers and streams.
North West Watch, a terrace-based organization, said that it is concerned that government environmental deregulations for smaller-scaled river hydro projects were going ahead without taking a cumulative assessment approach.
"What we are doing is challenging the current government strategy on independent power production and more specifically to run of the river and private river divergent,'" said North West Watch outreach coordinator Jupiter MacDonald.
The group will bring Simon Fraser university professor Dr. John Calvert, who is the author of "Liquid Gold: Energy Privatization in British Columbia", a book that is highly critical of Independent Power Production and the rapid development of the industry in B.C.
Calvert has also been critical in the past about the way BC Hydro has been run as a crown corporation, believing that the 'public' power corporation has been dismantled.
The current minister for energy, mines and petroleum resources Blair Lekstrom told the Daily News that a BC Liberal government would not sell or privatize BC Hydro.
"We wouldn't because it's enshrined in legislation," said Lekstrom.
In a 2006 speech, Calvert argued that while that was true, if BC Hydro had only two employees working for BC Hydro, it would still constitute a public company; but if all the other functions were privatized then, in effect, the BC government could keep its promise while doing something quite different.
The IPP dilemma stems from the fact that energy forecasts place British Columbia's future need to increase as high as 45 percent by 2020.
Independent Power Producers association of BC, an organization that represents IPPs in the province, argues that the projects that are currently under construction in remote areas of the province are assisting rural development with hundreds of high paying jobs and providing options to communities affected by a downturn in some industries.
MacDonald doesn't argue the fact that the province will need future power sources and said that the run of the river projects don't necessarily have to come with the devil's horn attached to them. He said the concern is that until current government policy takes a more environmentally cumulative approach, the good run of river projects would be mixed in with the harmful ones as all being "green."
"Before, when all the stakeholders were involved, we could develop a project that was good in all respects - good for the environment and good for the local stakeholders - but also got the project going and kept the profits in B.C.," said MacDonald.
The North West Watch will bring its public forum to Charles Hayes Secondary School on Saturday at 7p.m.
© 2009 The Daily News (Prince Rupert)
