Tuesday, April 20, 2010

Dam Gordon Campbell - Rest In Peace River!

Dam Gordon Campbell!

Just a quick comment about yesterday's ridiculously expensive BC Liberal government fly-in staging of a minor announcement - that the Site C Dam hydroelectric project is going to the next stage towards possible construction.

The name for this project is an obviously and popular one - Dam Gordon Campbell. And his rapidly dropping credibility and approval rating can then Rest In Peace River.

There are merits to building Site C - massive hydroelectric power - the cleanest and greenest of all, massive construction jobs in the north - and there are real problems to overcome - environmental and First Nations concerns.

It's also obvious that if this is going to be a Public-Private-Partnership or P3 and be a non-union project to pay off the BC Liberals financial supporters, it's going to be a bad, bad deal for British Columbians.

But the biggest worry I have is that this is a way for the public - taxpayers - to subsidize Independent Power Producers - IPPs - to an even more outrageous degree than the already terrible amount we're giving them today.

[To see how bad that is, read Will McMartin's excellent story in The Tyee about the profit rates of some of the IPPs operating in BC.]

How could that happen? If Site C - Dam Gordon Campbell provides the BC Hydro power the province needs, the IPPs can export their electricity to American markets - with taxpayers and Hydro ratepayers subsidizing the entire enterprise and the IPPs laughing all the way to the bank!

Now that's making an already bad situation even worse, way worse.

.

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

The reason the BC Liberals spent all that taxpayer money (How much? We may never know) on the phony Site C announcement was to try to distract voters from the anti-HST petition campaign.

While it is all well and good to show that the BC Liberal administration failed ('we are above the law') to register with Elections BC, their imagination (and expense accounts) will show no boundaries as the BC Liberals try to distract voters away from a humiliating BC Liberal HST defeat.

Anonymous said...

We cannot allow Gordo and his partners in crime to have anything to do with this massive development. Has anyone seen the provincial debt numbers lately? Everything he touches turns to big debt for BCer's!

Anonymous said...

"We cannot allow Gordo and his partners in crime to have anything to do with this massive development. Has anyone seen the provincial debt numbers lately? Everything he touches turns to big debt for BCer's!"

The solution for that is simple.

Get the NDP elected in 2013, Bill Tieleman goes back to his old job as a communications guy, and the NDP just denies approval at the point where the government has to provide it (ever Stage 4 or Stage 5). Bill manages the communications
from the Cabinet on that one.

Easy.

After that, Bill manages PAB to write the newsreleases announcing the NDP will repeal the HST 100% in 2015.

Hugh said...

Bill, you said:

"How could that happen? If Site C - Dam Gordon Campbell provides the BC Hydro power the province needs, the IPPs can export their electricity to American markets - with taxpayers and Hydro ratepayers subsidizing the entire enterprise and the IPPs laughing all the way to the bank!"

Can you explain?

About 100 IPPs already have contracts with BC Hydro, so they can't export to the USA, unless they break those contracts.

Future IPPs could possibly export, outside of BC Hydro.

I think BC Hydro and the IPPs want to have more reservoir firming capability, to make power exports more lucrative.

Site C, the Mica upgrades, Waneta, show that BC Hydro can make big increases to its own system. So, it doesn't really need the power from all those IPPs anyway.

Site C is also about providing power for the gas drilling up by Ft. Nelson.

Just my 2 cents.

Anonymous said...

Dam Gordon Campbell!

I love that!!

Let's make that a referendum!!!

Anonymous said...

I read somewhere, the site C dam, was for Arnie S in California. The Peace country has the best farming land in Canada.
The BC Liberals, don't seem to care about laws being broken. Campbell and Hansen, thought nothing of lying and deceiving the citizens, to make sure Campbell was re-elected. They will completely destroy this province for money. There was to be toxic mine waste dumped in Fish Lake. Every living animal using the lake, to drink water and, all the fish, will perish. They also, wanted to bring, China's, dirty oil tankers into BC inlets. Worst of all is, drilling off shore oil wells, off the BC coast. When the spill happens, our Orca whales, and everything in the spills path will die. There is still oil collecting on the rocks, from the Valdez spill 19 years ago. People from all over, come to see the Orcas. However, Campbell, Hansen and the BC Liberals, don't care about such things, as our eco system. Only their greed counts.

Anonymous said...

Rumor has it. The site C dams hydro, will be going to Alberta's dirty tar sands.

Unknown said...

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I congratulate you,and Mr Vanderzalm for Waking up The people of the province to their present danger caused by current
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