Media release
B.C. Citizens for Green Energy
www.greenenergybc.ca
August 11, 2009
Vancouver, B.C. — B.C. Citizens for Green Energy are speaking out in support of changes at the BC Utilities Commission following a shocking decision that suggested the gas-fired Burrard Thermal electrical generating plant could be fired up to full capacity and its status as the biggest producer of greenhouse gas emissions in the province restored.
B.C. Citizens for Green Energy co-spokesperson David Field says the people of B.C. have been crying out against dirty coal-fired and gas-fired electricity for years now. He says they’ve also expressed their concern about flooding thousands of hectares of pristine wilderness, which suggests the Site C dam could be the last of its kind in this province.
Field says he is left wondering why would the BC Utilities Commission, a public body, representing the people, go against these wishes? He says their suggestion that Burrard thermal should be fired up to full capacity flies in the face of the very people of B.C. whom they are responsible to for the stewardship of electricity in B.C.
Field says it is not enough, in these days, to say we will look after the supply of electricity at all costs and ignore the stewardship of our environment for future generations to look after. He says, this decision, if widely publicised would likely result in the people saying, “close it down so they can never fire it up again.”
“The BC Utilities Commission should be supporting the people’s vision for a cleaner, greener energy future not turning its back on what the people are demanding,” Field said. “The people want action on climate change and it was wrong for the BC Utilities Commission to chose to ignore the people’s demands and go off in the completely opposite direction and suggest that Burrard Thermal is in any way a responsible energy option for B.C.”
Field says it is time to consider some changes on the BC Utilities Commission board for choosing to ignore our wishes for clean power and for a new public board to be put in place, one that is responsible to the citizens and that will listen to the people of BC and their government.
“The people of B.C. clearly expressed their wishes, no demands, for clean, green, renewable energy they want to see being developed in this province and the provincial government has clearly responded with the legislation and vision to make that happen,” Field said. “It’s absolutely appalling that the BC Utilities Commission chose to ignore these demands and vision for action on climate change.”
Field says the province has been abundantly clear in stating that they want Burrard Thermal phased out in response to the people’s demands.
Field says BC Hydro’s intention to replace electricity from Burrard Thermal with electricity from clean, renewable energy sources by 2014 is also consistent with the people’s vision and with their demands for green energy.
B.C.’s Energy Minister Blair Lekstrom has stated several times that relying on the antiquated Burrard Thermal, with its voluminous greenhouse gas emissions, is not an option for meeting British Columbia’s growing electricity needs and that it will not be allowed. Field says he and B.C. Citizens for Green Energy are “pleased and relieved” by Lekstrom’s “strong and unequivocal rejection” of Burrard Thermal, adding that he and the group are totally “flabbergasted” that the BC Utilities Commission could have gotten things so wrong in the first place.
Sadly, Field says, this is not the first time the BC Utilities Commission appears to have wandered off in the wrong direction with its decision-making and he points to a policy statement in the BC Energy Plan that specifically addresses the narrow perspectives that are too often evident in the decision making of the BC Utilities Commission.
“The BC Energy plan specifically called for a review of the BC Utilities Commission and its regulatory framework to encourage the Commission take broader social, environmental and economic development objectives and perspectives into consideration in its decision-making,” Field said. “It explicitly states in the BC Energy Plan that ‘low costs means more than least financial costs’ and that environmental, social and economic development objectives are also values that need to be considered in determining whether the plans and programs of a utility like BC Hydro really do serve the public interest. The BC Utilities Commission chose to completely ignore these instructions and they’ve failed the people miserably in doing so.”
Field says the people want action on climate change and they want to know that the energy they’re using is the cleanest and greenest that it can possibly be. They want to know that the electricity they’re using is not contributing to global warming and climate change or sending harmful pollutants into the air they breathe like Burrard Thermal does.
“The BC Utilities Commission chose to ignore a lot of very clear signals from the people and the province,” Field said. “The people have an expectation that public bodies like the BC Utilities Commission are listening to them and responding appropriately, and in promoting the continued use of Burrard Thermal the BC Utilities Commission failed us miserably and have gotten it very, very wrong.”
Further information about green energy is available on the B.C. Citizens for Green Energy website at www.greenenergybc.ca and on the group’s myth busters page www.greenenergybc.ca/myths.html.
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For more information contact David Field
Co-spokesperson, B.C. Citizens for Green Energy
604-529-1604
e-mail us at info@greenenergybc.ca
B.C. Citizens for Green Energy is an advocacy group representing a cross-section of British Columbians who encourage a legacy of clean, sustainable electricity for future generations.
www.greenenergybc.ca