Media release - for immediate release
B.C. Citizens for Green Energy
www.greenenergybc.ca
April 29, 2009
Rafe Mair rolling into
Prince George and Quesnel
“Contrary to what Rafe Mair claims, B.C.’s rivers are not
being sold, stolen or given away for run-of-river electricity
production.” — David Field, Co-spokesperson,
B.C. Citizens for Green Energy —
Vancouver, B.C. — Former talk show personality Rafe Mair has been travelling around B.C. for the past year to rant against run-of-river green energy projects, and tonight and tomorrow night he’s rolling into Prince George and Quesnel.
David Field from B.C. Citizens for Green Energy says if the past is any indicator, Mair’s appearances in Prince George and Quesnel will be filled with emotional bombast and strident misinformation.
Field has attended several of Mair’s presentations in the Lower Mainland in recent weeks and he says Mair repeats the same myths and fallacies about green energy projects each time.
“Contrary to what Rafe Mair claims, B.C.’s rivers are not being sold, stolen or given away for run-of-river electricity production,” Field said. “The claim that B.C. rivers are being sold has been discredited time and time again and those who make this emotional claim are either intentionally, or unintentionally, confusing water license applications with approvals for run-of-river projects.”
Field says that although water license applications can be numerous, actual approvals for run-of-river projects are infrequent and difficult to achieve as the bar is set very high for these projects. The overwhelming majority of license applications, he says, are never able to measure up to the stringent environmental requirements and are rejected.
If and when a run-of-river project does manage to meet all of the environmental and regulatory requirements and is approved, Field stresses that that approval does not give anyone ownership of a river or the water in a river.
“Mair likes to hold up NAFTA as a bogyman to support his claims about B.C. rivers being sold,” Field said. “But there is nothing in NAFTA that would force B.C. to permit the continued use of crown land by an IPP beyond the termination date of a lease and nothing that would force B.C. to allow an IPP to export water, and this was supported by a joint declaration in 1993 by all three countries involved.”
Field says the claim that Independent Power Producers have perpetual access to B.C.’s water just by signing a lease for a period of years runs completely counter to all property laws in the US and Canada. The maximum duration of a water licence, he points out, is no more than 40 years after which all water rights revert back to the people of B.C.
Field says Mair’s travels around B.C. also need to be viewed against the larger backdrop of the aggressive, well-orchestrated misinformation campaign against green energy led by the Canadian Office & Professional Employees Union (COPE 378), the union that represents BC Hydro employees. The key strategy of the COPE 378 led campaign against green energy, like that of Mair, has been to steamroll over the facts and drill misinformation into peoples’ heads through relentless repetition and emotional rhetoric.
Additional information about green energy is available on the B.C. Citizens for Green Energy website at www.greenenergybc.ca and on the website’s myth busters page www.greenenergybc.ca/myths.html. Several short videos on the subject of green energy in B.C. are also posted on YouTube www.youtube.com/GreenEnergyBC and on the B.C. Citizens for Green Energy website at www.greenenergybc.ca.
Copies of the two-and-a-half page white paper on NAFTA are also available on the B.C. Citizens for Green Energy website (click here to view the report).
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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