Media release
B.C. Citizens for Green Energy
www.greenenergybc.ca
June 19, 2008
“They say money means power and there’s certainly big money behind the More Power to You conference on June 20 and 21,” said B.C. Citizens for Green Energy co-spokesperson Gene Vickers. “Well-heeled funders are subsidizing this two-day training session to protect their own interests while jeopardizing our energy future.” More Power to You is a two-day session of speeches and workshops in Vancouver to train province-wide activists for the campaign against clean electricity. Lawyers, journalists, union officials and other paid activists will host the event. “The result will be a big boost in publicity — but for a campaign of discredited myths.”
More Power to You is sponsored by an inter-related group of vested interests, said Vickers. “COPE 378, probably the strongest opponent of run-of-river electricity, is a BC Hydro union,” Vickers explained. “It works very closely with the Wilderness Committee, which supports run of river if it’s developed by BC Hydro. Another sponsor is IBEW local 258, another BC Hydro union. BC Citizens for Public Power is mostly made up of people from COPE 378, IBEW local 258 and the WC. Take Back the Power is a COPE 378 front organization. And seemingly no one — except maybe their new celebrity spokesperson Rafe Mair — knows who’s behind the Save Our Rivers Society.”
The purpose of their two-day session will be to train activists from across the province. “But the message they’ll be trained to present has already been discredited,” said Vickers. “I think it’s quite predictable that they’ll be pushing the same old myths — the 500 rivers myth, the privatization myth, the American control myth, the environmental damage myth, the skyrocketing rates myth and so on. We’ve refuted all that nonsense on our Web site.”
BCCGE provides a myth-busting Web page at:
www.greenenergybc.ca/myths.html
“But their campaign relies largely on emotional rhetoric backed by big bucks,” said Vickers. “It would be interesting to know how much they’re paying to rent SFU Harbour Centre, and to hire professional speakers and agitators. There’s no way they’re meeting expenses for this two-day event from the $50 admission fee, especially when they’re subsidizing travel and accommodation for trainees from out of town.”
Big spending has been an ongoing feature of the campaign against clean electricity. “These groups have the money to send speakers all over the province, sometimes to several simultaneous events,” Vickers said. “They’ll even bus in audience members from different parts of the province. They have full-time staff with lots of expertise in media, communications and campaigning. They have the money to hire a celebrity spokesperson like Rafe Mair. They use all this to present public events, gain media coverage and play on people’s emotions.”
The result has been a very successful campaign of one-sided rhetoric. “But it’s a very expensive campaign too — and not just for the vested interests who are funding it. If those groups are successful, future generations will pay the tangible and intangible costs of an insecure supply of dirty electricity.”
Backgrounder
We predict the two-day More Power to You conference will train activists to push the following discredited myths:
The 500 Rivers Myth claims 500 or more B.C. rivers are being sold, stolen, given away or otherwise affected. We refute that myth here:
www.greenenergybc.ca/myths.html#500rivers
The Skyrocketing Rates Myth claims green energy will cause soaring electricity rates. We refute that one too:
www.greenenergybc.ca/myths.html#rates
The Environmental Desecration Myth claims green energy is bad for the planet unless it’s developed by COPE 378 members:
www.greenenergybc.ca/myths.html#enviro
The We-Don’t-Need-More-Electricity Myth claims we have all we need for future generations:
www.greenenergybc.ca/myths.html#imports
The Privatization Myth — this one’s actually a conspiracy theory:
www.greenenergybc.ca/myths.html#privatization
The American Control Myth — another conspiracy theory:
www.greenenergybc.ca/myths.html#american
We predict the two-day More Power to You conference
will avoid the following issues:
COPE 378’s self-interest and lack of credibility:
www.greenenergybc.ca/cope378.html
www.greenenergybc.ca/cope_ad.html
The Wilderness Committee’s political agenda: www.greenenergybc.ca/wc.html
How did the Save Our Rivers Society buy its way from anonymity to celebrity?
www.greenenergybc.ca/sors.html
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