Media release - for immediate release
B.C. Citizens for Green Energy
www.greenenergybc.ca
July 30, 2009

BCUC decision is completely
disconnected from reality: BCCGE

Vancouver—B.C. Citizens for Green Energy and its co-spokespersons David Field and Bruce Sanderson are strongly condemning Monday’s shocking and totally bewildering decision by the B.C. Utilities Commission (BCUC) to rely on 5,000 gigawatt hours of electricity per year from the carbon-emitting, natural gas-fired Burrard Thermal electricity generating plant near Port Moody. B.C. Citizens for Green Energy join a diverse and growing wave of groups and prominent environmentalists who are also condemning the BCUC and its myopic decision.

“We could not believe what we were reading when we started paging through the BCUC decision on Monday night,” Field said. “The BCUC’s decision on Burrard Thermal is shockingly disconnected from reality and it’s no wonder they waited until the end of the day on Monday before they sheepishly released it.”

Field says it’s a well-known fact that the 40-year old Burrard Thermal plant, when running at full capacity, is one of Metro Vancouver and the province’s largest sources of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gas emissions. Field says it makes no sense to be firing up Burrard Thermal in an era of climate change, and especially so considering the keen public awareness of the damaging impact that carbon emissions are having on the planet.

“The BCUC’s decision is shockingly out of touch with the public’s interests and the public’s views,” Field said. “The BCUC have shown absolutely no sign of leadership in their decision-making and they’ve essentially shot future generations in the foot—we need to be slaying ‘carbon-breathing dragons’ like Burrard Thermal not feeding them, giving them new life and saddling future generations with the consequences.”

Bruce Sanderson also speaks for B.C. Citizens for Green Energy and he agrees with Field that Burrard Thermal needs to be decommissioned, adding that the BCUC decision is completely inconsistent with every climate change and carbon reduction objective the province and the people of B.C. have.

“Two of the biggest challenges facing our planet today are global climate change and the need to find new sources of clean, green, renewable electricity,” Sanderson said. “For some reason the BCUC doesn’t seem to have grasped the urgency and extent of the situation, and that’s not only shocking it’s also shameful.”

Additional 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.

B.C. Citizens for Green Energy also have several short videos on the subject posted on YouTube at www.youtube.com/GreenEnergyBC as well as on their website at www.greenenergybc.ca.

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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