In 2017, construction of Site C could have been halted without wasting more than $10 billion. But influential promoters of the megaproject — including Marc Jaccard, the newly appointed head of the “independent” regulator of BC Hydro — were misinforming citizens about the viability of alternatives.
Jaccard took over as chair and CEO of BCUC, effective September. 14, 2023. The Globe and Mail quoted him in 2017:
…the argument that other renewable energies will provide cheaper and cheaper energy over the course of Site C’s lifespan doesn’t take into account how hard it is to generate this power on command and send it through the grid.
The Globe and Mail, August 2, 2017
Does Jaccard wonder how others integrate relatively inexpensive and minimally destructive energy sources into their grids, or were his statements just reflecting loyalty to people holding unlimited cheque books?
Opponents of Site C knew in 2017 that global solar installations and wind capacity were enjoying material rates of growth. We knew these alternative energy sources could be added promptly whenever the many years of BC’s flat demand ended.
A case that proves Jaccard was wrong is MidAmerican Energy Company, which delivers electricity to consumers in Iowa, Illinois, Nebraska and South Dakota. MidAmerican charges 5th-lowest electric rates in the USA according to the EIA’s “2022 Annual Electric Power Industry Report – Investor-Owned Utilities.” The company boasts:
MidAmerican has invested nearly $15 billion in renewable energy projects across Iowa. We currently have more wind generation capacity than any other investor-owned utility in the United States. And with the region’s record-breaking wind resource in 2022, we delivered 100% of our Iowa customers’ annual electricity needs with renewable sources.
NPR: MidAmerican reaches big, renewable energy milestone
Even the uninformed will understand that truth was in short supply when Site C was promoted. Proponents argued that BC Hydro could not add wind and solar power because of dispatchability issues, even though the company’s generating capacity was 98.5% hydropower in 2017.
We can now estimate that each unit of Site C electricity will cost four to six times the cost of onshore wind power, and that’s without including the environmental and social costs of the dam. Future generations will bemoan destruction of northern BC’s finest agricultural land because of expected food supply disruptions in the future.
Even the Conservative government of Ontario recognizes what lies ahead. In 2023, it posted a 500 page report that provided grim details about the expected effects of climate change, including:
- The agriculture sector faces risks of “declining productivity, crop failure, and livestock fatalities.”
- “Most Ontario businesses will face increased risks due to climate change.”
- “Climate risks are highest among Ontario’s most vulnerable populations and will continue to amplify existing disparities and inequities.”
Six weeks ago, I suggested that instead of the promised 5,100 GWh of electricity, Site C’s annual output would be only 4,150 GWh if it matched the output of the public utility’s other hydropower dams.
I came across a BC Hydro report on the Wayback Machine internet archive. It promised Site C annual output of 4,600 GWh. Sometime between 2010 and project commencement, estimated production was increased by 500 GWh.
As I’ve demonstrated here repeatedly, BC Hydro has engaged in misinformation to promote its expensive projects. It is a costly game that benefits foreign corporations and a relative handful of people in British Columbia. The megaproject burdens millions of domestic electricity consumers.
Besides being built on a foundation of political and corporate lies, Site C also rests on an unstable foundations. Knowledgeable critic Lindsay Brown reports a new problem on the Peace River.
Don’t expect anything but a minimizing response from BC Hydro.
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By chance, I met a former student at a local park today — and found that he is working on the Site C project.
He’s a carpenter and he said the amount of waste and miscommunication is terrible. He said typically at job sites where they do concrete form work, they set up one section… do the work… and move the forms over to the next section. At Site C, though, the forms were getting torn down and stored all over the place.
Very disorganized and wasteful, he claimed. No wonder there are cost overruns…
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Did you expect it would be different on a project that might produce electricity at 4x or more the cost of alternatives?
Careful financial management ensures that valuable resources are utilized effectively to deliver public services when needed, protect environmental policy objectives, and avoid wastage or corruption.
BC Hydro management and their political masters are simply not interested in careful and efficient financial management.
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What Norm has confronted us with is the “record” of those who don’t, won’t or can’t “walk their talk”.
Several folks tried addressing the deliberate exaggeration of demand for electricity by pointing out that BC Hydro’s outlook (the word used was/is demand) was for ever-greater generation, to the BC Government, BC Hydro and the BCUC; but to no avail.
No one wanted to read or hear of such things as emerging generation alternatives or the concept of the “elasticity of demand”. Simply put, that happens when the price of something like electricity increases to a point that causes buyers to stop buying because they would rather have something to eat and a dry/warm place to sleep.
When briefly with the UN, I wrote a chapter on the inability of most of the South American continent’s population to consume international air travel. The then profiles of country income distributions made it clear that maybe 5-10% had the financial capacity to enjoy international air travel. My director refused to let me include that in my final report. I use this personal example to illustrate that that kind of information is not wanted by certain influential people.
The author John Perkins published “Confessions of an Economic Hitman” that describes what he was expected to do and write to stay employed.
Thanks Norm for reminding readers of what could/should have been in BC.
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The other problem, which crops up and it is certainly true about our transit, is Non Disclosure Agreements. Canada is a small country and for professional if they sign a NDA and then “spill the beans” they will be liable for civic action and be blackballed. Thus NDA’s ensure that fact, truth, etc. is filtered to suit the employers demands.
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I always wonder why as users our demand is never brought up in discussion. People living off the grid certainly know about conserving power. A plug your device in to recharge society, laptops that never get turned off, lights left on, multiple tvs running from the time people get up until they go to work or now left on all day if they work from home. Air conditioners running all summer creating an artificial climate that the environment use to provide for free, moving away from using natural gas as a heat and cooking source (a good thing) and on and on.
EVs will need to be plugged in at some point if they ever become affordable. It is hard not to believe that renewables could met our needs if we just came to the party. But site C is not about our misinformation demands for its construction.
We certainly seem to rise to the occasion when water rationing bells ring and those bells will be ringing in the foreseeable future with climate disruption. We just can’t create more water to satisfy demand so we therefore ration and conserve but not with our power demands for some reason.
People elect the government they deserve and that applies all the way to the regulators and BC Hydro. BC residents are ok with the current situation because it is the next generation that will be picking up the tab and the current regulators and BC Hydro chieftains will be long gone.
My suggestion if at all possible would be to get the heck out of here and let the deep pocket crowd pay the freight. Relocate applies to the members of the upcoming working generation. They cannot afford to live here and voting will not change anything. A serious exodus of a future tax base may be a wake up call.
Yes government is elected to serve but unfortunately it is not us the general voting public.
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Governments are elected on a platform of does and don’t. Once elected the platform changes to what suits them and their close supporters, not most of the citizens. There is no way of knowing what is really in a criminal political context that seem to flow from these Political Criminals like water flowing over the lip of a dam.
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Marc Jaccard, was not he the same Marc Jaccard, that brought in Gordon Campell’s Carbon Tax which was so designed to replace government income due to Campbell’s reducing taxes for the rich and corporations?
This continues the legacy of “A foundation of political and corporate lies” in BC and BC Government and its Ministries.
TransLink is anther which has a long list of politcal and corporate lies.
“The problem with TransLink is that you can never believe what it says; TransLink never produces a report based on the same set of assumptions.”
Former West Vancouver Clr. Victor Durman, Chair of the GVRD (now METRO) Finance Committee.
The list goes on and on.
Until there are firm laws with punitive action to politcal and corporate lies, it will continue. Our mainstream media grows more and more like Pravda every year and the bureaucracy has almost as many “spin doctors” that professionals.
The sad thing is the NDP subscribes to this corruption and does nothing to correct it.
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