The item below the separator was contributed by a reader who prefers to remain anonymous. His contribution has been lightly edited and the chart illustrating IPP prices was added..

Your article Clean Energy Solutions deserves much greater circulation — particularly the part about Eavor-Loop technology. As in geothermal.

Since March 11 when your article first appeared, ever-generous BC Hydro has presented us with a brand-new scandal… which no one in corporate media seems to have noticed.

After squandering a newly estimated $20 billion on the Site C fiasco, Hydro now intends to commit a further $15 billion to $20 billion to independent power producers (IPPs). As with earlier Calls for Power, we won’t know the details of these agreements. Each contract is secret.

This secrecy leaves us unable to explain anomalies such as the 12 percent increase in the price paid IPPs in the third quarter of FY 2024, compared to the third quarter of FY 2023.

In the 2024 request for private companies to sell electricity to BC Hydro, it is clear that wind power will be provide a material share. Remember, a short while ago, BC Hydro and other Site C proponents said clean renewables like wind and solar were undesirable in this province.

Let’s clarify the latest move by our public utility.

Hydro intends to privatize itself by handing over control and ownership of solar and wind power to companies not publicly accountable.

How bout that! The public facilitates construction of private energy at prices that have been far above market. It hands over profits in perpetuity to IPPs that are mainly owned outside the province. Instead of exporting electricity and importing cash, BC Hydro now exports cash for electricity created and consumed within the province.

Somehow, not only the boss of BC Hydro loves this concept but so does David Eby.

TC Douglas, David Lewis, Jack Layton, Ed Broadbent, I expect all are spinning in their graves.

Unless I’m looking in the wrong places, BC media can’t imagine anything wrong with this fabulous sweetheart deal. This month, S&P Global downgraded BC’s credit rating, blaming “continued fiscal weakening.” More downgrades will follow because S&P Global says the province’s financial position has a negative outlook.

Who is covering this story and its consequences? Meaning, who is analyzing this in-depth? No one in mainstream media.

Another curious part?

More than 60 years ago the state of California assessed risks and benefits and did something extraordinarily bright.

Numerous geothermal wells are located In the Mayacamas Mountains, north of San Francisco. The Geysers cover 45 square miles between Lake, Mendocino, and Sonoma counties; and provide power to Sonoma, Mendocino, Lake, Marin, and Napa counties.

Commercial geothermal power has been continuously generated at The Geysers since 1960, and it is the largest complex of geothermal power plants in the world. There are 18 geothermal plants which use heat from the earth’s interior to produce electricity around the clock. The plants produce about 835 megawatts of electricity.

https://www.rawstory.com/dig-deep-u-s-bets-on-geothermal-to-become-renewable-powerhouse

“In theory, you could make geothermal anywhere,” said Francesco d’Avack, an analyst with S&P Global Commodity Insights.

“It also reduces the upfront risk,” he said — that is, the risk of drilling and finding nothing, which has been a deterrent for some investors in the past.

[Energy Secretary] Granholm, in her speech to the CERAWeek energy conference, underscored another advantage: the US government is allowing companies to convert permits for oil or gas exploration into geothermal licenses — reducing paperwork and delays.

In a report this past week, the Energy Department said EGS use fewer chemical additives than classic fracking, a system deplored by environmentalists.XIt added that geothermal drilling does not release hydrocarbons, as fracking does.

And unlike solar or wind power, geothermal provides a steady flow of energy regardless of weather or time of day.

The MNP scandal?

How is this considered reasonable?

People employed in the federal government > 300,000.

People employed in the BC government > 35,000.

Somehow, the huge bureaucracy could not find any employee or group of employees sufficiently competent to manage grants to private enterprises. If the government is unable to find projects that deserve support and able to audit and supervise the use of those funds, then it should resign.

The clear absence of anyone capable of managing a tiny proportion of the provincial budget forced the NDP government to outsource the job… to a company headquartered in Calgary.

As you point out, “After almost seven years, the BC NDP may be moving down their own road of self-destruction.

In an early rant about the Trudeau government, Rick Mercer observed that Canadians rarely elect people who can deliver good government.

Our ever-patient population waits until it’s time to turf out the clowns they’ve learned to despise, then content themselves that they’ve ushered in another set of clowns.

Why governments avoid transparency:

Agnogenesis: you can’t fight what you don’t know.