In the early 2000s, Liberals changed BC Hydro’s primary purpose from utility service for the public to financial service for party friends and other special interests. BC NDP carries on much as before, except they slightly altered beneficiaries of the utility’s massive spending…
BC Government: do the right thing!
Lindsay Brown is a reliable information provider, particularly about energy in British Columbia. Her Twitter thread today should be required reading for every politician and BC Hydro ratepayer. It’s repeated here with permission…
True cost of hydro power?
Proponents of megaprojects routinely underestimate financial costs. After conducting an extensive study, top experts concluded this is caused by “strategic misrepresentation, that is, lying.” In addition, proponents invariably ignore environmental and social costs of megaprojects…
What BC Hydro is today and why…
In-Sights reader Bruce has been thinking about BC Hydro and asked important questions, I offer my answers but with a broader picture of what BC Hydro is today and why…
Site C bywords: misinformation and secrecy
Misinformation and secrecy have become the bywords at BC Hydro and at the Premier’s office and the provincial energy ministry. Because the decision makers involved with Site C are determined to spread misinformation, they rely on secrecy to keep evidence out of the view of project critics and the BC Utilities Commission…
Damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead
When the project assurance board was populated by insiders and avid Site C cheerleaders, inevitably, it would fail to protect the public interest. Everyone involved knew that but were satisfied with the status quo. The main responsibility for massive waste and destruction in northeast BC lies not with self-interested enablers and not to the previous government; it belongs to the man who four years ago needed money to wage an election campaign. To get it, he made promises to a group of trade union leaders.
Electricity policy built on lies
No one doubts that in coming decades, demand will grow, partly fueled by electric vehicles. But that growth will be more modest than claimed by BC Hydro’s agents. It could be easily met by conservation and efficiency programs, upgrades to existing facilities and creation of clean, non destructive renewable sources.
Non-standard accounting creates imaginary profits and hides failure
Future BC Hydro ratepayers will be paying excessive rates for electricity and BC Hydro financial statements have been distorted by non-standard accounting methods. These allowed the provincial government to direct payments of dividends funded by borrowing, not by real profits of the utility. But other failures and mismanagement at BC Hydro are apparent…
Falsehoods and misinformation, government specialties
Never has the government of British Columbia stood behind a larger megaproject than the Site C hydropower project. Never have more falsehoods been used to justify BC Hydro operations and the spending of tens of billions of dollars.
Campbell Clark Horgan madness
While British Columbia has policies to prevent additions of solar power to the provincial power grid, Germany has been moving forward on this form of renewable electricity. It should be noted that the centre of Germany is at a latitude similar to that of Kamloops…
BC Hydro’s dishonesty about demand growth costs us billions
Most people are educated by BC Hydro’s dishonest claims about demand growth. So, when they read a report that domestic sales have been flat for 15 years, they tend to be doubtful. Today, an In-Sights reader who works in the trades sent a message. It shows one example of modern technology affecting electric utility demand.
Electric shock
In a few words, over a 15 year span, total annual revenues (what we have paid as customers) have increased by 100% , over the same period and with inclusion of contract obligations the total capital deployed more than doubled but customer needs ( as represented by volume of annual sales measured in gigawatt-hours) remained unchanged.
Why we’re voting
It is easy to conclude why Premier John Horgan ignored BC’s established pattern of general elections every four years. The BC NDP was riding high in the polls but a threat to that popularity was looming. A threat not known to the general public…
A conversation about BC Hydro
My conversation about BC Hydro with Chris Cook for CFUV 101.9 FM radio in Victoria. Chris regularly addresses issues not well covered by corporate media. BC Hydro’s difficulties definitely fit in that category.
North American Megadam Resistance Alliance
Before forming the Horgan Government in 2017, BC NDP was a frequent critic of how BC Liberals managed BC Hydro, our largest and most important crown corporation. NDP promised radical improvements. Those promises were empty. The only substantive changes were the appointment of Chair Ken Peterson and multi-billion dollar increases in capital spending.
Curious deal in BC’s pay-to-play economy
In early 2014, BC Hydro awarded SNC-Lavalin a contract to design, build, finance and maintain the John Hart Generating Station Replacement Project on Vancouver Island in British Columbia, Canada.
BC Hydro salaries
BC Hydro withheld its Financial Information Act Return for the fiscal year ended March 31, 2020 until September 30, the final day before failure to publish the report would have offended provincial law…
Lies cost BC citizens billions
To gain public support for massive spending, BC Hydro is untruthful. To avoid taking responsibility for bad public policy, the Horgan Government pretends not to notice…
BC Hydro Annual Report
In the fiscal year ended March 31, to its residential, commercial and industrial customers, BC Hydro sold 1.6% less electricity than in the previous year. The volume in 2019-2020 was slightly less than the 15 year average…
Energy policy undermined by special interests
Difficulty justifying billions of dollars spent to meet a need that has not existed is no real problem for people who benefit from the expenditures. After years of arguing falsely that more electricity has been needed to serve population growth, now they contend that vastly more capacity is required for electric vehicles…
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