The Squamish Nation has lashed out against the B.C. Utilities Commission (BCUC) following a ruling that refuses to endorse B.C. Hydro's massive call for clean energy.
The decision creates regulatory roadblocks to B.C. Hydro's long-term call for 3,000 gigawatts of power from public and private power producers.
The ruling was seen by most as a challenge to the B.C. Liberals' Energy Plan, and a blow to the independent power industry, which has signed some $31 billion in private power contracts with B.C. Hydro to date.
Chiefs Gibby Jacob and Bill Williams signed off on a strongly-worded letter, which arrived to the BCUC July 31. According to Jacob, the band's potential private partners on 10 run of river power proposals have already spent approximately $300,000 in preliminary studies.
"If they [the projects] don't go, that's money down the tubes for us," said Jacob in an interview with The Chief. "It's one thing that we've been able to accomplish is to get some opportunities with them. Plus enhance fisheries values. There's a lot of positives in it for us."
The band's letter makes the point more dramatically.
"You have, with the stroke of your pen, undermined our opportunities and unilaterally and arbitrarily taken off the table those benefits and opportunities that we were negotiating, on behalf of our people, with green energy companies undertaking responsible developments on our territories," it states.
The commission's 236-page ruling, followed several months of hearings on the merits of B.C. Hydro's long-term acquisition plan. The commission argues the power won't be needed if more is done to promote conservation, and that Hydro can increase its reliance on power from Burrard Thermal, the "brown field" natural-gas power generating station near Port Moody. The greenhouse gas emissions the plant emanates led to accusation the commission is "turning back the clock."
"The cheapest power is not always the best," said Jacob. "We were informed that they were kind of hamstrung on what kind of decision they could make on the value of power. So I don't know if there needs to be a change to the act or not."
Jacob said the fight isn't over.
"If you have no hope, you have nothing," he said. "I'm pretty hopeful we'll get to the point where the decision that was undertaken to could be mitigated somewhat."
Meanwhile, opposition NDP politicians proclaimed the ruling as a victory for ratepayers, while government officials -most notably Energy Minister Blair Lekstrom - disagreed, and vowed to continue pursuing what they believe is the best long-term course of action not only on energy but on reducing greenhouse gas emissions.
The share prices of companies working on independent power projects in B.C. (including Plutonic Power, which is working on a $4 billion, 1,027-megawatt project at Bute Inlet near Powell River), fell in response to the BCUC ruling.
The Western Canada Wilderness Committee (WCWC), which has been railing against the "gold-rush" B.C. Liberal energy policy for the past decade, hailed the BCUC decision as being best for the ratepayers and the environment but also raised concerns with portions, most notably its support for the continued use of the fossil-fuel Burrard Thermal power plant.
Merran Smith, climate director with ForestEthics, strongly disagreed, saying, "Shutting the door on renewable energy and locking our province into an uncertain future dependent on fossil fuels doesn't seem very safe or reliable. The BCUC needs to be an enabler of B.C.'s green energy future, not a brick wall."
It remains to be seen what the government will do in response to the ruling, but it seems that either a legal challenge or an end run around the BCUC ruling may be in the works.
In an opinion piece submitted to B.C. news outlets, Lekstrom steadfastly denied that the government plans to increase the province's reliance on Burrard Thermal, as the BCUC suggests.
