Re: “COLUMN: Pulling the plug on independent power producers”
Fact check: Our notable MLA and Minister of Energy and Mines has taken to the pages of the Star to tout her horn as she slams the alternate energy industry in British Columbia.
Her selective memory is tainted by her traditional partisan politics, though this recent missive is not as hysterical as her rantings back in era of 2006 to 2008.
It is odd that she again makes the same dubious claims about independent power project (IPP) ramifications, especially since we have many completed projects that can speak truth to power.
Can she point out an IPP where there are empty creek beds, dumped waste rock hither and thither, and environmental degradation? When she was making these outlandish claims back then, not once, not ever, did she talk about cost ramifications on rates. She could have, as all the data about what the IPP’s needed to recover costs was readily available. Did all proponents have to undertake a rigorous review process? Absolutely.
And it had to be submitted before they were even given a contract. In Axor’s case, their investment in studies was in the millions of dollars. Add in the sums of all the other unsuccessful proponents and I would hazard that B.C. consultants and their employees and families made out pretty good. Maybe the Minister should try and claw back some of that money from those collusive schemers.
So, the Minister thinks that the five cent a day impact on ratepayers for 20 years is a crime and she is the sheriff saving the day: from system-wide energy flexibility, new clean energy sources, and over a few billion dollars of new capital that trickled down to every corner of the province. She eminently proves: once a politician, always a politician.
Jeff Shecter
Nelson