289 replies to this topic

[LJ]

Still waiting for my smart meter installation, was supposed to happen late April, they called and postponed til middle of May, then called and said it would be a couple of more weeks.

Geez, maybe they ran out of them.

[Sparky]

Get ready for your power bills to go up

Energy Minister Bill Bennett warned British Columbians Thursday to brace for an increase in electricity rates. [...]

http://www.ipick.ca/...-minister-warns

[Sparky]

This is a letter to the editor of the Langley Times.

BC Hydro is now a financial basket case

Editor: Beware of governments selling or privatizing publicly-owned assets, based on political philosophy. The BC Liberals promised not to sell BC Rail or privatize BC Hydro. [...]

http://www.langleyti.../206832711.html

[Sparky]

This article was written before the election. It contains a debt graph that we all should be aware of.

BC Liberal Legacy: A Huge Debt Burden

It might be instructive to the citizens of BC to have a financial report card on their Provincial Government before casting their vote in the coming election. [...]

http://thecanadian.o...uge-debt-burden

[sebberry]

“I can’t imagine how it’s a surprise to anybody that there’s this upward pressure on rates,” he said “I mean, you look at what B.C. Hydro is investing, you look at the fact that rates haven’t gone up much for a very long time.”

I don't think being forced to spend billions on IPP power is "investing" wisely...

[pherthyl]

This is a letter to the editor of the Langley Times.

BC Hydro is now a financial basket case

Editor: Beware of governments selling or privatizing publicly-owned assets, based on political philosophy. The BC Liberals promised not to sell BC Rail or privatize BC Hydro. [...]

http://www.langleyti.../206832711.html

That's the most effective way to privatize a public organization that is doing well. First ruin it bit by bit with legislation, then point at the poor financial picture and say "see, we have to privatize it, the public company is bankrupt!"

What a damn shame..

[G-Man]

As with the Liquor Distribution Branch for a supposed right wing party selling a monopoly as one piece is hardly real privatization. The government needs to let competition come in and take over rather than just creating a monopoly for someone else.

[Sparky]

There is a lot more to the story about having to pay more for electricity in order to refurbish the infrastructure than our government is letting on.

No discussion is complete without knowledge of the details of the Columbia River Treaty, and specifically the "Canadian Entitlement" clause.

The treaty enabled BC to receive financial benefits from power generated in the US. BC used that monies to finance the construction of the 3 BC dams. In the 1990's the cost of the dams was paid off and in the 15 or so years since then, the $3 billion received from the US was originally intended to reduce our domestic cost of power and finance infrastructure improvements.

That didn't happen. Our Hydro rates did not decrease, and monies were not set aside for infrastructure improvements. The monies went into general revenue and the Liberals have been pissing this money away along with the billion$ of increased debt that we have accumulated.

Now here is the real rub. The treaty expires in 2024, but there is a 10 year notification period. That means that the Liberal government have until September of 2014 to negotiate a new treaty. (note the US feel that they made a poor agreement in the first place and do not want to keep sending BC power that they generate in the US and then ultimately buy back from us.)

Could this be the reason that we are being warned now that our rates are about to increase?

Here are a couple of links for the insatiable readers out there that want more details. One is a recent article written by Vaughn Palmer of the Vancouver Sun that boils the treaty down in simple terms. The other is a Wikipedia piece (that I usually do not link to but in this case it is quite informative.)

Vaughn Palmer: B.C.’s financial honeymoon ends with Columbia River Treaty anniversary. [...] http://www.vancouver...9063/story.html

http://en.wikipedia....ia_River_Treaty

........stay tuned for an upcoming piece on the "Rape of the River" contracts (that sebberry has referred to) that the Liberals have entered into that are costing us billion$ for future contractual obligations that are not accounted for in our BC financial statements.

[VicHockeyFan]

There is a lot more to the story about having to pay more for electricity in order to refurbish the infrastructure than our government is letting on.

Bah, we've been paying way too little for power for the last 40 years. We've had a great ride. Now it's time to pay the right rates.

[http]

Bah, we've been paying way too little for power for the last 40 years. We've had a great ride. Now it's time to pay the right rates.

Are you kidding us? Your sarcasm is usually clear as a side effect of its rarity, but sometimes I miss things. We're sitting under gobs of readily available cheap hydro power, with gobs of hydro infrastructure already in place. Our low rates reflect this. There's no need for people to pay more aside from the government deciding private power companies need a higher ROI.

As an analogy (and this is not meant to make hydro and thermo power seem directly comparable), imagine living in Iceland, and having gobs of thermo infrastructure in place. Electricity costs would be and should be right through the roof, right? Wrong. They've consistently had stupidly low prices for forever:


If BC builds dams to supply power to the population, electricity prices remain low. Don't mistake mismanagement stemming from unsound ideological principles for market forces. Hydroelectric power is seriously high-tech mojo - you get roughly endless power as a result of putting something in the right location, and replacing parts as they wear out. The right rates are low rates.

[VicHockeyFan]

Just because we have lots of power does not mean we should sell it to ourselves for low rates. Just like Alberta should not have cheap gasoline prices.

[Sparky]

^ Yes it does.

[pherthyl]

Just because we have lots of power does not mean we should sell it to ourselves for low rates.

True... But who do you trust more to distribute the profits? Either BC Hydro sells at market prices and makes the money, which then goes into provincial general revenue, or we keep rates low for BC and people can keep their money to decide what to do with it themselves.

[VicHockeyFan]

True... But who do you trust more to distribute the profits? Either BC Hydro sells at market prices and makes the money, which then goes into provincial general revenue, or we keep rates low for BC and people can keep their money to decide what to do with it themselves.

UAE has super cheap gasoline prices, has that served them well? Are they better off for it?

[LJ]

True... But who do you trust more to distribute the profits? Either BC Hydro sells at market prices and makes the money, which then goes into provincial general revenue, or we keep rates low for BC and people can keep their money to decide what to do with it themselves.

Well we could have low rates in BC, and then put an "export tax" on the power we sell out of province.

[Mike K.]

^I like.

[pherthyl]

UAE has super cheap gasoline prices, has that served them well? Are they better off for it?

Are you thinking no? UAE is swimming in money and they have a high human development index. I don't think the price of gas is even a rounding error.
Maybe a better example would have been Venezuela, but I doubt their problems are to be attributed to cheap gas

[VicHockeyFan]

Are you thinking no? UAE is swimming in money and they have a high human development index. I don't think the price of gas is even a rounding error.
Maybe a better example would have been Venezuela, but I doubt their problems are to be attributed to cheap gas

http://www.arabianbu...orst-52827.html

Dubai's traffic pollution among world's worst

"Two factors point to a worsening air pollution situation in Dubai - the rapid pace of urbanisation and motorisation. Dubai's statistical data showed that motor vehicles increased by an annual average of about 12 percent. Dubai has about 541 vehicles per thousand population, which is higher than New York (444), London (345) and Singapore (111)," Salman said.

[VicHockeyFan]

they have a high human development index.

Carbon dioxide emissions per capita (tonnes) UAE 25.0
Carbon dioxide emissions per capita (tonnes) Canada 16.3

[Mike K.]

Dubai is only now on the verge of completing it's metro. The brunt of public transit is bus and good luck to you while you wait around at 50celsius for your bus to arrive.