Behind in BC's 'Clean Power' Call
by
Wilderness Committee
Today the Wilderness Committee charged that BC Hydro has failed to consider environmental impacts when awarding energy purchase agreements (EPAs) to private power producers. On March 11, BC Hydro awarded 19 EPAs to a variety of private power companies.
Yesterday, four additional agreements were awarded. In total, 23 hydro projects, one waste heat, and 6 wind energy projects are slated to proceed under the call.
Just two out of the 23 'clean' energy projects given energy purchase agreements by BC Hydro have been through a provincial environmental assessment. The BC Environmental Assessment Office's mandate is to assess industrial projects before they are built to ensure they meet environmental, economic and social sustainability goals.
"This is really putting the cart before the horse. We already know there are very low environmental standards in the province but this takes the cake. BC Hydro is making a mockery of a process that is supposed to be independent. Signing an agreement, which can be worth tens of millions of dollars, prior to an environmental assessment being completed skews the process heavily in favour of the developer," said Gwen Barlee, Policy Director with the Wilderness Committee.
In addition to just two projects having gone through the provincial environmental assessment process, analysis by the Wilderness Committee revealed that over half of the projects will not be required to undergo an assessment at all because they are under 50 megawatts (MW). In 2002, the BC Environmental Assessment Act was weakened so that projects under 50 MW did not have to be evaluated. Prior to 2002, power projects larger than 20 MW had to go through an assessment.
"It's the wild west out there in regards to developing our wild rivers. Right now we have over 800 creeks, rivers and lakes staked by private power corporations. There is no assessment of cumulative impacts, no planning, extremely low environmental standards and almost no independent monitoring. The vast majority of these projects do not even go through a provincial environmental assessment.
