XPost: bc.politics, van.general, vic.general   
   From: pepper@mega.ca   
      
   >>> On 19/04/2010 10:00 PM, gordo wrote:   
   >>>> Today it was announced by Campbell that the site C dam will continue   
   >>>> into environmental assessment.Is it possible that this dam will ever   
   >>>> be built when the environment and native land claims are considered?   
      
   >>"Canuck57"  wrote in message   
   >>> Why bother with the assessment and just build it?  Do the civil servants   
   >>> need to feel good and waste money?  Hell, no ways around it, the eco   
   >>> system will be destroyed.  So either do it or don't do it.  Study is just   
   >>> government brains a farting.   
      
   >  wrote:   
   >>You forget that a whole lot of like-minded people shut down the Sumas 2   
   >>power plant that the Americans wanted built at the Canada/U.S. border.   
   >>Never underestimate the power of angry people in large numbers.   
      
   >"gordo"  wrote   
   > Remember how Gordon Campbell sold out BC Hydro and gave our rivers to   
   > the likes of GE.The people of BC have not yet awakened to the fact   
   > that the neo conservative BC gov't owes its soul to the US   
   > power,Norwegian fish farms and multi-national logging barons.Site C   
   > can be stopped but where are the folks stopping the run of the river   
   > projects.A win here and there but the big power goes ahead.   
      
   This is what's happening:   
      
   1:  The lying Campbell is telling British Columbians that we need Site C dam   
   for the use   
   of increased populations in BC   
      
   2.  The lying Campbell is telling BCers that we now have to "import" more and   
   more of our   
   power.  That 'importing' is from PRIVATE power companies that he allowed to be   
   set up to   
   compete with the power production of BC Hydro.  BC Hydro could have been the   
   sole power   
   producer; Gordon Campbell privatized much of it.   
      
   3.  Now he is increasing the costs of hydro to all of us in BC by 33% to make   
   sure we feel   
   the sting of the costs of power consumption.  Those revenues from the   
   increased costs will   
   go towards the building of the Site C dam.   
      
   4.  The huge power production from the new Site C dam will go into EXPORTS to   
   any North   
   American customer he sees fit to sell it to.  Think first CALIFORNIA and his   
   power-hungry   
   pal Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger.  Then all those other power-starved states   
   between   
   Canada and the Gulf of Mexico.   
      
   Site C dam is about CIRCUMVENTING THE FREE TRADE AGREEMENT which disallows the   
   export of   
   water from Canada, but does nothing to stop the export of energy or power.    
   Canada is,   
   once again, the land that's devastated (see oil sands of Alberta) for the   
   purpose of   
   resources to be sold for profit and use by another country.   
      
   Stop the Site C dam.  Get rid of Gordon Campbell and his privatization dogs.    
   Get rid of   
   Private Power producers.  And get British Columbia back on track to being a   
   clean, safe,   
   and protected environment province.  We have exploiters at the helm in the   
   provincial   
   Legislature right now, not representative of the people of the province.   
   ____________________________________________   
      
         The Tyee: The Myth of a Power-Starved BC: 'Run of river' energy plus   
   Site C?   
      
         Thursday, 08 April 2010   
         Source: The Tyee   
      
         "This government can't seem to think outside of hydro. They want to dam   
   everything   
   and exploit every river valley, and I can't for the life of me understand it."   
   When Peace   
   River farmer Ken Forrest confessed his exasperation with BC Hydro's seemingly   
   insatiable   
   hunger for energy to me, it was clear he had spent very little time in the   
   boardrooms of a   
   renewable power sector taking shape in British Columbia under the BC Liberals   
   led by   
   Premier Gordon Campbell.   
      
      
      
         The push to develop new sources of hydroelectric capacity, whether   
   through privately   
   operated and owned run-of-the-river projects or the development of the Site C   
   Dam, is   
   being driven by a desire to turn British Columbia into the green economy's   
   answer to Saudi   
   Arabia, a hydro-state whose economy is supported by energy exports. If   
   approved, Site C   
   would join the slough of new-and controversial-run-of-river IPPs in delivering   
   a surplus   
   of electricity that the government could export to the energy-starved American   
   market to   
   the south.   
      
         The provincial government's commitment to this vision of British   
   Columbia as an   
   energy exporting powerhouse was underscored by the recent appointment of Robin   
   Junger, the   
   former head of the provincial environmental office, as the new deputy minister   
   of energy   
   and clean technology in the office of the premier. As the Vancouver Sun's   
   Vaughn Palmer   
   wrote in a March 12 column, his job will be to enforce the message that   
   Premier Gordon   
   Campbell believes isn't being heard by the various government ministries and   
   agencies with   
   overlapping jurisdiction for developing and approving green power. That   
   message, Palmer   
   writes, is "his determination to make the province self-sufficient in   
   electricity, to   
   develop new sources of emissions-free generation, and to prepare the way for   
   building   
   power to export." If British Columbia's economic future is to be tied so   
   intimately to the   
   exporting of energy, the exploitation of the Peace River's remaining   
   hydroelectric asset   
   seems inevitable.   
      
      
      
         This strategy also marks a dangerous step backwards from any serious   
   effort to   
   promote a greater awareness about the full cost of energy use and the need for   
   greater   
   conservation in the province of British Columbia. Yes, BC Hydro has committed   
   to   
   satisfying 70 per cent of future energy needs through conservation, but for   
   the people who   
   stand to be affected by Site C, that figure isn't nearly high enough. More   
   importantly,   
   the construction of another major hydroelectric project postpones the   
   inevitable reckoning   
   that will have to take place between the average citizen and their detached   
   approach to   
   energy consumption.   
      
      
      
         'Nothing will voluntarily restrict its growth'   
      
         Gwen Johansson knows a thing or two about these issues. As an advocate   
   for the Peace   
   River, a former representative on her community's district council, and a   
   one-time member   
   of BC Hydro's board of directors, she's seen every side of the issue. Sitting   
   in the   
   dining room of her home, one that sits just 20 feet from the Peace River on a   
   modest   
   property a few kilometres northeast of Hudson's Hope, Johansson says that   
   creating more   
   capacity will simply encourage people to use it.   
      
      
      
         "I used to have this argument with my neighbour all the time," Johansson   
   said, "and   
   he used to argue that nothing that is alive will ever voluntarily restrict its   
   own growth.   
   I used to argue that we were smarter than that, and that we would realize that   
   we were   
   going to destroy ourselves if we continued to place these demands on the   
   planet. This was   
      
   [continued in next message]   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)