The Globe and Mail reports today that, “The B.C. government will reveal this spring if it is prepared to move ahead with the province’s first major hydroelectric dam project in decades.”
“It has been 25 years since Crown-owned B.C. Hydro completed its last large dam.”
SITE C
“The $6-billion-plus Site C megaproject (would have) 900 megawatts of capacity…”
“The massive dam (on the Peace River), would be 1,100 metres in length with a reservoir 83 kilometres long…”
It would flood about 4,600 hectares of agricultural land southwest of Fort St. John and affect Treaty 8 First Nations peoples.
EXPORTS TO THE US
“The pending decision (on Site C) comes at the same time that B.C. is wooing California legislators to accept its power exports as clean and green – despite state restrictions that deem any project over 30 MW in capacity as non-renewable.”
“An aggressive expansion of B.C. energy exports is expected to be a major part of the new Clean Energy Act that (BC energy minister Blair) Lekstrom is slated to introduce this spring.”
RUN OF THE RIVER
“Last week, legislators from California toured run-of-the-river projects in B.C. The province is hoping to persuade them to roll back restrictions that exclude most of the province’s new clean-energy projects from the state’s premium renewable energy prices.”
OPPOSITION TO SITE C
A report released by the Outdoor Recreation Council of British Columbia on March 24 says Peace River is the fifth most endangered river in BC because of the proposed Site C dam.
Maple Ridge-Mission MLA Michael Sather recently stated that the power generated from Site C would be used to develop natural gas in shale deposits in the Fort Nelson area, and that natural gas would also be used in the northern Alberta tar sands.
For information on the ‘No Site C” campaign, please go to http://nositec.ca/.
The full Globe and Mail article is at http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/british-columbia/decision-pending-on-site-c-hydro-megaproject/article1516729/
