Penner blasts run-of-the-river critics

Shayne Morrow
Alberni Valley Times
Monday, July 16, 2007

Provincial environment minister Barry Penner says he doesn't have a lot of patience for those who oppose green energy projects without doing their homework.

Penner was in town on Friday, for a visit which included a tour of the Upnit Power project, built by Hupacasath First Nation. The minister says he's a strong supporter of small, independently-produced power projects (IPP), which are currently facing strong opposition from major environmental groups.

"I don't object to criticism. But I prefer informed criticism," Penner told the Times. He cited the Ashlu River project, near Squamish, as an example of unwarranted criticism - much of it ideological rather than environmental.

"In a run-of-the-river project, you take the water out of the river at one point, then you put it back in (downstream), unchanged," he said. "This is one of the best options that we have in BC for generating sustainable and affordable electricity."

Penner noted that one of the selling points for Upnit was that, just downstream from the powerhouse outlet, there is a waterfall which prevents the movement of anadramous (sea run) salmon and trout.

"The Ashlu River is very similar in that there is a set of rapids which serves as a natural barrier against salmon movement," he said.

And like Upnit, Ashlu River also has the backing of local First Nations, he added.

"The Squamish First Nation has had significant input on this project, and they now support it fully," he said.

Many opponents to IPPs demand a return to the days of publicly-provided power, the minister noted. Penner pointed out that many of the major hydro dams in the province were built under the Columbia River Treaty, with U.S. money, to provide power to the U.S. That treaty comes up for renegotiation in 2016. In the mean time, the province has been slow to keep up with a growing demand for power.

"We haven't built a major power project since the Revelstoke Dam was completed in 1983," Penner said. "That's 23 years ago. You can just imagine how much the population of BC has grown since then. And the average household is using 40 per cent more electricity that two or three decades ago."

That added load includes major electronics such as big-screen TVs and computers, which draw a large amount of power, even when they're in sleep mode.

"Electricity is ubiquitous in our society. We don't think about it until the power goes out," Penner said. "We don't want to get behind the eight-ball like they did in California a few years ago."

That state failed to keep up with its own power consumption, and began drawing heavily on its neighbors, often importing "spot power" at high prices. Suppliers included the province of BC. But when the supply ran short, counties across the state experienced rolling brownouts.

"When people panicked, environmental standards went out the window," Penner said. Penner said he got his start in politics opposing the Sumas Power project, a huge natural gas-fired generator would have been located just across the border from his home town of Chilliwack.

The Sumas plant would have seriously affected the already-troublesome air quality in the Upper Fraser Valley. That's pretty much a given. Penner said opponents to run-of-the-river IPPs are raising the spectre of greedy developers raping hundreds and even thousands of BC streams. But that's not about to happen.

"There are hundreds of potential sites that have been identified. But there will be a high attrition rate," he said. "People are looking to see if they are viable from an engineering, economic or environmental perspective. You have to have all three, or you don't have a project."

Penner said last year, the province issued 17 water licenses for power proposals, and he fully expects the attrition process to weed most of them out.

"That's been the experience," he said. Hupacasath chief councilor Judith Sayers, who accompanied the minister on the tour, noted that Upnit Power is the exception when it comes to power proposals.

"The year our project was approved (2002), there were 33 projects approved. Only three were built," Sayers said.

Currently, the only large traditional power project on the books is Site C, on the Peace River. Penner said Site C faces major opposition from Peace River residents. In fact, there is organized opposition to every form of power project known to man, he said.

"I have letters from people opposing wind power, and from those who are opposed to small hydro projects," Penner said. "And some of the people opposed to small hydro projects have said, 'Why don't you just build Site C?' If the province gets to the point of developing tidal power projects - and I hope that day will come - there will be people opposed to that as well."

Overlooking the Upnit Power intake on China Creek, Penner said the province has had to fight the misimpression that building hydro projects means no use of the land for any other purpose. But dams quickly become part of the landscape, and the area is typically used for recreation, fishing, hiking and hunting.

"And in this case, we're still using it for drinking water," he said.

Penner said his government is committed to reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 33 per cent by the year 2020.

"We'll have to have a lot more projects like this. And we're also looking at alternative fuels," he said. The province currently provides tax breaks on items such as penstock material for hydro projects, and also on alternate fuels such as biodiesel and ethanol-blended gasoline.

But the province won't be pushed into any devil's bargains in the name of reducing greenhouse emissions, he added. Currently, Alberta is looking at building a nuclear power plant to provide steam and electricity for the tar-sands petroleum industry. In theory, that would reduce emissions. Penner said that's a non-starter for this province.

"Under our Energy Plan, which we released in 2002, and under the revised plan, which came out this year, we have said nuclear energy is not on our horizon for BC," he said.

© Alberni Valley Times 2007