Recent letters:
Lights aren't going out & Energy arrives with tides & We'll pay and pay
AD Fisher, Times-Colonist, 22 Feb 2005
Ian Gartshore, Times-Colonist, 22 Feb 2005
John Volkovskis, Times-Colonist, 23 Feb 2005
The lights aren't really going out
AD Fisher
Times Colonist
22 Feb 2005
Re: "Island needs more power," Feb. 19.
The Times-Colonist editorial said the lights are going out and the electric heat is going off if a gas-fired electricity generation plant isn't built on Vancouver Island in two years.
That's just nonsense.
The big power outages in North America were not because of insufficient capacity but because electrical power transmission and sales companies manipulated or failed the system. Power outages on Vancouver Island happen because trees fall on the power lines.
In the real world, the electrical cables that connect us to hydro power are not being taken out of service in 2007, they are being de-rated or having their status changed in Hydro's planning system.
B.C. Transmission Corp. says it thinks the cables will be in service during the winter of 2007. And, they are working at renewing or enlarging the cable system by 2008.
The biggest electricity consumer on the Island has said it is willing to talk to Hydro about demand management. None of this would add the cost of a $280-million power plant and its fuel to the electricity bill of British Columbians for 25 years.
When the whole wrongheaded business of building gas-fired generation on Vancouver Island started almost 10 years ago, the idea was to burn natural gas that would hopefully be produced from sources in B.C.
Five years ago when that idea wouldn't sell, Hydro began saying, "the lights are going out," and the TC bought it.
Dr. Tony Fisher is a Cobble Hill resident and director of the GSX Concerned Citizens Coalition
Energy potential arrives with the tides
Ian Gartshore
Times Colonist
22 Feb 2005
Re: "Island needs more power," Feb. 19.
San Francisco and New York are seriously looking at ocean waves for both immediate and future use.
San Francisco is studying harnessing the power of offshore waves as well as ocean tides that surge beneath the Golden Gate Bridge. It's looking at clean power as an option to replace two old power stations fired by natural gas.
Hmmm. They are realizing that even natural gas is on its way out, and that having free energy makes economic sense.
In addition to having reliable, clean (and out of sight) energy that will last as long as there is the moon and wind, using tidal energy creates far more jobs than does the building and operating of fossil-fuelled power plants.
All the major industrialized countries in the world are putting serious money into developing this kind of energy. Not in B.C., even though we likely have enough tidal power alone to keep the lights on throughout Vancouver Island, indeed, the whole province.
If we replaced our unfounded fears with vision, then we could move beyond our resource-based economy into something truly sustainable. Is there any vision in Victoria?
Ian Gartshore is with Energy Solutions for Vancouver Island in Nanaimo.
We'll pay and pay for Duke Point deal
John Volkovskis
Times Colonist letters
23 Feb, 2005
Even disregarding the environmental concerns and the rigged procedure, how the B.C. Utilities Commission could approve the ridiculous gas-fired Duke Point project (the day after the Kyoto accord went into effect) as the most "cost effective" way to generate electricity for Vancouver Island defies logic.
Under this contract, the full risk of escalating natural gas prices for the next 25 years rests with Hydro customers. That's us, folks.
This deal stinks.
John Volkovskis,
Gabriola Island.
Posted by Arthur Caldicott on 22 Feb 2005