News Releases on Duke Point cancellation

GSX Concerned Citizens Coalition
Duke Point Power plant cancelled

BC Sustainable Energy Association
BC Hydro Abandons Vancouver Island Gas Strategy

David Suzuki Foundation
David Suzuki Foundation congratulates B.C. Hydro on dropping Duke Point project

Energy Solutions for Vancouver Island
Why the Duke Point Power Plant failed

Sierra Club of BC
website - Georgia Strait Pipeline (GSX)
e-letter - The Hazards of Duke

Society Promoting Environmental Conservation (SPEC)
SPEC posts three wins in June

The Hazards of Duke

COMMENT: This was originally posted by Sierra Club as an e-bulletin. I cannot find it on the SCBC website - Arthur Caldicott

Sierra Clubbers lead battle to stop Duke Point power plant

Duke Point is dead. After six years, BC Hydro has shelved plans to build a gas-fired power plant at Duke Point near Nanaimo. With it goes the last vestige of a plan that would have seen 900 Megawatts of gas-fired power generation on Vancouver Island and a pipeline across the Strait of Georgia.

In 1999, volunteer Sierra Clubbers Tom Hackney and Bo Martin decided to intervene in the federal regulatory process surrounding the Georgia Strait Crossing Pipeline, or “GSX”, which would deliver gas to several power plants on Vancouver Island. The two thought the idea of burning fossil fuels was absurd when power conservation was less expensive and resulted in less environmental damage.

In 2000, Vancouver Island citizens joined the fight, shocked by the idea of a pipeline through backyards, past schools and across fields. People were furious at BC Hydro’s claim that decisions to build the pipeline were unalterable.

The BC Chapter, other organizations and local citizens formed the GSX Concerned Citizens Coalition. The coalition brought evidence to the National Energy Board’s review of the pipeline and, subsequently, the BC Utilities Commission’s reviews of two successive power plant proposals for Duke Point. It also helped citizens organize against proposed sitings of the plant in Port Alberni and North Cowichan.

The coalition delayed GSX so long that BC Hydro cancelled it in 2004, citing unfavourable economics - one of the coalition's key arguments!

BC Hydro then scaled back its plans to one power plant at Duke Point. Again, the coalition fought the proposal through the BC Utility Commission’s review process, but in February 2005 the Commission approved the project.

The story doesn’t end there. The tenacious coalition applied to the BC Court of Appeal for leave to appeal the decision. On June 14, the Court granted leave to appeal. The coalition's appeal never went ahead. Three days later, BC Hydro publicly announced it was cancelling plans for a gas-fired power plant at Duke Point.

Read BC Hydro's press release
Read the coalition's press release

B.C. has some of the planet's greatest renewable energy resources. As the Duke Point struggle showed, it is time to face the future and reduce our reliance on fossil fuels.

Footnote: In 2006, independent power producer on Vancouver Island will once again bid for the privelege of supplying BC Hydro with electricity. However, for the first time, the BC Utilities Commission will consider the liability of greenhouse-gas emissions and the cost of offsetting those emissions in its assement of the proposals. Undoubtedly, this is a result of the GSX Concerned Citizens Coalition's hard work.

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