Another lump of coal from the B.C. Liberals

By Tom Fletcher
Esquimalt News
Dec 20 2006

A detailed, objective analysis of the impact of climate change took place here last week. Alas, B.C. politicians were not involved.

Scientists from across the country met at the Victoria Conference Centre to share their findings on the changing Arctic climate. Researchers presented reports on the steady loss of permafrost and pack ice, and Arctic communities were told they would have to start trading their snowmobiles for costlier boats in order to hunt.

Up the street at the B.C. legislature, visiting school children were the only occupants of the chamber. From her office, NDP leader Carole James blasted the government over the emergence of a third proposal for a coal-fired electricity plant in the province. As Terrace Standard readers were informed in mid-November, Fortune Minerals is studying the idea of adding a coal-fired power plant to its proposed open-pit coal mine project northeast of Stewart, up by the Alaska panhandle in northwestern B.C. That's in addition to a coal-fired plant proposed for the Tumbler Ridge area, and a coal-and-wood waste plant proposed for Princeton, both of which have been offered contracts by BC Hydro.

James said if all three plants are approved and built, B.C.'s greenhouse gas emissions would rise by six per cent. NDP environment critic Shane Simpson adds that since Fortune needs to power the remote mine, which would mean constructing power lines, it has clearly decided to take advantage of what the company calls B.C.'s "pro-coal policy" to make money on power sales. (Like Alcan is doing with water resources.) And the NDP calculates that the B.C. Liberals have collected $700,000 in campaign donations from the industry. Pro-coal indeed.

"I would hope that the environment minister would view himself as the trustee of the environment, and would view himself as having a role to kind of put the brakes on these kinds of proposals," Simpson told me.

Environment Minister Barry Penner sees the NDP working harder at making the current situation look bad than they did when their government was allowing B.C. to become a net importer of electricity. The Stewart proposal is a pre-feasibility study for a mine that itself has yet to be approved. Suggesting it is imminent is "kind of like me being in high school saying I'm in pre-med," he said.

As for the Princeton and Tumbler Ridge proposals, their environmental assessments have yet to begin. A 50 per cent wood waste component would be in line with BC Hydro's mandate that half of new power sources be from green sources, since biomass sources recapture carbon dioxide as they grow.

There is a tacit admission here that some coal-fired generation is going to be necessary. Energy Minister Richard Neufeld won't come out and say it, just like he won't say Site C on the Peace River is toast, but the writing is on the wall. And we need one or the other.

Penner rejected NDP suggestions that 2005 changes to B.C. emission rules made it easier for coal. "In fact, one of the first things I did upon becoming environment minister was significantly tighten regulations pertaining to the use of coal," he told me.

That was done, I suppose, because the cabinet decided at that point coal-fired plants were inevitable.

Is this a tragedy for super, natural B.C.? No. Penner insists that B.C.'s new coal-fired generation standards are as high as any in North America.

And if you're talking about climate change, you have to remember it's global. If Fortune Minerals sells coal to China instead of burning it for power, it will burn in dirtier Chinese plants instead.

Site C dims

A sombre ceremony was held at the legislature recently to offer a settlement to two remote native communities for the flooding of their territory by the W.A.C. Bennett dam in 1968. The natives were abruptly relocated and paid a pittance, as was the style of the time, and BC Hydro boss Bob Elton now says that the Crown corporation will continue to make amends for generations to come.

Penner notes that the long-awaited third dam on the Peace River would flood 9,000 more hectares, much of that productive farmland. He said he was surprised to hear James promote the Site C project, after the NDP campaigned against lower-impact run-of-river hydroelectric power at Ashlu River near Squamish and the Cascade Heritage Hydro project in the Kootenays.

When you add to that the existing downstream effects of the W.A.C. Bennett and Peace Canyon dams, reducing flows on the Mackenzie delta on the Arctic Ocean to the dismay of aboriginal inhabitants there, the prospects for Site C are starting to appear dim.

Coal mine closed

Despite the current high price for metallurgical coal, mining the stuff continues to be a risky business. That was demonstrated by the recent closure of the Willow Creek Mine near Chetwynd, the province's first new coal mine in 20 years. Pine Valley Mining Corp. shut it down after it entered a deposit of fine coal difficult to separate from impurities. Increased costs and reduced yield made it uneconomical, and now it's for sale.

Who would buy an open-pit mine that can't make it, even with China and India pushing up the price of coal? Well, considering the current situation, the only likely answer to that would be someone who's interested in power generation.

Tom Fletcher is B.C. bureau reporter for Black Press newspapers.

tfletcher@blackpress.ca