David Freeman, Chairman of the California Power Authority, beat around no
bushes, George or otherwise.

"Electricity is the oxygen of our economy," he told hundreds of people at
the University of Victoria Wednesday night, and the BC government has "gotta
take their cotton-pickin' hands off BC Hydro."

Other folksy Freeman quotes:

"Conservation is the cleanest, cheapest, quickest form of energy."

"The tragedy of deregulation"

On deregulation and privatization and BC going in the opposite direction to
California, "as if the government had been on Mars the last five years."

"What is it about BC Hydro that is broke that needs to be fixed?"  Freeman
says BC Hydro is the publicly owned integrated model, and that California
and various California cities, are striving to recreate similar utilities
once again, from the post-deregulation mess.

Once privatized, and with electricity rates rising to continental market
rates, the market value of what we've privatized would be so great, that we
could never afford to buy it back - with a new government, for example.
Those horses will have left the barn, and you'll never get them back in
again.

On Ken Lay, Enron, Williams, Duke: "They'll be ripping you off."

On US corporate ownership of new fossil-fueled generation projects in BC:
"If you're gonna foul the air for the money, you oughta at least get the
money."

"Sometimes people don't appreciate what they got."

Great event, thanks to all the organizers and presenters, especially to
David Freeman, Tim Howard, Mark Veerkamp, Rob Fleming, and Saul Arbess.

---

> BC Hydro and our Energy Future:
> Public or Private?
>
> A TOWN HALL MEETING
>
> Wednesday
> September 25 7:30pm
> University of Victoria
> University Centre, Farquhar Auditorium
>
> Featuring:
>
> David Freeman, Chairman of the California Power Authority
> Tim Howard, Sierra Legal Defence Fund Staff Lawyer
>
> Sponsored by:
> The BC Citizens for Public Power
> Victoria Community Solidarity Coalition
> Council of Canadians - Victoria chapter
>