California Power Authority chair David Freeman says he can't believe anyone would restructure a success
The B.C. Citizens for Public Power Society brought to town Wednesday their own John Wayne for a showdown with anyone who would mess with B.C. Hydro.
David Freeman, the charismatic, Stetson-wearing chair of the California Power Authority, said he can't believe anyone would restructure the pride of B.C. Crown corporations.
Invited to B.C. by the coalition of customers, unions and power consumers fearful of the Liberal government's energy plans, Freeman shot holes in arguments for dismembering Hydro and deregulating the provincial electricity market.
He said he paid his own expenses to come "because I'd hate to see this province make the same kind of mistake we made in California.
"The question I'm asking is: What is it that's broke with a system that's providing cheap, reliable electricity, that's paying sizeable dividends to the government, that has a rainy day fund and that has money available for new capital projects?" he said in an interview before a public forum at the University of Victoria.
"It is basically utility heaven. There isn't a state in the union that wouldn't give its eye teeth for a power system like B.C. Hydro. What on earth is it that your government is trying to improve?"
A blue-ribbon panel of Liberal confidantes recommended late last year that Victoria dismember Hydro and move to market pricing for electricity.
However, Energy Minister Richard Neufeld stridently denies a new energy policy he is about to unveil includes a plan to privatize the Crown corporation.
Instead, he maintains the Liberals are re-regulating Hydro and are committed to public ownership of the utility's core assets.
Despite such assurances, the coalition has asked the B.C. Supreme Court to approve a class-action lawsuit aimed at blocking B.C. Hydro and Victoria from restructuring the sprawling company that holds a veritable monopoly on electricity in the province.
They are worried partly because Hydro intends to contract out many of its non-essential services to a Bermuda-based management firm called Accenture, a move that will affect nearly one-third of the utility's work force.
An engineer and lawyer, Freeman is one of the top U.S. energy gurus -- he has advised three presidents and held top posts with the New York Power Authority, the Lower Colorado River Authority and the Sacramento Municipal Utility District.
In the 1970s, then U.S. president Jimmy Carter turned to Freeman when he had problems with the Tennessee Valley Power Authority; in the latter half of the 1990s, California turned to him when it embarked on energy deregulation.
"We just made a terrible mistake in California," Freeman said. "We thought deregulation and competition were just inherently better than regulation and monopoly. It just all sounded so good. But it turned out to be a dreadful mistake."
imulgrew@direct.ca
604-605-2195
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