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Rafe Mair an ex-Social Credit cabinet minister and an avid fisherman has been front and center on this issue for some time.
From: Rafe Mair
To: Hume, Mark
Sent: Monday, August 03, 2009 9:18 AM
Subject: The next rock
RAFE HERE
Here's my letter to Mark Hume of the Globe and Mail who did a fine article on Private power in today's (August 4). Mark is the only member of the Main Stream media who understands the issues and has the jam to publish them. '
Helluva good article, Mark. Now it's time to look under the next rock which is labeled Cap & Trade. The Liberals tabled such a bill, Bill 18 in 2008.
Here's how this works. Ajax Power, an international giant, gets a Private license to produce electricity in BC. After eliminating all impedimenta such as trees and fish, he gets "green credits". Even though he has eliminated the carbon cover of the trees that got in his way he gets the credits. Now he has a 40 year "take or pay" contract with BC Hydro, where he gets 2-3x the revenue he could get if he sold into the States.
No one's talking about those credits. How much are they worth?
Can't say for sure because they will likely be in a market like the stock market. What we do know is that they will be worth big bucks. So Ajax power has now destroyed a bunch of our rivers (as what happened in Toba Inlet and what will happen at Bute Inlet) Because if was so decent of Ajax to build his plant and destroy the ecology of our rivers, he will be rewarded with Green Credits! Not only has Ajax get a long term license to steal from the taxpayers of BC he is sent home with credit coupons he can sell anywhere he wants.
It's important to know who Ajax's customers will be. They are corporations that pollute by reason of the business in and they are ordered by government to reduce their carbon omissions by however many tonnes. This customer looks for help and there's Ajax with all those green credits looking for a home. The customer buys a bunch of these credits, credits them against his carbon reduction requirement and merrily pollutes his way to the bank.
The tale has a twist. Supposing Ajax (like GE for example), along with his NC power plant, has a large interest in the "West's" biggest polluter, the Tar Sands. It's simple. Ajax takes all those green credits it got for ruining some rivers in a huge monetary assault on BC taxpayers - Green Credits (that not only didn't cost him anything but made him buckets of money) and takes these ill gotten gains to Ajax Tar Sands Ltd so it can keep right on polluting.
When looking under that rock it's important to remember that BC Hydro, with its normal $8 BILLION capital debt, will also owe hundreds of billions to companies like Ajax. Over the years, Hydro has annually paid dividends of hundreds of millions to the BC treasury. That money won't be there anymore and will be pocketed by Ajax's shareholders.
This sort of boondoggle doesn't happen accidentally and with all that money sloshing around ... well, I'd best not finish that question!
Best,
Rafe
PS you're right, of course, about Burrard Thermal. Here's the analogy I use. Our place is powered by electricity and we have failures from time to time often lasting several days. We've bought a small generator for these occasions. That's Burrard Thermal.
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