An important article by Andrew MacLeod in The Tyee: Campbell Wants to Repeal Waterways Access Law

Excerpts:

"As it happens, the B.C. government had the name of the federal act wrong, leaving out the word 'protection' from the Navigable Waters Protection Act.

"The act's primary purpose is protecting people's right of access to rivers, lakes and any body of water it is possible to travel by boat or ship, an environmental lawyer explained. By helping protect waterways, the act has the side benefit of keeping them in their natural state."

"... Reporters, curious about why the provincial government dislikes the act, got little help from Campbell during a scrum in his office.

"'Let's put this in context for you,' said Campbell responding to a question from CKNW's Sean Leslie. 'That act was passed in 1882. I would suggest that the world has changed dramatically in the 21st century from what it was like in 1882.'"

Article by Miro Cernetig in the Vancouver Sun: Gordon Campbell's green dream meets the new world

Excerpt: "BC Hydro wants to cut its future demand for new, renewable power by a whopping 40 per cent. Instead of ordering up 5,000 gigawatts of new, green energy by 2016, the utility now says it needs to put out a "call" for only 3,000 gigawatts of green power."

Article by Konrad Yakabuski in the Globe and Mail: Rio wasn't the only loser in Alcan deal

 Excerpt: "Alcan says 'it remains committed' to the expansion of its Kitimat smelter and will 'honour all the obligations' of an agreement with the Quebec government that grandfather the company's vast and lucrative hydro operations in the province in exchange for jobs and investment. We just don't know when we'll ever see the money.

"'Whenever anyone says 'we commit' it doesn't mean 'we've spent,'' notes one long-time Alcan observer in British Columbia."

The real story:  The people of Kitimat have been engaged in a bitter eight year fight to save their jobs. BC's northeast smelter town was drained of jobs and now sees the world's richest mining company leaving BC's economy high and dry while taking endless billions of dollars to their Wall Street home. BC's provincial government is engaged in what Naomi Klein's recent book, The Shock Doctrine, describes perfectly; how populations lose when corporation take power and are allowed to escape community responsibilities. Alcan is in two Canadian provinces, Quebec and BC. The Quebec government protects its economy and people by holding Alcan to contracts that employ 6000 people. BC's government has done the exact opposite.

Article by Scott Simpson: Heavy Hydro users hit with higher rate

In this Vancouver Sun article, British Columbians are told the BC Utilities Commission has approved a two-tier billing system for residential consumers to promote conservation. What they are not told is that their rates will be going up many more times due to the baffling economics of Gordon Campbell's private energy agenda. Under Campbell's policy, BC's historic public power utility, BC Hydro, is banned from developing any new public power of its own and forced instead to buy ever increasing quantities of costly and needless private electricity - mostly from disastrous private river power projects that will destroy our invaluable watersheds, killing our fish and wildlife and releasing huge amounts of carbon into the atmosphere.

SFU economist Dr. Marvin Shaffer has termed BC's private energy plan as "buy high, sell low" economics, because this new private river power comes at up to 20 times the cost of the public power we develop today from our historic dams - and is much more expensive than the rates Hydro sells power for today to consumers, industry and our neighbours. This can have only two results: one is much higher power bills for consumers and businesses; the other is the ultimate bankrupting of BC Hydro. The public is also told that we need this new private power, when, according to Dr. Shaffer and other experts on BC Hydro, we do not: BC is already self-sufficient and only imports and exports power to make a profit for BC and keep our taxes and rates low.

These new private river power contracts will ultimately bankrupt our last profitable crown corporation, BC Hydro, and deprive us of control over our water and energy - the very things wars are fought over around the world. The ultimate irony with this disastrous, secretive scheme, is that while British Columbians fund the new private power infrastructure, we will wind up owning nothing, being in serious debt, losing our prized public power assets, and being stuck with crushing electricity rates like Californians - more than four times higher than the rates we enjoyed up until Gordon Campbell got ahold of our province and public energy system.

Article by Laura Hendrick in the Whistler Question: No peace for Ashlu IPP

Excerpt: "Now that the facility's construction is nearing completion, a string of broken assurances and unfulfilled promises over amenities have left nearby residents feeling more embittered than ever."

Article by Scott Simpson in the Vancouver Sun: California utility looks to B.C. for green power.

The sub-title is "PG&E predicts province will have a huge electricity surplus."