Average electricity bill could increase by $3 annually; natural gas bill by $5.

Jeff Rud, Times Colonist

Published: Monday, April 23, 2007

The average British Columbian will spend an extra $3 a year for electricity and $5 for natural gas to bankroll the province’s new $25 million clean energy fund, Energy Minister Richard Neufeld said Monday.

Neufeld tabled a bill that will impose a 0.4 per cent levy on all final sales of electricity, natural gas, grid propane, and fuel oil used for heating — not including transportation fuels.

“The innovative clean energy fund will support the development of clean and alternative energy sources not just in electricity, but also transportation and the oil and gas sectors,” Neufel said in the legislature. “It will also help us take action on climate change.”

He said the average electricity bill in B.C. will increase by about $3 a year, while the average natural gas bill will jump $5. A person heating their house with fuel oil bill will see their bill jump about $8, Neufeld said. “That’s the average bill, understanding that some people’s bills  are higher than that.”

A cap of $500,000 per year will be set for high-use energy customers.

Neufeld said money collected from the levy will finance a clean energy fund first announced in the government’s February throne speech.

“We’ll invest that money in technology in the province of British Columbia to further our green energy agenda,” he said.

The fund will  be use to tackle energy problems identified by the government, and “showcase”  B.C. technology that has international potential.

Neufeld said government will try the fund  for one year, and then re-assess it. “It may not be any more than a one-year fund,” he said.

The special levy will take effect July 1.