Editor                                                                                                                                         January 7, 2008
Vancouver Sun

Re: Response to Jan. 3 article: “Run–of-river power projects concealed by a green curtain”

The opinion piece submitted by Craig Orr fails to mention that BC Hydro has been importing lots of brown electricity to meet its B.C. customers’ needs for past six years. BC Hydro has reported that almost 1 in 8 houses in BC relied on imported power in 2006. Most of that power comes from U.S. coal fired power plants that produce a huge amount of greenhouse gas emissions. Run of river hydro projects do have some environmental impacts but they are very small in comparison to other sources of power generation. All these impacts are fully assessed under Provincial and Federal laws and regulations.

Whether it is a 1 megawatt project or a 50 megawatt project, as many as 50 permits, licences, approvals and reviews are required from a dozen government agencies before a project can be built.  Local governments have a say in the development of these projects under the comprehensive review processes established by these senior governments. But like the mining, forestry and agriculture industries and BC Hydro projects, local governments do not have a veto because there is no need to duplicate the expertise of the senior government review agencies.

First Nations also have a large say in the development of run-of-river projects and actively participate in their economic benefits as was the case with the Ashlu Creek project mentioned by Craig Orr.  Improvements are always being made to the permitting and review processes but to suggest there is something fundamentally wrong with existing processes is simply not correct.

We encourage people to visit an operating run of river project to see the proof in the pudding. Thirty-five are operating all around the province. Fifteen of them have been quietly generating green electricity for over decade.

We need to produce more of the power that we consume in B.C. rather than continuing to rely on dirty power imports. Run of river projects offer a way to keep B.C.’s lights on without increasing greenhouse
gas emissions.

B.C. is blessed with some of the best sites for renewable generation in the world. Building them will keep the jobs and tax revenues here in BC while assisting in the battle against global climate change.

Yours truly,

Steve Davis, P.Eng.
President
IPPBC