The Nelson Bennett article on Site C completion and the political paralysis of the NDP government should be required reading for all.
With a delightful look at the past and Green leader Andrew Weaver's 2009 endorsement of Site C, Bennett makes a strong case for carrying through with the Peace hydro-electric project. He notes our increasing B.C. population, the general discontinuation of nuclear and coal electrical generation and the unreliability of solar and wind power.
A few weeks ago, I wrote about the advent of the electric car. I cited a Bloomberg energy study showing plug-in electric cars being cheaper than gas-powered cars within ten years. For electric - read really clean - cars it's getting better. The 2018 Chevrolet Bolt - a plug-in electric - can travel 383 km on one charge. That's an incredible breakthrough.
I can't think of any eco-minded B.C. resident who wouldn't buy an electric car given a competitive price and the driving range of a gas-fired car.
There is though one problem though, if B.C. drivers went 100 per cent electric cars, we'd be out of juice.
A good friend of mine - a retired science guy who knows a lot about energy - figured that if B.C. went all out on electric cars we'd need 2.8 times the output of Site C to look after the electric car demand. For you science nerds who question this, my buddy used B.C. gasoline pump sales from 2014 (source Stats Can) and calculated what it would take in electrical generation to match that energy consumption.
We don't need a study on Site C, we don't want to navel gaze about wind, solar or tidal and we don't need status quo thinking. As Bob Dylan wrote "The times they are a changing," and there is a growing market for electricity.
Get with it, New Democrats. Don't get caught in the dark. Build Site C.
Bruce Strachan,
Vernon
