Norm Farrell nails it - Again

A blog reader just sent me a link to this article on Norm Farrell's blog about the BC Hydro fraud. Norm appropriately starts off with the French saying the more things change the more they stay the same. Indeed they do.

"I first published the following article in May of 2009. Corporate media cheerleaders don’t promote private power as they once did. But, they remain silent about BC Hydro paying independent power producers almost $5 billion above market value since 2004. That’s an untouchable subject but they’ll ask John Horgan how he can fund affordable childcare. They don’t ask where money comes from when it is transferred to IPPs, gas producers or other Liberal favourites."

Privatizing power is what caused the problem. It's certainly not part of the solution. Enron dejavu.



In a subsequent article Norm Farrell gives a specific example of how the Independent Power Producers are fraudulently robbing taxpayers and thereby creating this obscene tsunami of deferred debt. Woodfibre LNG secured a 40-year export licence from the federal government.

"BC Hydro pays Woodfibre $1.7 million a year for electricity generated at the site. It’s a small independent power producer (IPP); water from a lake up top powers a small turbine. I think it is a take or pay: whether Woodfibre gives electricity to BC Hydro or not, BC Hydro is on the hook for $1.7 million a year. It allows Woodfibre to pay their staff out of what is essentially an ongoing gift from BC Hydro. BC Hydro pays Woodfibre $158 per megawatt hour, about twice the rate to break even. But last November, it was announced that Woodfibre will be able to buy electricity from BC Hydro for $54 per megawatt hour." That is organized crime.

"If correct, and BC Hydro’s FIA report supports the amount, that payment of nearly 16¢ a KWh is almost 50% more than the average paid other IPPs and six (yes, 6) times the price at which BC sells the Canadian Entitlement from downstream benefits of Columbia river dams. The price BC Hydro pays Woodfibre for power is also three times what BC Hydro would charge Woodfibre to liquefy what would probably be royalty-free, subsidized natural gas."