NOT TOO LATE TO CHANGE THE COURSE ON SITE C DAM

Since becoming an MLA I have visited the proposed location of the Site C dam on the Peace River twice. Most recently, on August 23rd, I traveled a section of the river with a group of concerned community members. It's hard to fathom the scale of planned development unless you see it in person, just as it's hard to grasp the human and cultural cost of this project until you listen to the people caught in the middle of it. Dam construction would flood more than 5,000 hectares of land - drowning homes, traditional lands, scores of culturally important sites, and 15,985 acres of agricultural land.

Local and indigenous people in the area are being systematically stripped of their livelihood and culture on the one hand, while receiving apologies for past injustices and promises of reconciliation on the other. Compounding the environmental, historical, cultural and agricultural damages is a reckless disregard of energy economics. Since 2005, domestic demand for electricity in B.C. has been essentially flat, but over the next twenty years B.C. Hydro forecasts our energy needs will increase by about 40% as a consequence of both population and economic growth. They are selling Site C as the solution to this growing electricity demand, but their argument doesn't hold water. Upon completion, the dam would produce 1,100 MW (megawatts, i.e. millions of Watts) of power capacity and up to 5,100 GWh (gigawatt hours, i.e. billions of watt hours) of electricity each year. Currently only about 1.5% of B.C.'s electricity production is supplied by wind energy (compared to roughly 20% in PEI). With our mountainous terrain and coastal boundary, the potential for both onshore and offshore wind power production is enormous. The Canadian Wind Energy Association and the B.C. Hydro Integrated Resource Plan 2013 indicate that 5,100 GWh of wind generated electricity could be produced in B.C. for about the same price as the electricity to be produced by the Site C dam. A report by the Canadian Geothermal Energy Association noted B.C. also has substantial untapped potential for firm, on demand, geothermal power which could be developed where power is needed. While costs associated with Site C will be borne by provincial taxpayers (a price tag that will eventually be much more than BC Hydro's estimate of roughly $9 billion), solar, wind, and geothermal project risks are covered by industry. Alternative sources coupled with existing dams could provide enough energy to meet the needs of British Columbians, with the potential to scale up as needed. They would also provide better economic opportunities to local communities and First Nations across the province, with lower impacts on traditional territories. Instead of a diversified approach to renewable energy, the B.C. government is pushing Site C because they want to offer LNG proponents access to firm power. As I have been explaining for years, however, there will be no B.C. LNG industry in the foreseeable future because of a global glut in natural gas and plummeting prices for imported LNG in Asia. As the government doubles down on LNG, renewable projects are moving elsewhere. Just this year they let a $750 million US investment to build wind capacity on Vancouver Island slip away, despite buy in from five First Nations, TimberWest, EDP Renewables, and the Canadian Wind Energy Association. I wanted to see how much has been done when I visited Site C this summer. Nothing has passed a point of no return. Proceeding with Site C is actively driving clean energy investment out of the province, but it is not too late to correct our province's power trajectory.

NEW BOOK ANNOUNCEMENT

Exeter, Ronald, Judith Harpel and David Wagner. 2016. Rare Bryophytes of Oregon. Salem District, Bureau of Land Management, Salem, Oregon, 97306. ISBN-13: 978-09791310-4-2. 378 p.

Rare Bryophytes of Oregon is a cooperative venture funded by the Bureau of Land Management. This project was five years in the making. It includes one hornwort, 39 liverworts and 102 mosses. It contains approximately 1,350 photos on 153 plates and provides for each species current taxonomy, distinctive characteristics, technical description, similar species, ecology, references, and county distribution maps. There is a CD of the book inside the back cover which has the complete book in pdf format, either low resolution or in full resolution. These can be downloaded onto a computer hard drive for quick reference anywhere, anytime.

It is available for $42, which includes shipping anywhere. For credit card purchase by phone call 503-375-5646.

Mail checks to:

Rare Bryophyte Book
Salem District, Bureau of Land Management
1717 Fabry Road SE
Salem, Oregon 97306

Book can be downloaded for free by using these links:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/es7i0p201f0edg7/Rare-Bryophytes-Lower-Quality-Web.pdf?dl=0

For students with poor internet bandwidth, this version should be entirely adequate. All text is clear, the illustrations only minimally condensed.

Thanks to skillful formatting, this takes only 422 megabytes. I believe this opens a new era of digital communication. This version is downloadable from my Dropbox here:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/481y1j8pzehqubl/Rare-Bryophytes-Publication-PRINT.pdf?dl=0

Subscriptions: http://victoria.tc.ca/mailman/listinfo/ben-l.
Send submissions to aceska@telus.net

BEN is archived at http://www.ou.edu/cas/botany-micro/ben/