FLETCHER: BC goes all in on electricity to meet industrial needs

Tom Fletcher grew up in the Peace River region and has covered BC politics and business as a journalist since 1984.The BC government has unveiled its latest effort to get major projects up and running, a heavily subsidized new industrial electricity plan to drive the development of mines and liquefied natural gas production in the northwest.The centrepiece, announced Monday by Premier David Eby and supported by indigenous leaders and the mining industry, is a $6 billion high-voltage transmission line that would twin the existing power connection from Prince George in the Central Interior to Terrace on the North Coast. Branch lines would go further north into BC’s “golden triangle” of rich metal resources, and supply new LNG export facilities by reducing or eliminating the need to burn natural gas in the process.Eby has been in a rhetorical range war with Alberta Premier Danielle Smith in recent weeks, denouncing her plan to expedite a new heavy oil pipeline to the North Coast that he says would alienate indigenous people in the region and upset billions in new investment..KEENEY: The hollow virtues of the progressive Left.This power line is a lifeline for those potential investments, and the BC NDP government is bringing in legislation to give priority and a lower electricity rate for selected mines and other projects, including an expansion of the Prince Rupert seaport.Eby repeated his vow to make BC the “economic engine that drives this country forward” and open up trade beyond the US. “But for this whole thing to happen, we need power,” he said Monday..Politically, Eby still holds the power he needs, and he’s using it. This spring, his government passed the Renewable Projects (Streamlined Permitting) Act to speed up approval for this line and a series of wind power projects with government-funded majority ownership by First Nations around the province.The latest move is to restructure BC Hydro’s industrial power rates to make proposed projects viable. While Alberta wants to expand gas-fired electricity for energy-intensive artificial intelligence and data centres, BC will make these new users bid for electricity. The lower industrial rate will be only for favoured carbon-reducing users, including mining, oil and gas, LNG, manufacturing, forestry, and even production of hydrogen for domestic use..BERNARDO: Disarming good people does not make bad people harmless — It makes good people helpless.BC Hydro now confirms that its current applications for new industrial power supply have reached almost 6,800 megawatts. That’s more than six times the total capacity of the Site C hydroelectric dam on the Peace River, which has finally come up to full capacity.BC Hydro’s historical policy of first come, first served for industrial electricity is out. So, power-hungry AI data centres are going to find steep rates in BC and will more likely try Alberta or Saskatchewan instead..Something to watch for in the upcoming federal budget will be another deficit spending commitment from Prime Minister Mark Carney. Mike Goehring, president of the Mining Association of BC, urged the federal government to help fund this “truly nation-building” transmission line.It’s likely Carney has made this project a high priority because he needs the green credit it would offer him. He continues to profess that he remains a climate change warrior, but his actions tell another story..RUBENSTEIN: Anti-Semitic bigotry is now 'fashionable' in Canada.Carney barely won the spring election, largely due to his sudden cancellation of the federal retail carbon tax, dropping the pump price of gasoline by 15 cents or so. Then he heeded the warnings of the already trade-battered Canadian car industry, delaying and reviewing the Justin Trudeau government’s unrealistic regulations forcing a rapid switch to electric vehicles. Canada’s grandiose emissions reduction targets from the Paris climate summit look like they will be the next Trudeau fantasy to go. Global reality is finally being recognized in Ottawa..The International Energy Agency reports that global coal consumption hit an all-time high in 2024 of about 8.8 billion tonnes, driven largely by burning coal for electricity in China, India, Indonesia, and other developing economies. There are declines in coal use in the developed countries of Asia, in Europe, and in North America, but these are far outstripped by the surge in China, which is now estimated to be burning as much coal as the rest of the world combined.And coal demand is now forecast to rise in the US, as Donald Trump reverses Joe Biden’s climate policies and drives the country to expand its industrial base with tariffs and cheap power..STIRLING: Straw that broke the camel's back? SME productivity meets Canada Post’s climate activism.This should put to rest the unrealistic notion that any carbon taxes or electric vehicle mandates imposed here in Canada are going to alter the planet’s weather in any measurable way. Even if Canada could convert entirely to renewable energy, it would barely make a blip in world production of industrial carbon dioxide emissions.Tom Fletcher grew up in the Peace River region and has covered BC politics and business as a journalist since 1984. He lives in Victoria.tomfletcherbc@gmail.comX: @tomfletcherbc

FLETCHER: BC goes all in on electricity to meet industrial needs

Related Stories