Take action on coal-fired generation in BC:

Please write a letter to the Minister of Sustainable Resource Management encouraging him to determine that BC’s first coal-fired generation project be a reviewable project for an environmental assessment.

A template letter that you can use verbatim is at www.dogwoodinitiative.org

Background:

In British Columbia, 90% of our power is hydroelectric and the rest is gas-fired.

One of the promises of the present Liberal government was to open things up for coal-fired generation, and they have delivered on that promise with a set of emission levels for thermal plants that are among the worst in North America.

A number of small projects have been proposed since the 2001 election. A big project in the East Kootenays has been idling for a few years. Teck Cominco and Fording, major donors to the Liberals, are expected to bring that forward one day.

The project that is most advanced at the moment is being proposed by Compliance Energy. Compliance operates a small mine near Princeton, and has an option on a possible plant site at the Similco Mine. In October 2004, the company issued a notice in advance of applying for an air emissions permit.

Letters in response to the notice, resulted in an extension of the comment period to January 15, 2005.

Dogwood Initiative and Sierra Club of BC jointly submitted a letter to the Minister of Sustainable Resource Management, recommending that the Compliance project be determined to be a reviewable project under the Environmental Assessment Act, and that it undergo a full environmental assessment. That letter is on the Dogwood Initiative website, here.

The letter includes an extensive list of reasons as to why BC’s first coal-fired generation project, should have to undergo an environmental assessment.

Compliance states that the project will have a “nameplate capacity” of 49 MW. The reviewable project threshold is 50 MW.

Recent information is that Compliance Energy is being encouraged to apply voluntarily for an environmental assessment, but is reluctant to do so. The Minister in turn is reluctant to determine that it be reviewable.

Now is the time that you can influence the pressure from government on the company, or even the government’s decision to make the Compliance project reviewable.

Please write a letter to the Minister of Sustainable Resource Management encouraging him to determine that BC’s first coal-fired generation project be a reviewable project for an environmental assessment. A template letter that you can use verbatim is on the Dogwood Initiative website at www.dogwoodinitiative.org.

And make coal-fired generation an issue you confront candidates with at every opportunity during the provincial election.