On this edition of Journal, we examine one of the received truths in British Columbia: that one of our economic advantages is that BC offers businesses and industry a plentiful supply of hydroelectric energy at reasonable cost.

What could be a better pitch? It is clean energy to run your enterprise.

In fact, Premier Eby has had press conferences highlighting the government’s demand that new mines, LNG, data centres, will be powered by electricity.

Sounds pretty appealing in a time of climate awareness. But is it the reality?

A couple of hard facts – for the third year in a row, BC has not produced enough electricity to even serve our own current needs, let alone all these new initiatives. That’s right: we import electricity.

And, besides that, according to Energy Futures, BC Hydro has a backlog of demands for more clean energy.

So we already have an electricity deficit in our province, a queue of current requests for more permits while at the same time, we are actively encouraging new businesses to electrify, customers to buy electric cars, and home heating to move away from natural gas to electric heat pumps.

Realizing the impending crisis, the Premier announced this week heavy users such as AI and data centres will have to compete for electricity through a managed process. How will that work? Who decides which businesses win the lottery?

Barry Penner, Chair of the Energy Futures Institute and a former BC cabinet minister calls this “a serious case of policy dissonance.”

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Carole Taylor's Journal is a public affairs dialogue that digs deep into the most pressing issues of our times. For more, see our website at http://www.caroletaylorsjournal.ca.

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