The opening statment of your release is as close to patently false as it is possible to be given that Hydro’s own numbers and application indicate that Vancouver Island residents will be discriminatorily impacted to a far greater extent than Lower Mainland (Metro Vancouver) customers will be. In fact the numbers submitted by BC Hydro indicate that the vast majority of Island Residents will pay more even if they use the same amount of power that they used before this style of billing was approved.

I strongly disagree that there is any protection at all for Island residents of runaway rate increases as a two year freeze is only a freeze if Hydro cannot convince the Commission that it was somehow wrong in it’s estimates. Even then, at the end of the two year period we can be assured the runaway increases will begin.

On what, may you ask, to I base this assessment?

Reading the Commission Report and interventions, comments and rulings it was obvious that there was a pre-existing bias on the part of the Commission to approve Hydro’s plan and tendency to reject any information or interventions that would counter that bias.

For example it did not instruct Hydro to wait until the roll over to Smart Meters was complete, which would accellerate a slow, glacial process that Hyrdro is on with that style of metering right now. What the Smart Meters could have provided is neutral data on the assertions that Hydro has made that the Two Step billing system will do much of anything to encourage conservation of electricity or (the unanswered and unasked question that should Island resident seek to mitigate the increases my polluting sources such as natural gas, furnace oil and wood stove neutralize any enviornmental and economic gains made.)

As it stands, even now, the Commission and Hydro have imposed this billing method without any valid studies which would show any kind of conservation at all (some will occur, perhaps a lot), that the billing method takes into account the many micro and regional climates in British Columbia which seriously effect energy use (in fact there is none, as Hydro says because they felt it too difficult, which, amazingly, the Commission accepted), nor prior market distortion by BC Hydro and before that the BC Power Commission on Vancouver Island of actively promoting and subsidizing electricity as the space and water heating choice for Vancouver Island, nor similar distortions which may have taken place in other parts of the Province.

Nor is there any accounting or economic data to back BC Hydro’s assertion that the RIB is revenue neutral. The Commission merely accepts it on faith that it will be. Given the vast difference between Step 1 and Step 2 rates I find this impossible to believe. Given the total lack of accounting or economic data on this it is more likely that this will drive surpluses by Hydro which, in my opinion it is soley designed to do.

The Commission accepted and, sadly, ESVI now accepts and trumpets, a rate plan designed for Metro Vancouver which does not take into account the realities of rural and small centre life which Islanders outside of Greater Victoria and the City of Nanaimo and the Nanaimo Regional District live with every single day.

Nor can I see an upside or rural and small town consumers on the Island contrary to statements in this release, nor do I see rewards for consumers in these areas though I do see plenty of punishment. The comments of Mr Bertsch and Mr Gartshore that there is such a thing reflect an urban view more in common with Greater Victoria and Metro Vancouver than with rural and small town life.

Nor has the Commission done anything to truly cap Tier 2 rates and that only for 2 years. Nor are there hearings required for for future rate increases. The only way to have assured that a freeze was truely there, even a percentage freeze or gap freeze, would have been through an Act of the Legistlature removing any choice from the Commission and from BC Hydro and mandating well publicized public hearings on future rate increases. This has not been done.

In short, the rate freeze is a chimera which the Commission is free to ignore at any time and undoubtedly will. I’ve been actively involved in politics for too long to take such promises from the BC Utilities Commission or any Public Utilities Commission seriously or even start to believe them.

The new rate structure’s intended shock value is having it’s effect though, I’d suggest not in the way Hydro, the Commission or ESVI intended. It is almost impossible in my region to get a wood stove installed until next summer with those who do the work getting new orders with each month as the obscene bills from Hyrdo come in. Those who harvest and sell firewood here are already raising prices and antipate that it will rise even more as the two tier sturcture becomes entrenched. The unitended consequence is more carbon and particulate matter in the atmosphere and local pollution where little or none has existed before.

My personal response has been to burn more wood this winter than I ever have and I will probably continue to do so later into the spring to help offset the increased electricity prices. So, I am, in self defence, contributing to that problem. The narrowly focused Commission hearing did not take any of this into account nor, does it appear that ESVI has.

Nor can homeoweners on Vancouver Island count on programs such as those sponsored by LiveSmartBC or the Federal Government to continue to be there as the ecomony continues to crater. In short, we may find ourselves continuing to be punished for doing what Hyrdo encouraged us to do for the foreseeable future until we can afford to upgrade our homes or, in some cases, simply abandon them. The latter is likely for Seniors and the growing ranks of the unemployed.

Nor do I see any comments or suggestions that as power use in the United States continues in it’s sharp decline due to economic conditions there that Hydro pass on any savings to consumers while maintaining the two tier system.

It is ironic that this rate structure was approved almost two weeks to the day before the economy started to crater and demand for power began to slip as mills and other high users began to close operations or cut them back. Nor have we seen the retail effects yet which will further depress energy demand as retailers begin to close. Indications from the United States and early Canadian indications over the Christmas season are that retail activity has tanked and continues to.

While I congratulate and applaud any attempt to conserve enegry use, it strikes me that this structure came into effect with pricing and rationalization for an economy that appeared to exit, even thouh, it didn’t up till last September and is now getting worse. A condition that reputable economists on both left and right are predicting now is likely to last up to 5 years before we see significant recovery in the United States and, therefore, in British Columbia and the rest of the world.

People no longer have credit options even with good credit ratings to borrow for home improvements to mitigate this and people will hold back on doing so as long as they feel their jobs are at risk.

Some solutions such as less heating in winter risk health hazards, serious ones, though for Seniors and the unemployed and underemployed this may be the only option.

In short then I have little faith to start with on a plan from BC Hydro that the BC Utilties Commission was biased in favour of before the hearings began that is built on fantasy and moonbeams, of promises of revenue neutrality built on less, wothless promises of capping Stage 2 rates and the late support of ESVI based on the worthless promise.

Nor do I see any observations by ESVI on the huge changes in the economy of the last quarter which promise nothing but to get worse and the attendant decline in the demand side even without this new rate structure.

What I do see from ESVI is the abandoment of rural and small town Islanders and those on the Gulf Islands (and older parts of Nanaimo, for that matter) for merely doing what hydro was urging us to do for close to 50 years in terms of heating our homes and water. Traded for a worthless “freeze” on rates which isn’t even worth the paper and pixels it’s printed on.

We need to conserve. But bludegoning isn’t a good or effective way to do it. It makes for unhappy voters and unhappy voters cause things to happen to complaint government and, in other parts of the world, revolutions.

So far I see the bludgeoning and that’s all. Even from ESVI.

The amount is actually only $45 per person; a total of about $198 million for BC.

These funds amount to $60 per person to reduce GHGs. Peanuts, folks !!

I calculated that we could operate 2 to 3 million efficient electric vehicles solely on wind power. It would require 3.5 Billon in wind energy, and of course the electric cars. But the capital cost of the wind power is cheap - less than $100 per car per year, when ammortized over 20 years.