Maintaining SuperNatural BC for Our Children - CoalWatch Comox ...

Since we now benefit from the providential spendingof previous generations, we have an obligationto at least pay our own way – and not leavean unfair burden for future ratepayers. This is“intergenerational equity.”BC Hydro – which follows directions from its shareholder the government –dutifully “found” huge costs savings and revised its rates application to aboutfive percent per year and the Commission’s proceeding carried on.Under scrutiny, it became clear that much of BC Hydro’s supposed “costsavings” were really just transfers into “deferral accounts” that ratepayerswould eventually have to pay back through rates. However, the Commission,being independent of government, did not go along. In an interim decision inFebruary 2012, the Commission expressed concern about intergenerationalequity and the continuing growth in the deferral accounts “without anyopportunity in sight to clear them.” The Commission scheduled a three-weekoral hearing for June 2012 and a major issue would be whether Hydro’sproposed rate increases were too low, not too high.But the hearing never happened. As stated above, on May 22, 2012 thegovernment ordered the Commission to approve BC Hydro’s watered-downrate increases, effectively moving substantial current costs into deferralaccounts for future ratepayers to pay back.Unfortunately, the government’s decision to override the Utilities Commissionregarding BC Hydro rate increases is not an isolated event. In 2010, thegovernment passed legislation exempting most of BC Hydro’s mostcontentious – and expensive – upcoming expenditures from Commissionreview. The list includes the smart meter program, the Site C dam proposal,the Northwest Transmission Line, many upgrades and renovations of existingHydro facilities, and various contracts with independent power producers. Inaddition, the government eliminated the Commission’s authority to reviewBC Hydro’s highly important 20-year plan and gave that role to itself. Thisis peculiar, since the government (acting as BC Hydro’s shareholder) controlswhat BC Hydro puts in the long-term plan in the first place.What is to be done? I say the government should take action to protect lowincomeratepayers but otherwise leave Hydro’s rate increases to the rigorousscrutiny of the BC Utilities Commission. And the government should restorethe Utilities Commission’s authority to review and make evidence-baseddecisions on all BC Hydro’s major projects, contracts and long-term plans.This would better serve both conservation and the rational management ofelectricity in BC.116 Maintaining SuperNatural BC: Selected Law Reform Proposals