Tag Archives: CleanBC

Energy, Indigenous Nations

BC Hydro must pay up for overcharging remote First Nations

Canada’s National Observer, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

BC Hydro has been ordered to repay a small coastal First Nation more than $700,000 after unfairly charging them an extra annual fee for electricity for nearly a decade. 

The $85,000 yearly fee, embedded in a 2014 electricity service agreement between the utility company and the tiny Gitga’at First Nation of Hartley Bay, wasn’t approved and was ruled as “unjust, unreasonable and unduly discriminatory” by the province’s energy regulator this fall. 

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Transportation

BC Ferries forced to gear down vessel electrification ambitions

Canada’s National Observer, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

BC Ferries has officially changed course, scaling down its climate ambitions to electrify its Island Class fleet and ability to achieve provincial emissions targets. 

In 2021, the provincial ferry service got permission for the first phase of its Island Class Electrification Program (ICEP) — to convert the six Island Class diesel-electric hybrid ferries it has currently in operation to 100 per cent battery-electric operations by 2025. 

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Transportation

West Coast electric ferries lack the power to ditch diesel

 Canada’s National Observer, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

BC Ferries got a half-billion-dollar cash injection on the weekend to keep fares below inflation and help electrify the fleet. 

However, while Premier David Eby and Transportation Minister Rob Fleming offered details on fare objectives over the next four years, they provided little information on the province’s goals for weaning ferries off fossil fuels.  

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Politics

B.C. budget a mixed bag on climate

Canada’s National Observer, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

B.C.’s budget viewed through a climate lens got mixed reviews from the province’s environmental and conservation sector following its release Tuesday. 

The province got kudos for bolstering funding for parks and trails for active transportation initiatives to get people out of their cars and on bikes and walking paths. But the budget was panned by those hoping to see a wholesale commitment to the protection of old-growth or urgent, large-scale reductions of greenhouse gas emissions. 

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Energy

LNG Canada eyes electrification as planned expansion would send B.C. emissions skyrocketing

By Matt Simmons, The Narwhal, Local Journalism Initiative reporter

For more than a decade, successive B.C. governments have thrown their hats behind an industry hellbent on getting gas out of the ground and across the Pacific to Asian markets.  

LNG Canada, a liquefaction and export facility under construction in Kitimat, is poised to be the first project to do so. As the facility inches closer towards a goal of firing up operations in 2025, its partner companies are eyeing investment for an approved expansion, which would double the amount of gas processed at the plant. 

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