The Wilderness Committee accused BC Premier Gordon Campbell of sinking to new lows today, when he announced that the burning of “forest fibre” would be considered as a way for private power producers to make “green energy” that BC Hydro would be forced to purchase. Premier Campbell had been speaking at the annual conference of the Independent Power Producers association of BC when he announced his energy policy review. Wilderness Committee activists picketed the meeting outside, and handed out literature calling attention to the hundreds of rivers at risk in the province because of the BC government’s river privatization policy.
 
“I thought things couldn’t get worse with more than 800 wild rivers now staked by companies like General Electric. Publicly-owned BC Hydro has already been forced by the BC government to sign secret long-term energy-purchase-agreements with private power producers at rates far above market value, and now totaling over $31 billion. But things have gotten much worse. Now the Premier wants to let the private power corporations burn our forests,” said Joe Foy, Wilderness Committee National Campaign Director.
 
“It was bad enough that Premier Campbell has said that the damming and diversion of our rivers and streams by private companies to feed their power plants results in the production of ‘green power’,” said Gwen Barlee, Wilderness Committee Policy Director.
 
“Amazingly, now Premier Campbell’s latest announcement seems to be suggesting that if private companies are given the go-ahead to cut down and burn BC’s forests to produce electricity that would be called green power too. Well, we say that subsidizing corporations and giving them the right to dam up rivers into huge pipes and burn forests is the exact opposite of green power: it’s greed power,” said Foy.
 
“There is a right way and a wrong way to do green energy. The Wilderness Committee calls for new green energy projects to be regionally planned, publicly-owned, acceptable to First Nations, and environmentally appropriate. Subsidizing companies to wreck wild rivers and burn wild forests is certainly not the right way forward,” said Foy.

See a video clip of the protest.

Photo: Gwen Barlee and Joe Foy hold a huge blank cheque symbolizing the blank cheque that Premier Campbell has given the private power companies.