In his Tyee op-ed on Monday titled “Let’s Talk Fossil Fuel Subsidies in BC,” Bruce Ralston, the provincial minister for energy, mines and low-carbon innovation, tried to distract from his government’s continued support for fossil fuel extraction.

In particular, he raised an issue over the numbers in a report from Stand.earth, which he says lumped together the fossil fuel industry’s exemptions with exemptions that regular British Columbians get on hydroelectricity.

He then used this to create a straw man argument about the BC Greens, suggesting that because we cited the Stand.earth report, we therefore consider PST exemptions for residential users a fossil fuel subsidy. This is, to say the least, a stretch.

In the appendix attached to Ralston’s article, it is pointed out by Stand.earth that “Note: does not provide a delineation between different fuel sources.” And so yes, some portion of those figures included PST exemptions for residential users of hydro power, and some included PST exemptions for residential users of natural gas. Because the government does not provide disaggregated data that shows how much goes to each, neither Stand.earth nor the public knows what the exact breakdown is.

Should those figures have been lumped in with the hundreds of millions of dollars that the provincial government gives away each year in fossil fuel subsidies? No, the PST exemption British Columbians enjoy on their hydro bill is not a fossil fuel subsidy.

But this does not change the fact that the BC NDP government is subsidizing the fossil fuel industry and has increased them beyond what the BC Liberals gave…

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…