{"id":58409,"date":"2021-06-28T08:38:21","date_gmt":"2021-06-28T13:38:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/?p=58409"},"modified":"2021-06-28T08:38:21","modified_gmt":"2021-06-28T13:38:21","slug":"bcs-utilities-commission-blocks-climate-goals-say-enviro-groups","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/?p=58409","title":{"rendered":"BC\u2019s Utilities Commission Blocks Climate Goals, Say Enviro Groups"},"content":{"rendered":"<header class=\"article__header\" data-dev-object-descrip=\"organisms\/article\/article__header\" data-dev-status=\"IN-PROGRESS\">\n<div class=\"container-fluid\">\n<h3 data-bind=\"title\">BC\u2019s Utilities Commission Blocks Climate Goals, Say Enviro Groups<\/h3>\n<p data-bind=\"teaser\"><strong>The regulator of BC Hydro needs a new \u2018energy justice\u2019 mandate, province told.<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/header>\n<section class=\"featured-media\" data-dev-object-descrip=\"02-organisms\/article\/featured-media\">\n<div class=\"container-fluid\">\n<figure class=\"figure \" data-dev-object-descrip=\"01-molecules\/blocks\/figure\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"responsive-img\" src=\"https:\/\/thetyee.ca\/News\/2021\/06\/27\/GeorgeHeyman.jpg\" alt=\"GeorgeHeyman.jpg\" width=\"729\" height=\"519\" \/><figcaption class=\"caption\">Environment and Climate Change Strategy Minister George Heyman received a letter from seven organizations focused on energy, equity and the climate crisis urging a reset for BC\u2019s utilities regulator, which they call a \u2018barrier\u2019 to needed change.\u00a0<span class=\"caption__media--credit\">Photo: BC government Flickr.<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/section>\n<article class=\"article__body main-col-container\" data-dev-object-descrip=\"organisms\/article\/article__body\" data-dev-status=\"IN-PROGRESS\">\n<div class=\"container-fluid clearfix \">\n<p>Advocacy groups are encouraging the British Columbia government to overhaul the commission that regulates BC Hydro and other utilities so that it can better support a transition to cleaner energy and other provincial goals.<\/p>\n<p>With processes coming early next year that will determine energy policy for years into the future, widening the B.C. Utilities Commission\u2019s mandate needs to happen soon, the seven groups say.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe BCUC now makes its decisions in largely the same way it has since its inception,\u201d said Dylan Heerema, the policy and research lead on community energy for one of the groups, Ecotrust Canada. \u201cIt tries to keep rates as low as possible and tries to maximize the economic efficiency of the utilities\u2019 operations across all of the ratepayers.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>That mandate made sense 50 years ago amid concerns that utilities would take advantage of their monopolies to make rates unfairly high, he said, but now that economic lens has become a \u201csignificant barrier\u201d to needed change.<\/p>\n<p>Ecotrust and the other groups sent a June 17 letter to B.C. Energy, Mines and Low Carbon Innovation Minister Bruce Ralston and Environment and Climate Change Strategy Minister George Heyman. In it they argued changes need to be made before 2022 when the BCUC will consider BC Hydro\u2019s Integrated Resource Plan as well as the utility\u2019s Rate Design Application.<\/p>\n<p>\u2026click on the above link to read the rest of the article\u2026<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/article>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>BC\u2019s Utilities Commission Blocks Climate Goals, Say Enviro Groups The regulator of BC Hydro needs a new \u2018energy justice\u2019 mandate, province told. Environment and Climate Change Strategy Minister George Heyman received a letter from seven organizations focused on energy, equity and the climate crisis urging a reset for BC\u2019s utilities regulator, which they call a [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[11645,7724,31382,94,27351,31381,23884],"class_list":["post-58409","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-environment","tag-andrew-macleod","tag-bc-hydro","tag-bc-utilities-commission","tag-british-columbia","tag-clean-energy-2","tag-ecotrust","tag-thetyee-ca"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58409","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=58409"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58409\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":58410,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58409\/revisions\/58410"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=58409"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=58409"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=58409"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}