With a massive spike in electricity rates announced this week by B.C. Hydro, the B.C. Liberals’ energy plan is hitting British Columbians in the pocketbook while guaranteeing steep profits for corporations, said New Democrat energy critic John Horgan.

“British Columbians are staring down the barrel of a 50 per cent rate increase over a short five-year period, mainly due to an ideologically driven private power agenda architected over the past seven years by the B.C. Liberals,” said Horgan.

B.C. Hydro announced Thursday that electricity bills will be going up by an average of $7 per month, or about 10 per cent, each year from 2012 to 2014. That means the average household will spend $252 per year more on their electricity bill by 2014. These increases are in addition to the increase of nearly 13 per cent planned for 2011 and nearly eight per cent this year, totalling more than 50 per cent over five years.

“Look at a graph of hydro rates since the B.C. Liberals took power and you’ll see it looks like a hockey stick,” said Horgan. “The way the B.C. Liberals are handling the energy file is outrageous.”

Horgan attributes a significant part of the problem to the secretive deals B.C. Hydro has been forced to make with independent power producers. For example, the recently completed Clean Power Call resulted in an average purchase price of about $124/MWh. But the utility sells that power for much less: residential customers pay just $72/MWh, and on the open export market the average peak price during the second quarter was only $38/MWh. One industry group estimates the Crown corporation is losing $450 million annually in power sales transactions.

“Many of these contracts are being indexed to inflation, guaranteeing cash flow and big profits to foreign corporations like GE while the people of B.C. pick up the tab,” said Horgan as he repeated the call to make the details of the contracts public.

“It’s time to review the impact private power producers are having on the bottom line at B.C Hydro. It is just not good enough for the B.C. Liberals to say 'trust us' - the public needs an independent look at this massive transfer of wealth. But the B.C. Liberals have exempted all private power projects as well as billions in capital spending from oversight by the B.C. Utilities Commission.”

Horgan noted that without the right to publicly scrutinize these projects, the BCUC has been kneecapped and is left with the role of simply approving huge rate increases to pay for projects forced through without the benefit of independent review to see if they are even needed or cost-effective.

“The B.C. Liberals didn’t want to be told by the BCUC that their pet projects were not a good idea, so they changed the rules to make the commission irrelevant,” said Horgan.

A New Democrat government would restore the role of the BCUC, review all contracts with private power producers, and implement an energy plan that puts conservation and environmental protection, along with the interests of all British Columbians, first.

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