NDP government ends former premier Campbell's electricity self-sufficiency policy

[Sheba]

Somehow I can't see this playing out quietly...

The NDP government is moving to scrap the province’s legislated requirement that B.C. remain self-sufficient in electricity supply, a centrepiece of the previous government’s green-energy policy.

Government, in its legislative agenda for this session, tabled amendments to the Clean Energy Act, which include stripping out the legislation’s definition of energy self-sufficiency.

Energy and Mines Minister Bruce Ralston characterized it as a public-policy shift away from a measure that the NDP disagreed with when put in place in 2010, which simply gives B.C. Hydro some leeway in preparing its next major demand estimate.

“Eliminating it will enable Hydro, give it a bit more flexibility to purchase clean energy at the most affordable prices from within and without the province,” Ralston said.

Independent power producers, however, which saw significant growth of their sector while the policy was in force, worry that the measure simply shuts them out of future development just as the province is promoting the electrification of industry under its Clean B.C. plan.

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Vancouver Sun