Politics clouding B.C. Hydro's real issue

According to a UVic utility expert, the dispute about whether B.C. Hydro is going to be privatized is overshadowing important issues. Last week, B.C.’s energy minister told the media that the government would recommend continued public ownership of B.C. Hydro’s assets and that electricity prices would remain regulated. Dr. Pierre-Olivier Pineau, a regulatory reforms analyst in the electricity sector and an assistant professor at UVic’s school of public administration, says he finds the energy minister’s comments on the forthcoming energy policy very “puzzling” because the government task force’s interim report on the subject called for market-based electricity prices, not for regulated prices. “If B.C. wants to attract new private investors for new generation assets, it has to guarantee profits, which can be done under regulated prices,” explains Pineau. “But why did the government hire a task force to promote market-based prices if it is to give more regulatory power to the B.C. Utility Commission? Market-based prices, as the Ontario example shows, do not attract private investors because of the many uncertainties they create in the sector. It seems that the government is contemplating both a free and a regulated market at the same time. Are they trying to plan an Ontario-type electricity disaster?”

-- 30 --