BC Carbon Tax: Watch Your Electricity Bill…
July 2, 2008 · By Shane Edwards
The funny thing is in BC, our electric company is called “BC Hydro”. As in hydroelectic power. But BC is no longer self-reliant in terms of hydroelectricity. We buy energy off the electrical market to supplement, which means we really aren’t just hydro anymore.
But I digress.
The apologists are out in full force trying to calm down irate British Columbians, helping to see that they are “acting irrationally” in response to the jack up of up to 10 cents a liter at the pumps since Campbell’s “2.3 cent” carbon tax was implemented.
Of course, in addition to slapping us in the face at the pump, we are being slapped in the face with our heating and our cooking - propane and natural gas are also spiked in this carbon tax.
Now, I’ve actually got natural gas heat and electric heat in my house. I could just shut off the main furnace and heat my home with baseboard heaters and space heaters. But you know what? Natural gas is more efficient in my case.
But what will happen when British Columbians begin to shut off their natural gas forced-air heating? Well, electrical use will spike. And what do you think will happen to Hydro rates? They’ll go through the roof as BC Hydro compensates for their shortfall in electrical production by buying more energy off the grid - not to mention supporting all those old coal-fired and gas-fired power plants which won’t be able to be taken out of service because of “demand”.
What a stupid tax. If this goes national, we aren’t just going to see an NEP-style crash where Alberta collapses and the rest of the country goes into recession. The cycle of spiralling energy costs will not be able to be offset with more public money from all the new taxes. Government sucking money out of the economy, no matter how many public works projects they engage in to “create jobs” will never make as many jobs as leaving the money in the economy in the first place.
I think we’ll be revisiting a genuine depression.
Absolutely correct. Adjustments will be made with unanticipated consequences.
Your province could return to being a ‘hydro’ electric generating jurisdiction if not for the environuts. They have managed to delay the construction of a number of dams (Sorry, I don’t recall the exact number…5 I believe… or location) through continous environmental impact studies and inane court imposed conditions to the point where the proposals have been shelved.
It’s much like here in Alberta where this gang of Luddites is already beating the drums against proposed nuclear generating stations. They don’t want coal fired plants, they don’t want fossil fueled stations, they don’t want nuclear and they don’t want hydro. They seem to want millions of gerbils running around in little wire wheels to provide our power. Of course, the animal rights nutters would oppose this as well. Welcome to the truly dark ages!