Site C Dam and A Failed LNG Gambit Combined To Win the 2017 Election

Written by Grant G 

Christy Clark last week said to Bloomberg.....and I quote


__________

"British Columbia will prioritize LNG over a proposed hydroelectric dam, the C$8.5 billion Site C project, if labor estimates show it will put LNG projects at a disadvantage in securing workers, Clark said. The power project can probably go ahead when the government decides on it by the end of 2014, she said. 

“LNG is our priority in British Columbia and we don’t need to do Site C in order to fuel up the LNG industry,” Clark said, adding she ran for office on a pledge to establish the sector.


 “Hopefully, we will find a way to do both, but if it’s one or the other, I’m choosing LNG.” 

 http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-12-10/british-columbia-clark-optimistic-on-lng-despite-oil-rout.html

_________________


 There it is in a nut-shell, nobody could retain any credibility if they said anything but the below statements...

Christy Clark and the BC Liberals LNG revenue promises turned to dust....

Christy Clark`s jobs plan and LNG job numbers never materialized, all hype, spin and bluster, a complete and utter failure...

BC Liberal`s singular obsession of developing an LNG export industry at any cost failed on all counts, it also embarrassed, humiliated and placed British Columbia at the bottom of the grovelling barrel..

 Those above statements will not be heard in the mainstream media, those are my quotes, accurate and what this column is all about..

Site C....I have several points to make on the issue of Site C...

First off, if we actually needed the power, Site C is a much better option than a dozen run of river projects buggering up eco-systems all around the province, Site C limits the damage to one area, albeit a large area and yes I do hear the concerns of First Nations and the people of the Peace River Valley and Hudson Hope..

Run of river projects in the long-term would cost much more money.

My 2 biggest concerns about Site C are ....There is no compelling proof presented that British Columbia actually needs this power, the BC Liberals refuse to let the BCUC or any other group of impartial professionals look at this proposal, the reason the BC Liberals refuse access to the BCUC and other analysts is because they know what conclusions would be arrived...There is no need for this power, we already have a glut of power ...and every single year old appliances, old TVs are replaced with new technology that consumes less electricity, ...Site C dam cost will be borne by BC Hydro users, average bills will rise an additional 30% to cover interest payments on the enormous cost, this too will result in even more domestic/residential energy conservation thus creating an even larger excess energy gulch.

A perpetuating problem, keep cranking up BC Hydro ratepayer`s cost thus driving Hydro customers to use even less power...We have seen this picture play out on BC Ferries...Forget about the little fuel surcharge the BC Liberals just removed, it won`t drive any more traffic to BC Ferry..

BC Ferry rates over the last 8 years have driven life-long customers away, to other jurisdictions, ridership on BC Ferries has dropped to 1991 levels, BC`s population has grown by 600,000 people since 1991 and ferry traffic has collapsed, ferry rates have driven down BC Ferry traffic, RV traffic and those who trailer boats have fled to cheaper jurisdictions, money talks and bullshit walks...unfortunately for BC Ferries those boaters and RV crowd have migrated to less expensive cities and countries to spend ever shrinking vacation $dollars.

BC Ferry rates don`t need to be frozen they need to be slashed in half..by 50% or more, and even with that move it will takes years to bring back our traditional customers...Unfortunately the BC Liberals will never make that move, two reasons why, they are clueless as to how to run an economy and coastal ridings have rejected the BC Liberals in election after election, for Christy Clark and her petty politics this has become personal..

 http://powellriverpersuader.blogspot.ca/2013/11/bc-ferries-and-bc-liberal-revenge.html

Back to Site C dam...If the BC Liberals continue to increase BC Hydro rates customers will start sitting in the dark, conservation will be the order of the day, ..BC Liberals will raise hydro rates, customers will use less and less, resulting in an even larger glut of electrical power...

BC Hydro, a corporation already, before Site C has one shovel in the ground is already $10 billion dollars in debt, after Site C ...BC Hydro will have a debt of $20 billion dollars..interest on that debt will be nearly $1 billion per year..

If the BC Liberals want to add to British Columbia`s debt by $10 billion dollars they need to raise the provincial sales tax to pay for it..The PST must rise province wide to 8%...Everyone must pay, corporate taxes must be raised, residential customers can`t afford higher rates.

To be clear, everyone who has a BC Hydro account or uses electricity knows what`s coming in the way of billing...I guarantee that the Translink funding referendum will fail, I will be voting no...The lower mainland already is paying steep costs for toll bridges...$1500 to $2000 per year per driver using the Port Mann and Golden Ears bridge..

Plus the GVRD is paying another 10 plus cents per litre on fuel to Translink..plus the GVRD pays Translink money out of their property taxes..Over $400 dollars per year for 1 home in Burnaby...Plus there is a Translink levy on BC Hydro bills...Every BC Hydro user in the lower mainland knows what`s coming, a huge rate increase for BC Hydro power,  to pay for Site C...Thus the Translink referendum will fail, there is only so much blood contained within a stone.

The whole province needs to pay for Site C and Translink,...A province wide increase in our PST to 8%...or 8-1/2 %...combined with an increase in corporate taxes.

Vancouver and BC`s southern suburbs are near the most expensive jurisdictions in the world to live in now...A big hydro increase will only add to that burden.

However...If one looks at the top of this post, Christy Clark told Bloomberg in New York that if it was a choice between Site C dam and LNG she was choosing LNG...And a week later the BC Liberals announce that Site C is going ahead...

Clearly this is an ominous sign that LNG ain`t happening, LNG is dead, the export market collapsed, these big LNG energy companies are asking the Federal Government to allow big-time tax write-offs... Ottawa, especially with oil`s price collapse is in no position to offer multi-billion dollar tax cuts, credits and refunds to energy companies spending large in foreign countries..

Furthermore, the profit margin in LNG has withered away to nothing...Winter cargoes for LNG deliveries in Asia has collapsed...Winter cargoes, not summer but winter cargoes, ...Less than $10 per BTU...Best case scenario for BC LNG export break-even costs are $12 to $13 dollars per BTU..


Platts: Asian January spot LNG prices plummet | LNG World News

 
"The marker dipped below $10/MMBtu for the first time since the week of the Fukushima disaster in March 2011. The JKM for January delivery bottomed at $9.90/MMBtu on assessment date December 1, before rebounding to end the month at $10.00/MMBtu.
The January average JKM had lost 19.4% in month-over-month comparisons as a result, as buyers waited on the sidelines for prices to bottom."

________________

Christy Clark`s jobs plan has been a complete failure...LNG has been a total failure too...Site C dam.

BC Liberal`s desperation ploy....Site C  peak construction may reach 3500 to 4000 jobs, up north jobs, jobs that will be ongoing through the 2017 provincial election...Photo-ops aplenty coming, a BC Liberal very expensive job creation election strategy....Well, so much for the free-market, the private sector...Site C is actually Socialism...maybe even Communism...it definitely isn`t what the BC Liberals have been preaching for the last decade....It`s not the private sector driving B.C.`s economy..

The bill for BC Hydro users will be enormous, if the bill is not enormous BC Hydro....BC Hydro is being primed, indebted and being readied for a sale...Thus handing over to the private sector all of BC`s electricity, consumers would be held hostage...No doubt the BC Liberals would absorb most of if not all of BC Hydro`s debt, put BC Hydro`s debt on the provincial Government`s books before selling off our once prime asset...Definitely plausible...BC Hydro will have a $20 billion dollar debt, British Columbia`s debt in 2001 was a mere $28 billion dollars, BC Hydro`s debt in 2001 was zero...In just over a decade British Columbia`s debt will have risen to $80 billion not counting P3`s and IPP long-term contracts and obligations($190 billion all in, not counting Site C debt) and BC Hydro debt rising from zero in 2001 to $20 billion dollars by 2020...

And still our BC Media promotes the lie that BC Liberals are great economic managers?...Compared to who...Enron..Bernie Madoff....Bear Stearns..

If Christy Clark and the BC Liberals were really convinced that LNG was coming, that LNG was lucrative, that LNG was a $trillion dollar boon to British Columbia Site C dam costs would be put on the BC Government`s account ledger...But it isn`t, these BC Liberals are saddling BC Hydro with massive debt....This is very telling that these BC Liberals won`t put Site C debt on the Government`s debt ledger, clearly our provincial Government knows that LNG riches they promised during the last election are off the table

LNG in British Columbia is dead for at least a decade, probably forever.

This Site C gambit is about being able to post job gains for the north in the lead-up to the next provincial election....Don`t be surprised if Site C dam construction is postponed until the summer of 2016...

Christy Clark and the BC Liberals are using Site C as an election gambit, and using Site C to change the channel and stall criticism on a failed LNG strategy..

 http://www.staffroomconfidential.com/2014/12/bcs-site-c-dam-another-stack-in-lng.html

Canadians thought Dalton McGuinty spending $1 billion dollars on a gas plant cancellation strategy to win an election was a massive waste of taxpayer`s money, if not a criminal act..

Ontario has nothing on our BC Liberals....Indeed..

Try $15 billion dollars after interest payments to win an election.


Written by Grant G

The Straight Goods


Cheers Eyes Wide open