Hydro to cut pollution outside BC
Catch is, the emissions inside province will rise
Petti Fong
Victoria Times Colonist
11 January 2002 pA1
B.C. Hydro is proposing to decrease emissions of greenhouse gases in
other parts of the world by 5.5 million tonnes a year to help offset the planned
doubling of emissions from its own facilities by 2005.
Most increases in emissions are expected to come from power plants Hydro wants
to build on Vancouver Island.
Hydro is calling for proposals from governments and private companies in other
countries that want to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions by at least
100,000 tonnes.
The voluntary offsetting of emissions is being proposed, B.C. Hydro
project manager Tim Lesiuk said, because it would be cheaper for Hydro than
reducing its own emissions, and because greenhouse gas is a global issue.
"It's not so much where the reduction happens, just that it does," he
said.
Under the Kyoto Protocol, an international agreement signed by Canada
for voluntary reductions of greenhouse gas emissions, offsetting is
recognized as a way for countries to bring down their levels of pollution.
The protocol, which has not yet been ratified by Canada's Parliament,
commits developed countries to reducing emissions of greenhouse gases -- mainly
carbon dioxide from fuel combustion -- to five per cent below 1990 levels by
2012.
Lesiuk said one example of offsetting would be for Hydro to outfit a
Mexican factory with filters to reduce its emissions. Another possibility would
be to buy polluting factories and shut them down permanently.
In 2000, B.C. Hydro facilities emitted 2.7 million tonnes of greenhouse
gas. But those numbers will increase sharply over the next three years to 4.5
million tonnes. By 2010, when two natural gas-fired electricity
generation plants are to be fully commissioned on Vancouver Island, hose
facilities alone will generate 11 million tonnes of greenhouse gas.
Lesiuk said Hydro doesn't know what it will cost to fund reductions of
5.5 million tonnes of greenhouse gas elsewhere, but he said the Crown
corporation is looking for the most cost-effective solution.
"We're hoping to get a variety of projects and select the most scientifically
sound ones that cost the least."
Last year, Hydro tried to reduce emissions by seeking offsetting
contracts with B.C. and Canadian companies or other provinces, but it has not
yet signed any agreements.
www.canada.com/victoria/timescolonist/story.asp?id={A40EA649-275A-4ED8-9CDD-D142DE811A1E
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It took hundreds of millions of years to produce the life that now
inhabits the earth...Given time--time not in years but in
millennia--life adjusts, and a balance has been reached. For time is the
essential ingredient; but in the modern world there is no time.
Rachel Carson, Silent Spring
Maggie Paquet/MAIA Publishing
Port Alberni, BC
email: maggie_paquet@telus.net
