VICTORIA — B.C. Hydro was nine per cent over budget and already dipping into contingency funds from day one on the main construction contract at Site C, according to the uncensored version of a report to the B.C. Utilities Commission.
The troubles continue to the present day, with the $1.8 billion main civil works contract having run through three quarters of its contingency budget with only one quarter of the work being done.
A new study from UBC analyzed more 1,000 aquatic species for vulnerability to the effects of climate change, and the news for three B.C. food fish is not good. William Cheung — an associate professor at the Institute for the Oceans and Fisheries — brought together biological data relevant to adaptability and applied “fuzzy logic” to the computations. The exercise identified 294 marine species worldwide that are most at-risk due to climate change by 2050. Here are some highlights for species native to B.C. waters:
The National Energy Board has issued a stern warning to the company building a major west coast pipeline expansion about apparent violations of federal law.
The federal regulator called Kinder Morgan to task this week for installing mats in streams to discourage fish from spawning where the pipeline is to be built.
The B.C. Utilities Commission barely made the cabinet-imposed deadline for a preliminary report on Site C this week, posting the findings just four hours before the clock ran out at midnight Wednesday.
VICTORIA — The B.C. Utilities Commission barely made the cabinet-imposed deadline for a preliminary report on Site C this week, posting the findings just four hours before the clock ran out at midnight Wednesday.
It’s too early to say whether the B.C. Hydro Site C project can be completed on time and on budget, according to a preliminary report from the B.C. Utilities Commission.
In its report on the $8.8-billion hydro-power project, filed late Wednesday to meet a provincial government deadline, the Commission said the project is currently on time and, indeed, has a year’s worth of contingency time built in. It says B.C. Hydro appears to be pushing ahead more aggressively than planned and if it experiences no delays, it could be producing power a year ahead of schedule, in 2023.
Last week, Prof. Mark Jaccard penned a passionate defence of Site C in order to meet environmental standards in 2050. His aims are honest. His environmental goals are imperative. Sadly, his utility planning skills may not be up to the task.
Newly uncovered documents obtained through Freedom of Information requests reveal the cozy relationship between the fossil fuel industry and the last B.C. government went even further than suspected — all the way to inviting industry to directly craft the province’s climate “leadership” plan.
The mass of warm water known as “the blob” that heated up the North Pacific Ocean has dissipated, but scientists are still seeing the lingering effects of those unusually warm sea surface temperatures on Pacific Northwest salmon and steelhead.
SEATTLE — The mass of warm water known as “the blob” that heated up the North Pacific Ocean has dissipated, but scientists are still seeing the lingering effects of those unusually warm sea surface temperatures on Pacific Northwest salmon and steelhead.
Karen Goodings avoids the Site C dam area on the Peace River because she finds it too heart-wrenching to look at the havoc caused by construction work, but, for the first time in years, she is now holding out hope that the $8.8-billion project will be scrapped.
“I want to see it permanently stopped and now I think there is enough information out there to talk about alternate sources of power that are more economical and less devastating,” said Goodings, a Peace River Regional District director.
