Editor: Re: Get ready for Hydro rate hikes (B.C. Views, The Times, July 11).
Tom Fletcher’s article reiterates what we have been told for some time. A large part of the future BC Hydro rate increase is caused by the fact that expansion of generating facilities delivers new power at a rate higher than today’s rates.
However, the government is bribing people to switch to electric cars, contributing to consumption increases which will cause rate increases for us all.
Provincial consumption is also high because, although the E-Plus contracts with residential customers expired decades ago, the government is choosing to grandfather the “half-price electric heat” offer for political reasons. It is worth noting that some large government buildings are still being heated this way.
At the same time, the minister is telling us that we are producing more natural gas than we need, so we should be consuming large amounts of energy to compress it and ship it overseas.
Should the first step not be to switch to natural gas-powered cars, natural gas heating for almost all homes where possible, and for all large government buildings?
The grant money for electric car purchases should be diverted to incentives for this move. Right now, electric cars are causing the burning of fuels at distant power plants anyway, because that is where our “last watt” comes from.
Rein Nienaber,
Saanich
