By Rochelle Baker
Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

BC Greens and Conservatives launched competing visions for energy generation this week in contrast to the NDP’s future plans to heat peoples’ homes, fuel cars and run businesses.

All the parties emphasize the need to meet B.C.'s growing energy demands while keeping rates affordable and fostering First Nations ownership of energy projects — but proposed courses of action vary wildly.

During a recent campaign stop, Rustad pitched nuclear energy as a means to increase B.C.’s energy mix and independence.

The Conservatives will amend the province’s Clean Energy Act to permit nuclear power in B.C., review the use of small modular reactors and build the first facility in the province by 2035, he said.

The BC Conservatives will also nix the NDP’s “radical” mandates that all cars sold by 2035 are electric or hybrid, as well as the Zero Carbon Step Code, which aims to phase out gas furnaces in lieu of heat pumps so newly-constructed buildings are net-zero by the end of the decade.

“We do not have the electrical generation to be able to do this,” Rustad asserted, noting the province imported 20 percent of its energy last year and arguing B.C. needs to be energy “self-sufficient.”

Rustad suggested renewables weren’t reliable. But he didn’t rule out wind, solar or geothermal energy, saying they’d only be used if they make economic sense.

The Conservative leader also dismissed the NDP’s proposed Clean Energy Strategy to spend $5 billion to upgrade and expand BC Hydro transmission lines between Prince George and Terrace on the North Coast to provide electricity for the expansion of mining and liquefied natural gas (LNG) by 2028.

Rustad suggested it would be cheaper to burn natural gas and wood waste to generate energy in the region rather than bring in “unneeded power lines.”

BC Hydro anticipates a 15 percent increase in demand for clean electricity by 2030. In response, NDP Leader David Eby has boosted BC Hydro’s capital plan by 50 percent and launched its first call for renewable energy projects, expected to contribute five percent to the province’s electrical supply.

The BC Greens have also released their full election platform. Like the NDP, clean electrification is fundamental to its energy plan, but leader Sonia Furstenau put greater emphasis on renewable energy, bigger rebates for heat pumps and speeding up the transition to low-emission buildings.

The Greens will accelerate investment in renewables, including small-scale projects, to achieve 15 percent solar power generation by 2035.

Unlike the other parties, the Greens stressed public tax dollars won’t be used to “subsidize” the fossil fuel sector or clean up the LNG industry’s carbon pollution, noting it plans to prioritize clean energy for residential use and sustainable industries.

The NDP rushed to “fact check” Rustad’s energy plans, saying nuclear reactors and gas-fired power plants would raise electricity costs for people, and BC Hydro is already legally required to be energy independent.

Nuclear power is five to ten times more expensive than solar and wind. In neighbouring Alberta, where natural gas generates two-thirds of the province’s electricity, residential rates are more than double those in B.C., which has the second lowest rates in North America — bested only by Quebec.

Rustad’s proposals to rely on nuclear energy and wood waste are impractical and uneconomic in B.C., agreed Werner Antweiler, a Sauder School of Business professor at the University of British Columbia.

“I’m really, really surprised to hear John Rustad actually making statements that we don't need more [hydroelectric] infrastructure, or suggesting things such as nuclear power, which any energy economist would [see] as absurd.”

British Columbia's abundant clean hydroelectricity and the lower-cost and shorter timeline for integrating renewable energy sources into the grid, especially wind power, means small nuclear reactors (SMRs) aren’t viable, not only due to high costs but also because the technology is still in developmental stages, Werner added.

Also, burning biomass, like wood waste, in thermal power plants isn’t “super efficient and not state-of-the-art for generating electricity,” he added.

Suggesting the province is not “energy independent” because it imports power, or that B.C. risks running out of electricity because of electric vehicles (EVs) and heat pumps is “complete and utter nonsense,” Werner said.

BC Hydro has forecast energy demand over time and laid out avenues to meet future power needs, Werner said.

“EV adoption is only slowly ramping up,” he said. “It's nowhere as fast, or at a rate where it would actually pose any significant challenges to the grid at this point.”

Additionally, heat pumps that both heat and cool buildings are much more energy efficient than other technologies, which reduce electrical rates and demand on the power grid, not the opposite, Werner added.

B.C. is part of an electrical grid that stretches east to Alberta and south to California which allows it to be an importer or exporter of electricity based on the province’s needs, Werner said.

It allows BC Hydro to draw on electricity from other jurisdictions, often at cheaper rates, when it’s facing increased demand or to sell or export power, which helps keep electrical rates lower for residents.

The grid’s flexibility means it can also draw power from renewable sources when the wind blows and the sun shines, reserving hydropower in reservoirs as a standby battery.

“The fact that we have flexible resources means that B.C. is uniquely able to address its energy needs and also deal with potential intermittency,” Werner said.

Regardless of which party forms government, B.C. needs to continue weaning itself off fossil fuels and transition to clean sources of power to reduce emissions and meet climate targets, energy experts stressed.

In addition to expanding the grid and use of renewable energy and battery storage, there should be no further expansion of fossil fuel infrastructure, said Tom Green, senior climate policy adviser at the David Suzuki Foundation.

“So, we shouldn't be building new LNG plants, and if we do, the problem is the risk that they're going to be stranded [assets],” he said.

Despite a brief rise in price for LNG following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, prices continue to fall for the fossil fuel due to a glut in world supply, he added.

LNG is basically liquefied methane, a potent greenhouse gas that causes emissions domestically along the supply chain and in countries where the fossil fuel is exported.

In contrast, renewable energy has great economic potential as well as reducing emissions, Green said, citing the enthusiastic response by applicants bidding during BC Hydro’s recent call for clean electricity projects.

It’s also critical for any incoming government to develop an integrated energy plan that examines efficiency and renewable energy sources adapted to regional differences in the province, said Jessica McIlroy, Pembina Institute's buildings program manager.

An energy transition is underway with electrification, renewable or low carbon fuels that will change how we heat and cool homes and how the industry is powered, McIlroy noted.

“The shift is happening,” she said.

“We need to have a plan that comprehensively looks at what type of energy we need, for which use, over the coming decades.”

Rochelle Baker / Local Journalism Initiative / Canada's National Observer.