To the editor:
Recent warnings of flood and high water levels in British Columbia are strong testimony to this year’s rainy spring and higher than normal B.C. snowpack.
They also mean the province’s many hydroelectric dams will not be short of water this year like they have been for most of the past decade.
As crazy as it sounds, for most of the past decade, B.C. has had to import power from outside the province to meet its energy needs. Much of that imported power has not been clean hydroelectric power, as it has been coal-fired.
We have an incredible amount of green, renewable energy in this province that we could be developing to meet our energy needs. We should not need to import power in B.C. even in a low-water year.
Considering this year’s higher than normal water flow is clearly the exception rather than the rule, we should not allow it to lull us into complacency.
We need to get on with developing our renewable energy resources and we need to do it aggressively, so we are ready for whatever the future holds for our province.
Robert van Dyck
Vancouver