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dam-l Bill 116: maybe it is a federal matter?
The Quebec provincial legislature passed this thing.
:-(
-Dianne
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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CONTACT:
Ashok Gupta 212-727-4462
Dale Bryk 212-727-4480
QUEBEC POISED TO REMOVE REGULATORY OVERSIGHT OF HYDRO-QUEBEC
ENORMOUS DAMAGE TO VITAL NORTH AMERICAN RESOURCES FORESEEN
NRDC CALLS ON CONGRESS AND STATE LEGISLATURES TO RESPOND
NEW YORK (June 12, 2000) -- Quebec is likely to remove
regulatory oversight of Hydro-Quebec’s electric generation
business, paving the way for the utility to greatly expand
its operations, wreaking havoc on the environment and local
communities. Quebec’s natural resources minister Jacques
Brassard has moved to dissolve the jurisdiction of the Regie
de l’Energie, the regulatory body that has overseen the
activities of Hydro-Quebec, with respect to the generation
of electricity. Such a move will pave the way for the utility
to force its captive customers to subsidize its exports to the
United States. With the regulator, the Regie de l’Energie,
out of the way, Hydro-Quebec will be free to institute a fixed
price for domestic sales of power that will cover 100% of its
costs of production, including the costs of power the utility
plans to sell in the United States.
New York, New Jersey and New England states have opened their
wholesale and retail electricity markets to competition or are
in the process of doing so. In contrast, Quebec has opened only
about 3% of its wholesale electricity market to US companies; the
remaining 97% of the market remains a monopoly for Hydro-Quebec and
retail competition does not exist at all.
"Using provincial monopolies to engage in anti-competitive practices
in the newly deregulated electricity markets in the northeastern states
is exactly the type of activity that NAFTA is designed to prevent," said
Ashok Gupta, senior energy economist for the Natural Resources Defense
Council (NRDC). "Companies that benefit from monopoly protection in
their home jurisdictions should not be permitted to undersell the
competition in New York and other states with subsidized power."
NRDC has long fought against the expansion of Hydro-Quebec’s facilities,
enormous hydro-electric dams that have already wreaked havoc on the
environment, devastating the Cree and other local populations in northern
Quebec and destroying the habitat of migratory birds. Hydro-Quebec seeks
to expand its facilities for the purpose of generating excess power for
export to the United States.
"Without regulatory oversight by the Regie, it is difficult to see how
Canada will conduct any meaningful review of the environmental and social
impacts of Hydro-Quebec’s activities, such as the diversion of the Great
Whale River," Gupta added. "That means that the company’s exports may
receive indirect support in the form of lax environmental standards as
well as direct subsidy from captive customers. An unregulated Hydro-Quebec
could inflict untold damage on vital North American environmental resources."
NRDC is working with other environmental organizations and with companies
that will compete against Hydro-Quebec in US markets to explore the
possibility of proposing legislation in Congress and northeastern states
that would prevent any company from selling power in the state if such
power is subsidized by captive customers or generated within the service
territory of a monopoly which seeks to sell power in that state without
opening its own markets to competition. The organizations may also push
legislators to require "environmental comparability" in order to prevent
the sale of power from facilities that do not meet the environmental
standards that in-state developers are required to meet.
The Natural Resources Defense Council is a national, non-profit organization
of scientists, lawyers and environmental specialists dedicated to protecting
public health and the environment. Founded in 1970, NRDC has more than
400,000 members nationwide, served from offices in New York, Washington,
Los Angeles and San Francisco. More information is available through NRDC’s
Web site at http://www.nrdc.org.
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