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DAM-L Bush energy appetite and Cross Lake (fwd)
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Date: Wed, 30 May 2001 21:12:05 -0500
Subject: Bush energy appetite and Cross Lake
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To: William J Braun/Winnipeg/MCC
From: wjb@mennonitecc.ca
Date: 5/29/2001 6:10:23 PM
Subj: Bush energy appetite and Cross Lake
(See attached file: Dubya and Hydro.wpd)
(text included in body of message below)
Photos taken outside the St. Paul, MN River Center where President Bush was
unveiling his energy policy, May 17/01
(photos by Will Braun)
(See attached file: bush passes gas.JPG) (See attached file: Dubya's
appetite.JPG)
(the following is the same as attachment "Dubya and Hydro")
Environmental problems posing as energy solutions:
Manitoba catering to power-hungry US
Will Braun, Mennonite Central Committee
May 2001
With patriotic fervor, President Bush has launched his quest for power - more
oil wells, more nuclear and coal-burning power plants, more, more, more... As I
stood outside the St. Paul River Center where Bush was unveiling his new energy
policy last Thursday, I could not help but think that the "solutions" he put
forward are old problems rather than new solutions.
Manitoba Hydro is now positioned to either serve the Bush approach with
increased exports, or to step forward as an innovator in an approach very
different than the President
[ Charset ISO-8859-1 unsupported, converting... ]
?s.
While most nations are talking about reducing greenhouse gases and preserving
our global home, Mr. Bush is marching off in the opposite direction to the beat
of the oil industry drum. Ironically, while the New York Times called the
energy policy "an alarmingly unbalanced" plan to "satisfy the ambitions of the
oil, gas and coal industries", Premier Doer, on the radio the next day, sounded
rather pleased with the plan.
The Bush policy calls for relaxed environmental and health regulations,
increased coal mining, and the opening up of ecologically sensitive public lands
for oil and gas exploration. This includes a determination to turn the Arctic
National Wildlife Refuge into a refuge for the oil industry. Earlier the Bush
administration promised to ignore the Kyoto Protocol on global warming,
indicating that the US economy must not be burdened with international
agreements on ecological sustainability.
Bush did put green packaging on his policy with $10 billion over 10 years in tax
breaks and incentives for conservation and alternative energy. These incentives
are good, but the $1 billion per year is in contrast to the $600 million spent
annually by Americans on energy. The green veneer fooled neither critics nor
petroleum company executives, who could hardly contain their glee.
Manitoba boarding the Bush bandwagon
Manitoba Hydro and the provincial government have suggested that hydroelectric
power from northern rivers is a solution for the kilowatt-hungry US. They argue
that each kilowatt of hydro power exported to the US is one less kilowatt
produced by dirty coal plants. They now seem eager to cash in more northern
watersheds to fuel US over-consumption. Before that happens, the question of
whether hydro dams are a solution or a problem deserves public attention.
For communities such as Pimicikamak Cree Nation at Cross Lake, where dams were
built against the wishes of the people, dams cause erosion of thousands of
kilometers of fragile shoreline. Islands erode right off the map. The health of
the ecosystem and its inhabitants has been disrupted. Neither government nor
Hydro dispute that large-scale and ongoing environmental issues remain. Hydro
dams are a problem, not a clean, green solution. Minnesota legislators recently
refused to classify large scale hydro dams as ?renewable?. Reducing greenhouse
gases by debilitating watersheds hardly seems like the best approach.
Government and the utility say they have learned from past mistakes and will now
give priority to thorough environmental processes and inclusion of Aboriginal
peoples in the benefits of new dams. However, they also need to apply these
same practices to existing dams. The "new model" is of little benefit to
communities such as PCN, which has opted for an economic development plan based
on environmental restoration, rather than more dams. The problems of past
developments still need to be addressed. If done in the innovative manner
proposed by PCN, these problems can be turned into solutions which expand the
economy and reduce the need for government assistance to Aboriginal peoples.
Though PCN is incorrectly accused of wanting export contracts canceled,
socio-environmental recovery and continued exports are not mutually exclusive.
The two can go together as long as commitments to fully address the full
ecological and human costs of the dams are fulfilled.
Manitoba solutions not US problems
The Bush approach implies that the problems are regulations designed to protect
public and environmental health, and international cooperation on ecological
sustainability. The decades-old "solutions" to which he gives priority are
increased consumption of fossil fuels, mega-development in wild spaces, and
healthy American corporations. The real problems are that Americans and
Canadians use power at an unsustainable rate, we do not invest adequately in
clean technologies (Doer's promotion of hydrogen cells is a noteworthy
exception), and we ignore the social and environmental costs of
mega-development. More hydro dams would simply not address these problems.
We scoff when Bush talks about how nothing should get in the way of the American
economy and way of life. We need to make sure we are not similarly jeopardizing
the sustainable well-being of our province for the sake of a quick US buck.
Rather than lining up to feed Bush's energy appetite, our utility could become a
global leader in environmental restoration and in using existing resource
development to boost indigenous peoples to self-reliance.
end
_______________________
Information distributed by:
Will Braun
Mennonite Central Committee
134 Plaza Dr.
Winnipeg MB R3T 5K9
(204) 261-6381
wjb@mennonitecc.ca
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