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DAM-L "Clean up mess before feeding US", media on Bush and Hydro (fwd)
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Date: Thu, 12 Jul 2001 15:56:56 -0500
Subject: "Clean up mess before feeding US", media on Bush and Hydro
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To: William J Braun/Winnipeg/MCC
From: wjb@mennonitecc.ca
Date: 7/12/2001 3:22:13 PM
Subj: "Clean up mess before feeding US", media on Bush and Hydro
The following article about Manitoba Hydro and President Bush's energy policy
appears in a top notch new public policy magazine -- Manitoba Alternatives,
put out by the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives.
www.policyalternatives.ca/mb
Hydro: Clean up mess before feeding US
Manitoba Alternatives
Issue 3 Vol. 1
Shortly after taking power in Washington, US president George W. Bush launched a
quest for a different kind of power
[ Charset ISO-8859-1 unsupported, converting... ]
? the oil, gas, and coal needed to feed
Americans? insatiable energy appetite. Bush and Vice-President Dick Cheney (both
oil tycoons) have announced their willingness to set aside the Kyoto Protocol
and anything else that might restrain the cancerous growth of the conventional
energy industry. If we simply follow along, Manitoba?s natural wonder will
jeopardized in order to feed the electric gluttony of our southern neighbours.
Currently, Manitoba Hydro exports about one third of its power to the US ?
roughly $400 million worth annually. Most of it goes to Minneapolis-based Xcel
Energy. Hydro is in the process of finalizing a long-term, billion-dollar
contract with Xcel, and the provincial government is now talking about massive
expansion of northern hydro development.
Grandiose talk of hydro fortunes is not new. In the era leading up to the
initial hydro boom Premier Duff Roblin boasted about the apparently limitless
prospect of electricity exports: ?We can have our cake,? he said, ?we can eat it
and we can make a bigger cake and sell part of that.? When Premier Gary Doer
describes Manitoba?s potential to become the next Alberta, he sounds a lot like
Roblin.
The stated environmental justification for boarding the Bush/Cheney bandwagon is
that our hydro exports substitute for coal generation in the US. This is partly
true, just as it?s true that Hydro development is a source of significant
benefit to the province, but the record should be consulted before Hydro
achieves status as an environmental poster child.
Construction of northern dams in the past decades took place without due
consideration for the impacts on the environment and on northern First Nations.
With Manitoba Hydro forging ahead in a ?blast-and-see? fashion, a utility
spokesperson once told the Manitoba Environment Council: ?Manitoba Hydro does
not have time to wait until studies are completed. Our job is to produce
electricity.?
Environmental destabilization of the province?s two largest watersheds was
extensive, as were impacts on Aboriginal peoples. Hydro tells American customers
that the northern environment has ?largely recovered from those original
impacts.? Those who have visited affected areas may wonder about Hydro?s
definition of recovery.
Past and present impacts are felt most by communities such as Pimicikamak Cree
Nation (PCN) at Cross Lake, where dams were built against the wishes of the
people. Since the Jenpeg dam started manipulating water levels 25 years ago, the
people of PCN have watched unnaturally fluctuating waters corrode what was once
a homeland of beauty and abundance. Ancient burial sites have been washed away.
Entire islands have been eroded off the map. Certain shorelines are not expected
to restabilize for up to 300 years.
In the case of PCN, the ecological mess has just begun to be cleaned up, and the
suffering of PCN lands and people subsidize power rates and utility profits in
Manitoba and the US.
This is nothing new. A member of the 1975 commission of inquiry into hydro
development pointed out that ?the government of Manitoba may be sacrificing the
interests of Indian people for no better reason than that the United States has
no rational energy plan.?
Our exports do take the place of some coal generation. But reducing greenhouse
gas emissions by destroying watersheds seems like a strange approach to
environmental protection. Besides, Hydro exports also substitute for wind
generation and conservation efforts.
Hydro development in northern Manitoba is an environmental problem, not a
solution. The broader problems are that North Americans use too much electricity
(double what some European countries use per capita), and ignore cleaner sources
of energy such as solar power and wind.
Hydro exports do not touch the inevitable question of over-consumption.
Secondly, Manitoba?s hydro power is not as ?clean? and ?low-impact? as customers
may believe. Hydroelectric dams have a well-documented global track record of
social and environmental destructiveness and unrealized benefits. Worst of all,
social and environmental costs have been unloaded on communities such as
Pimicikamak Cree Nation.
While those (like Bush and Cheney) who have interests in conventional energy
generation claim there are no viable alternatives to nuclear, thermal and
large-scale hydro generation, their bias against innovation serves to jeopardize
the health of the globe. A combination of energy conservation programs (Cheney?s
own experts say conservation could account for the equivalent of almost half the
1300 new plants he wants built in the next 20 years), expansion of truly
renewable sources, and responsible use of existing generation capacity could
realistically address future needs.
As Manitobans, we need to be honest with ourselves: we cannot have our cake and
eat it too, let alone bake another cake. Hydro dams are not a limitless, benign
method of addressing energy needs.
Invest in Recovery
Before investing in more generation capacity to feed US over-consumption, the
government should invest in the recovery of northern watersheds and communities.
One of many opportunities to invest in recovery is PCN?s innovative plan for
environmental rehabilitation and community self-sufficiency. It is a long term,
labour intensive plan to clear vast amounts of drift wood - a product of
flooding and erosion - and use the wood for heating, biomass energy production,
and a variety of integrated spin-off initiatives, including increased access to
the land.
This plan dates back to the 1977 Northern Flood Agreement, which set out to
boost Aboriginal communities toward self-sufficiency through inclusion in the
development and progress of the province. The dismal condition of PCN land, and
the lack of employment and opportunity in the community attest to the failure of
governments and Hydro to utilize the hydro project for northern benefit.
Manitoba has the opportunity to become a world leader in environmental
restoration and in using large-scale resource development as a means to bring
affected First Nations in line with national living standards. If Hydro and
government can match the ingenuity and commitment of PCN, the three parties
could develop an international reputation for environmental innovation and
cross-cultural cooperation rather than just for cheap kilowatts. Instead of
exporting electricity Manitoba could export expertise and skill in shoreline
restoration, debris removal and the maximization of development benefits to
indigenous populations.
The result of investing in northern recovery would be expansion of the
provincial economy, reduced government transfers to Aboriginal communities, as
well as improved ecological and social sustainability.
Manitoba Hydro and the provincial government say they have learned from past
mistakes, stressing that new development will benefit Aboriginal partner
communities. Last October, Premier Doer said an agreement with Split Lake Cree
Nation over a new dam represents ?a new model for partnership with First
Nations? that ?must include economic equality and economic opportunity for
communities where the development is taking place.?
Will the new principles of including Aboriginal peoples in the benefits of dams
apply only to future development or also to exiting dams? Before ensuring
equitable distribution of the costs and benefits of future development the same
needs to be done for existing dams, which are already the source of much wealth
and opportunity.
While we cannot have our cake and eat it too, Manitobans can have a successful
utility, fewer skeletons haunting provincial closets, and healthy northern
communities that share fully in the opportunities and prosperity of the
province.
END
Will Braun and Roberta Fast are members of Consumers for Responsible Energy, a
citizen action group that promotes equitable methods of addressing energy needs.
_________________
This information distributed by:
Will Braun
Energy Justice Coordinator
Mennonite Central Committee
134 Plaza Dr.
WINNIPEG, MB R3T 5K9
ph: (204) 261-6381
fx: (204) 269-9875
e: wjb@mennonitecc.ca
For more information or to be removed from this list, contact the above.
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