B.C. warned against power deregulation

Globe and Mail - September 26, 2002
by Wendy Stueck

VANCOUVER -- Deregulation of British Columbia's electricity sector would lead to higher prices for consumers, market abuse by suppliers and the end of predictable, reliable service that residents now enjoy, U.S. energy sector veteran David Freeman said yesterday.

"As a good neighbour, I want people to know the truth of what they are in for," Mr. Freeman said. "We no longer have to guess about the consequences [of deregulation] because we have had the experience."

Mr. Freeman, 76, was recently appointed chairman of California's new public power authority. From 1997 to 2001, he was manager of the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power, which found itself scrambling to keep the lights on as wholesale electricity prices skyrocketed.

Mr. Freeman was in British Columbia yesterday to speak at events sponsored by Citizens for Public Power, a group lobbying against what it says is the planned breakup, privatization and deregulation of provincially owned British Columbia Hydro and Power Authority.

Government officials have said repeatedly that the province does not intend to sell or privatize core B.C. Hydro assets.

But a draft report by a provincially appointed energy task force, released last December, recommended splitting B.C. Hydro into separate generating, transmission and distribution divisions and moving to "market" pricing that it said could lead to increases of 30 per cent for residential consumers and up to 60 per cent for industrial consumers.

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