Dear Editor:
Re: Site C a no-brainer, Letter to Editor, Burnaby NOW, Jan. 9.
The B.C. Liberals refuse to allow the B.C. Utilities Commission to review the financial viability of the $8.8 billion Site C, despite such a recommendation from the dam's Joint Review Panel.
Is that because a Quebec government commission recommends that the half-built $6.5 billion Romaine dam project be halted because it will never pay for itself? Yet that dam's power cost of $60 a MWh is cheaper than Site C's $100. But the current market price is $30 due to the glut of cheap natural gas in North America that will last for decades.
The fact that the water is "free" is a red herring. Hydro says the dam will lose $800 million in the first four years of operation. Interest on a $10 billion loan would be $500 million/year. Compare that to $100 million/year fuel cost for a gas plant producing Site C's power. Calgary is building such a gas plant for $1.5 billion in half the time it would take to build Site C.
Critics say that fuel costs can rise, but so can interest rates. I guess ignorance is bliss.
Martin Cavin, Port Moody
