Anarchist Mountain resident Nick Marty has been fighting for two years against the two-tier electricity rates used by FortisBC and BC Hydro, ostensibly to encourage conservation. He says they discriminate against rural residential customers who don’t have access to natural gas for home heating. (Richard McGuire photo)
Anarchist Mountain resident Nick Marty appears to have won a round in his ongoing battle over two-tier electricity rates and their impact on customers without access to natural gas.
Recently Marty cried foul when the British Columbia Utilities Commission (BCUC) called for “public comment” on the issue in the dead of summer, with a short deadline, and without informing many of the utilities customers most affected.
On Friday, the BCUC blinked and announced a deadline extension along with plans to advertise the “public comment” period more widely.
B.C. residents without access to natural gas who are affected by two-tier electricity rates now have until Friday, Sept. 2 to comment, instead of Monday, Aug. 15.
Originally BCUC only advertised the process in 21 small community newspapers in towns that don’t have access to gas.
Marty argued that the BCUC ignored the many rural communities without gas that surround places like Osoyoos, Oliver and Kelowna because those larger centres have gas.
While the BCUC still won’t advertise in community newspapers in those areas, it will now advertise in larger newspapers in Vancouver, Victoria, Kamloops, Nanaimo, Kelowna and Prince George.
“The commission received a specific request from a customer to publish the public notice in two community newspapers in the Okanagan,” wrote Laurel Ross, acting commission secretary. “But the commission has determined that it is more cost effective and has greater reach to residents of B.C. to publish in the newspapers in the major centres rather than the remaining community newspapers in the Okanagan and throughout B.C.”
The BCUC is supposed to regulate the electricity monopolies.
Both FortisBC and BC Hydro charge residential customers for their electricity rates at two tiers based on consumption. They claim this promotes conservation.
Marty argues that customers with access to natural gas can consume all or most of their electricity at the lower-tier rate and so they have no incentive under the program to conserve.
Customers without access to natural gas often consume the bulk of their electricity at the higher rate because without gas, they rely on electricity to heat their homes and water, Marty says. And they are unable to conserve unless they switch to burning wood, a pollutant.
The two-tier rates discriminate mainly against rural residents, says Marty, who retired from the federal government after a career involving energy conservation regulation.
In July 2015, after urging from Marty, Energy Minister Bill Bennett posed five fundamental questions to the BCUC. More than a year later, after lengthy discussions about the process for answering, the BCUC has still not responded to the minister.
In addition to extending advertising to seven metropolitan newspapers, the BCUC has also informed additional regional districts about the “public comment” process, asking them to promote it to residents.
The commission says it is seeking comment from FortisBC and BC Hydro customers without access to natural gas on:
- The impacts they have experienced or identified from two-tier rates; and
- Their awareness of ways to mitigate any impacts.
Comments can be made through a Letter of Comment form online at: http://www.bcuc.com/Register-Letter-of-Comment.aspx.
All comments must be received in writing and will become part of the public record.
For Marty, the deadline extension and expanded notice is only a partial victory.
“Of course, as we both know, if BCUC really wanted to effectively reach out, they would have had the utilities include the request for comment along with their electricity bills,” Marty said.
RICHARD McGUIRE
Osoyoos Times
