Dear Editor:

This is an open letter to B.C. Premier Christy Clark.

Madam Premier, I am writing to you about the recent decision by the BC Utilities Commission (BCUC) concerning Fortis’ Residential Conservation Rate (RCR).

BCUC recently refused to change this rate, despite numerous complaints from rural communities, stating that the “evidence demonstrates that the RCR is achieving its intended results.”

Local MLA Linda Larson is “telling people affected negatively to continue to write and speak out about the issue”, so this is what I am doing.

The last time I wrote to you, you referred me to the Ministry of Energy who told me “it is not involved in FortisBC’s rate setting.”

I must say, I found this response very strange, since BCUC told me that “the rate is intended to help achieve the Policy Action of the Provincial Energy Plan.”

I examined your Provincial Energy Plan, which states that it “outlines the steps that all of us must take to reach these goals for conservation, energy efficiency and clean energy.”

Yet, according to Fortis’ RCR Evaluation Report, the RCR resulted in 70 per cent of its customers experiencing lower electricity bills, with 38 per cent of customers experiencing a 10-15 per cent reduction in their bills.

So, these customers are actually being encouraged to consume more electricity.

Only 30 per cent of customers experienced an increase in their bills and only six per cent experienced an increase in their bills of more than 10 per cent.

Thus, the RCR is placing virtually the entire burden to conserve on a very small percentage of Fortis’ customers, essentially those in rural areas who use electricity for space and water heating because they do not have access to natural gas.

Madam Premier, those of us among the six per cent do not deserve to have our electricity bills increased by 10 or 20 per cent or more.

We are not inefficient users of electricity nor are we failing to take steps to conserve.

Our only “sin” is that we are using electricity to heat our homes and hot water heaters.

We should not be charged 13 cents/kWh for virtually all of the electricity that we consume for this purpose, while urban dwellers only have to pay 8.8 cents/kWh for all of their electricity consumption and then can buy cheap natural gas for space and water heating.

In my case, I invested, at a considerable expense to myself, in installing a geothermal heat pump, the most energy-efficient technology for using electricity in the marketplace – a technology that is encouraged by your Energy Plan.

Yet, last winter, I experienced an increase in my electricity bill of more than 20 per cent even though my consumption was actually lower than in the previous winter.

With this new RCR, anybody building a new home in a rural area would be a fool to invest in geothermal energy like I did.

The sensible approach would be to install a wood-burning stove.

Of course, this would result in an increase in harmful air emissions which is contrary to the objectives of your Energy Plan.

At first, I thought BCUC had simply made an error in the design of the RCR and that was why this so-called “conservation” rate was actually encouraging the majority of customers to consume more electricity and putting pressure on rural customers to switch to emission-producing fossil fuels.

But, BCUC states that this is not the case.

It states, in fact, that these are the “intended results” of the RCR.

It would, therefore, appear that, despite its name, the prime objective of the RCR is not to encourage conservation and a reduction in air emissions, but rather to reduce electricity prices to the majority of Fortis’ customers by imposing a major surcharge on the minority of customers that use electricity for space and water heating (i.e. rural communities).

I only have two questions for you, Madam Premier.

Do you really want to see electricity pricing that encourages all B.C. consumers to conserve and to use the lowest-emitting sources of energy?

If so, you will order BCUC to immediately re-examine the RCR to match the policy objectives of the government.

Or, is the true objective of your government to reduce electricity prices to the majority of B.C. consumers (at the expense of the rural minority) in order to increase the popularity of your government?

If so, then I expect you will again argue that this is an independent regulatory decision over which you have no control.

Only, I know, having worked for the federal government in the past, that regulatory agencies are only mandated to implement policy decisions by the government, not to make them.

I am also sending this letter to the leaders of the other political parties in B.C.

I would like to understand their views on this issue and whether they are prepared to represent fairly the interests of all B.C. residents — rural as well as urban.

Thank you for allowing me to write about this important issue.

Nicholas Marty

Osoyoos, B.C.