B.C. has become increasingly dependent on electricity imports, and that’s a problem, according to Barry Penner, chair of the Energy Futures Institute (EFI) and former MLA.
“For the last two years we’ve imported the equivalent of two Site C dams’ worth of electricity,” Penner said, referring to the $16-billion hydroelectric project in northeastern B.C. “We’ve become dependent on the United States for electricity because of our own complacency.”
He noted that it cost BC Hydro $1.4 billion dollars to import electricity in 2024, due in part to ongoing drought in many areas of the province.
“About 95 per cent of B.C.’s electricity comes from hydro,” Penner said. “Without precipitation, you don’t have hydroelectric. And this year’s snowpack isn’t looking any better.”
To make matters worse, Penner points out, B.C. is aggressively pushing for an electrified economy—more electric vehicles, more heat pumps, and less reliance on natural gas. While B.C. is banning new natural gas power generation, it’s importing electricity from Alberta and the U.S. where power is largely generated by burning fossil fuels.
According to 2022 figures on the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency website, fossil fuels were the most common fuel type for electricity production in the U.S. with natural gas accounting for about 40 per cent of total energy production. Coal was second at nearly 20 per cent and nuclear third at 18 per cent. The Alberta government website states that, since 2018, natural gas has accounted for the bulk of electricity generation in the province.
“From the atmosphere’s perspective, it gives not a damn where the emissions are generated,” Penner said. “We’re just shifting our greenhouse gases (GHG) to Wyoming or Alberta and letting them take the hit on paper while we are trying to show that we’re reducing our emissions.”
But even at that we’re failing, he said. Penner pointed out that the province quietly released the latest report on GHG on Dec. 30. It got no media pickup, and nobody noticed it - that was intended, he said.
“Our emissions went up three per cent in the whole last year, exactly the year they said that our emissions would drop 16 per cent compared to 2007. So news flash, we're not meeting the legal requirement this year to be 16 per cent below 2007 levels, we are above and trending upwards.”
Penner also called out the province for blocking natural gas projects that could provide stable, local energy. In December 2023, the B.C. Utilities Commission (BCUC) denied FortisBC’s $327-million Okanagan pipeline project, which would have improved natural gas supply to the region.
Instead, BCUC recently approved a liquefied natural gas (LNG) storage facility in Kelowna, which will see LNG trucked over the Coquihalla Highway instead of delivering it through a pipeline.
“You’ll be passing those trucks on the highway,” Penner pointed out. “And by the way, what are the greenhouse gas emissions of trucking LNG up and over the Coquihalla? A lot more than if it were in a pipeline.”
He also noted that BC Hydro’s finances aren’t looking great. “Their debt was only supposed to go up $2.5 billion last year - it went up $3.3 billion.”
Penner said much of the increase is attributable to the additional purchases of ‘market power.’ “That’s the euphemism in the budget documents for importing electricity from south of the border.”
Speaking to reporters at the Legislature on Thursday (Mar. 6), Premier David Eby said the province has “been forced into contingency planning” due to BC Hydro’s reliance on imported electricity.
Penner welcomed recognition of B.C.’s vulnerability. “However, the next step after acknowledging a problem is to do something about it,” he said in a statement on EFI’s website.
He added that there is a way out—but it requires B.C. to rethink its energy policies.
“Let us continue to use natural gas, with more efficiency, of course. But the idea that the Okanagan should be forced to not grow using natural gas is again another self-imposed straitjacket of your economy.”
Penner served four terms in the B.C. Legislature as the province's Attorney General, environment minister, and Aboriginal relations minister.
He made his comments as part of a panel discussing U.S. tariffs at UBC Okanagan on Mar. 5.
