Media release
B.C. Citizens for Green Energy
www.greenenergybc.ca
April 23, 2009
Vancouver, B.C. — A new white paper report released this morning by B.C. Citizens for Green Energy takes aim at the “sensationalistic claims” and misinformation being spread about the supposed impacts NAFTA has on run-of-river projects in B.C.
B.C. Citizens for Green Energy co-spokesperson David Field says groups like Rafe Mair’s Save Our Rivers Society (SORS) have been playing on the public’s lack of knowledge about NAFTA to arouse feelings of fear, uncertainty, and doubt about green energy projects.
Field says the new report from B.C. Citizens for Green Energy finds nothing in NAFTA that would force B.C. to allow an Independent Power Producer (IPP) to export water—supported by a joint declaration in 1993 by all three signatory countries—and nothing that would force B.C. to permit continued use of crown land by an IPP beyond the termination date of a lease (click here to view the report).
“The claim that IPPs have perpetual access to B.C.’s water just by signing a lease for a period of years runs completely counter to all property laws in the US and Canada,” Field said. “And a joint declaration by all three NAFTA signatories in 1993 backs up the view that fresh water is not a product or a good in relation to NAFTA.”
Field says the inaccurate claims being made about NAFTA by Mair, SORS and others are based on a selective reading of a school paper from 2007 written by students of the University of Toronto. The research conducted by these students in 2007 showed, to their own admission, that real-world NAFTA panels have interpreted NAFTA positively with respect to Canada’s environmental sovereignty.
“What Mair and his SORS group have done is dress NAFTA up as a bogeyman to scare people by focusing on a hypothetical situation posited by these students,” Field said. “Unfortunately for Mair and SORS, the research and analysis of these student authors doesn’t line up with SORS’s sensationalized bogeyman presentation of NAFTA.”
The report also finds that NAFTA expressly permits a government to introduce environmental legislation to protect the health and welfare of its citizens and to pass legislation to protect the environment. As long as legislation is non-discriminatory and does not amount to a nationalization or expropriation of property, Canada or B.C. is free to legislate for a valid public purpose.
Field says copies of the new two-and-a-half page white paper are available on the B.C. Citizens for Green Energy website (click here to view the report). Field hopes members of the public and the media will take the time to read the report and consider the factual information it contains about NAFTA as it relates to independent run-of-river projects here in B.C.
Additional information about green energy is also available on the B.C. Citizens for Green Energy website at www.greenenergybc.ca and on the website’s myth busters page www.greenenergybc.ca/myths.html. Several short videos on the subject of green energy in B.C. are also posted on YouTube www.youtube.com/GreenEnergyBC and on the B.C. Citizens for Green Energy website at www.greenenergybc.ca.
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For more information contact David Field
Co-spokesperson, B.C. Citizens for Green Energy
604-529-1604
e-mail us at info@greenenergybc.ca
B.C. Citizens for Green Energy is an advocacy group representing a cross-section of British Columbians who encourage a legacy of clean, sustainable electricity for future generations.
www.greenenergybc.ca