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PRESIDENT’S REPORT
BCSEA AGM - June 24, 2006
2005–2006
 It is remarkable to think that the BCSEA is only two years
old. Already, it feels as if we have been here forever. The
reasons why we decided to establish the BCSEA have not gone
away. The twin concerns of global climate change and peak
oil and gas are as pressing as ever. What has changed in the
last year, however, is a sudden breakthrough in the alarm
bells about global climate change being expressed in the mainstream
media: TIME, CNN, Vanity Fair, Al Gore’s film An
Inconvenient Truth.
In many conversations, and in public opinion polls, it is
becoming apparent that while there is uncertainty about the
imminence of peak oil, many people have deep concerns about
global climate change. It is very strange to live in a continent,
a country, and a province where our elected leaders seem so
oblivious to the dangers. We know what the solutions are,
and we know what the policies are that can provide leverage
for the solutions.
What’s lacking is the national and provincial leadership,
and the common political will that could enable new leaders
to emerge, to grasp the task and implement the solutions as
Tommy Douglas did for health care in the 1930s, and Winston
Churchill did in World War II. In the absence of this leadership,
we have to step up to the plate ourselves, and become our
own leaders.
When we established the BCSEA, we took on the challenge of
addressing these issues, and in some ways, we have been very
successful. We have attracted 774 members during our first
two years, including 65 businesses; we have enabled 5 Chapters
of the BCSEA to become established; we have organized numerous
events, meetings, and projects; we have become widely recognized
as a well-organized presence in BC; and we have engaged with
various government processes to provide a voice for our vision
of a BC.
It is my hope that in the year ahead, we will be able to
focus some of our energy on pinpointing the key strategic
goals that will enable us to locate the tipping point and
put pressure on the levers that will prompt a deep, systemic
change of direction towards sustainable energy solutions.
Membership
During the past year, our membership grew by just 71 members,
from 429 to 500, but we have an additional 274 lapsed members.
Email reminders do not seem strong enough, so we need to change
our approach. We have 8 Energizer Monthly donors, and would
love to move all our members to monthly payments, instead
of annual.
We have kept our members informed with our monthly newsletter,
Watts Happening, except for March and April 2006, when
the President was pre-occupied with other demands. We have
also produced 3 issues of our quarterly magazine The Joule,
thanks to Andrea Wilmot’s editing and Michelle Atkin’s
design contributions, on which we continue to get favourable
feedback.
During the year we also established our first office just
outside Victoria, thanks to the kind donation of space by
Kevin Pegg and Energy Alternatives.
Our Website
Our website is our primary means of contact with the world,
and continues to be excellent, with regular updatings and
listings of events and job vacancies. During the year we moved
from a web-based discussion Forum to a new system of open-access
list-servs for Energy News and Energy Discussion, which have
been well received, with regular postings.
While we are going about our business, the website is working
for us, based on its ability to attract viewers. In May 2006,
we had 850 visitors a day (up from 285 in May 2005), 67,000
page views (up from 52,000), 12,000 unique visitors (up from
5,000), and 530 people downloaded The Joule (up from
370). The Biodiesel page has been a consistent leader in viewer
interest, followed by the Sustainable Energy Directory, Jobs,
and Events. We should not underestimate the importance of
this public service that we are performing, and the importance
of keeping the pages updated.
Our Chapters
Our two big Chapters in Victoria and Vancouver have both
been very busy, with many events, activities, and public engagements.
Our smaller Chapters in the Central Interior, Kamloops and
the Okanagan have maintained a schedule of regular meetings,
bringing in speakers to educate, inform and inspire. The Mid-Island
Chapter has struggled, and remains in the formative stage.
There are possibilities for new Chapters forming in the Comox
Valley, the Cowichan Valley, the Kootenays, and the Peace
River South regions. Scott Sinclair has done a great job of
keeping the Chapter leaders informed with regular monthly
conference calls, which is important, given the large distances
we have to deal with in BC.
Vancouver Chapter
During the year since our last AGM, our Vancouver Chapter
has either organized, engaged in, provided leadership for,
or supported the following activities and events:
- The BC Wind Summit
- The BC Solar Summit
- The Climate Change Game
- Monthly meetings attended by 30-60 people
- A large public meeting on Climate Change: The Biggest
Show on Earth
- The Kyoto COP 11 Conference in Montreal
- The Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency Summit with
Pollution Probe & Pembina
- Vancouver’s Electric Vehicles Association REV event
- The Urban Wind Turbine project
- Elizabeth May’s Tar Sands speaking tour
- The Fossil-free GVRD initiative, bringing together government,
industry and 13 NGOs
- The Vancouver civic elections, including a candidate boot
camp and an all-candidates meeting with other NGOs
- Marketing for Al Gore’s film An Inconvenient
Truth
- A Summer BBQ and Christmas party with Green Drinks &
Net ImpactThe BCSEA Booth has been deployed at many locations,
including UBC Environment Week
- Submissions to the GVRD Air Quality Management Plan and
GHG Emission Reduction Strategy
- The Business Engagement Committee assisted the BCSEA in
developing a new approach for business membership and benefits
- Organizing this AGM and Retreat, for which we are very
grateful.
The Vancouver Chapter took the initiative to run with the
Climate Change Game, developed by our Kamloops Chapter in
2005 and turn it into a funded project which is now being
delivered to schools in the GVRD, led by project leader Craig
Keltie.
Victoria Chapter
During the year since our last AGM, the Victoria Chapter
has either organized, engaged in, provided leadership for
or supported the following activities and events:
- Creating a multi-panel display installation on sustainable
energy
- Three major Sustainable Energy Now! events with the display,
speakers and videos at the Royal BC Museum, University Canada
West, and the Victoria Spring Home Show
- A Town Hall Meeting on Energy and Transport
- Regular monthly meetings attended by 15 to 30 people
- The Colwood Sustainability Forum
- Elizabeth May’s Tar Sands speaking tour
- Marketing for Al Gore’s film An Inconvenient
Truth
- The BCSEA Booth has been deployed at many locations, including
Earth Day, Car Free Day, and the Strength in Community Festival
- A field trip to a solar off-grid home on Wise Island
- The CRD’s Energy Study and Strategy
BC Regulatory Engagement
The BCSEA engaged with many other citizens and hard-working
campaigners to successfully impede the progress of the Duke
Point gas-fired power plant in Nanaimo and BC Hydro's gas-fired
electricity strategy to the point where BC Hydro was put in
the position of being politically able to cancel the project,
which to their credit they did.
With Duke Point cancelled, BC Hydro is no longer locked
into hundreds of millions dollars of capital investment in
a gas-fired electricity strategy, so BC now has the ability
to better choose its electricity future.
The choices include Demand-Side Management, renewables, garbage
incineration (dressed up as biomass), coal- or gas-fired power,
and possibly the Site C hydro dam. To a considerable extent,
the choice will be made according to terms worked out in proceedings
before the BC Utilities Commission.
The BCSEA is actively participating and partnering with the
Sierra Club of BC and the Peace Valley Environmental Association
at the BCUC to ensure that the benefits of DSM and renewable
energy are fully recognized, while the harms, costs, and risks
of fossil fuel alternatives and big hydro are so thoroughly
demonstrated to BC Hydro, the BC Utilities Commission and
other parties that they will be effectively excluded.
For all these activities, we owe a very big thanks to Tom
Hackney, and his lawyerly partner, Bill Andrews.
BC Energy Policy Engagement
The BC government's Energy Plan, published in 2002, was largely
aimed at facilitating fossil fuel expansion. When addressing electricity, it
mandated utilities to acquire new electricity on a least-cost
basis.
The Energy Plan completely ignored the two most important
aspects of energy sustainability:
- How to factor in climate change, GHG emissions
- The local and global depletion of oil and gas.
The BCSEA has had several meetings with the government’s
Energy Planning team. We have presented our views on the urgent
need to include climate change considerations, and offered
many policy recommendations designed to put BC’s energy
economy on a more sustainable foundation. We have persistently
asked for more open public involvement in the Energy Plan
renewal process, since the decisions that will be made are
of such huge significance.
We also engaged in BC Hydro’s Integrated Energy Planning
process, participating in many meetings.
We submitted a major paper to the Alternative Energy and
Power Technology Task Force, titled Sustainable Energy
Solutions for BC, which showed that BC could obtain an
additional 84,000 GWh of energy from sustainable sources over
the next 30 years, while generating over 400,000 jobs.
The President gave a full hour-long presentation on BC’s
sustainable energy future to BC Hydro’s full Board of
Directors, during which the proposal was made that BC Hydro
should establish a Power Smart Advisory Committee. BC Hydro
has since done this, and two BCSEA Directors have been invited
to sit on the new committees.
The President also gave a full hour-long presentation to
the NDP’s Caucus Committee on economic development.
Federal Engagement
On the whole, we have not sought to get involved in federal
energy issues, but we have made two exceptions to this working
principle. The first was to be involved in the global Kyoto
COP-11 Conference of the Parties in Montreal, in December
2006, when 3 Directors played an active role. The President
also gave a 15’ presentation about the BCSEA to the
UNFCCC, which was video’d for the whole world to see.
Secondly, faced with a new federal government in Ottawa which
appears to be slightly lacking in its grasp of the seriousness
of global climate change is, the BCSEA took the initiative
to send a copy of TIME Magazine’s special issue on climate
change to every MP, financed by a private donation.
Solar Hot Water Project
Our Solar Hot Water Acceleration Project has had a very busy
year, directed by Nitya Harris, resulting in the installation
of 15 installations with a further 35 in the pipeline, and
significant "behind the scenes" progress in developing
the training, approval and certification infrastructure that
this emerging sector requires.
The BCSEA was named Solar Advocate of the Year by the Canadian
Solar Industries Association, and during the BC Solar Summit
in March 2006 we launched our "100,000 Solar Roofs"
initiative, which received the informal blessing from Barry
Penner, BC's Environment Minister. We are currently awaiting
a meeting with Gary Lunn, MP, Federal Minister of Energy and
Natural Resources, to present proposals for ways in which
the new Conservative government can support the solar hot
water industry in Canada.
BC Wind Summit
In June 2005, we organized a major Wind Summit in Vancouver,
when Preben Maegard and Paul Gipe presented to a room full
of BC energy movers and shakers, sharing information about
the success of Europe’s Advanced Renewables Tariff.
Preben and Paul then gave an evening presentation to a rapt
public audience at the University of British Columbia.
Solar Summit
In March 2006, we organized the BC Solar Summit in Vancouver.
This included a Community Action Training workshop; a 100,000
Solar Roofs Luncheon with Teuk Bokhoven from Zen International
and Julie Fitch from the California Public Utilities Commission;
a Plumbing Inspectors Training workshop; a public lecture
with the above speakers and Simon Fraser University's Mark
Jaccard; a tour of solar systems in Vancouver; and a Home-Owners
solar thermal workshop.
Partnerships
In March 2006, we co-organized a major two-day Conference
on Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy with Pollution Probe
and the Pembina Institute. Very well attended by many people,
including from prominent government, utilities and industry
representatives. We are also building active partnerships
with the David Suzuki Foundation, the Dogwood Initiative,
and others.
Nanaimo Sustainable Energy Home Show
Also in March, the BCSEA presented and displayed a booth
at the well-attended Sustainable Energy Home Show in Nanaimo,
organized by the Mid-Island Cooperative.
Consultancy Contracts
In March 2006, the BCSEA was invited to produce a major study
on sustainable energy technologies for the Dockside Green
project in Victoria, one of North America’s leading
examples of green development and design. This is almost complete,
and is our first major venture into the consultancy world.
Media
During the year, we have issued many media releases, participated
in numerous radio shows, and been interviewed for stories
by many media outlets, including a front-page story in the
Vancouver’s Sun’s Business Section. We have also
written articles on sustainable energy which have been picked
up by large and small newspapers around the province.
Conclusion
If this leaves you breathless, you are not alone. As President,
I am amazed by the enthusiasm, skills, and determination of
our Directors, Chapter leaders, and members, who have achieved
so much, all as volunteers.
In all of these tasks, the anchor of our organizational sanity
has been held by Peter Ronald, our Coordinator, without whom
many of these projects might have been frayed at the edges,
or not have happened at all, and to whom we owe an enormous
vote of thanks and appreciation.
During the year, our planned Committee structure ceased to
exist, placing an additional and unwanted burden of responsibility
on our Coordinator, to whom it has sometimes seemed that we
were organizing out of spontaneous effort. That so much has
been achieved in this context is quite remarkable, and hints
at how much more may be achieved when we apply our minds to
structural capacity building, long-term planning, and the
financial resilience that may enable us to hire more full-time
staff.
The goal that we have set ourselves is large – achieving
sustainable solutions for all of BC’s energy needs –
but it is no less then is demanded by the urgency of global
climate change, the need to transition out of carbon-releasing
fossil fuels, and the need for BC to engage fully in the sustainable
energy revolution.
The American anthropologist, Margaret Mead, once said "Never
doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens
can change the world. Indeed - it's the only thing that ever
has."
I am proud to observe that we are just such a group, and
proud of all of us, who have achieved so much, in such a short
period of time. May our coming year be equally effective!
Guy Dauncey, President, June 24, 2006
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