YEC STUDIES ON ALTERNATIVE POWER SOURCES SHOULD BE MADE PUBLIC
NDP energy critic Steve Cardiff says Yukon Energy president David Morrison’s explanation for refusing to release studies the Crown corporation commissioned on the feasibility of using wind- or geothermal-powered turbines to produce electricity is unacceptable.
“These studies were funded by hundreds of thousands of dollars of public money and so should be shared with the public,” Cardiff says. “I think it is anti-democratic for him to claim they are ‘proprietary,’ especially when it is the Yukon people who are the shareholders and stakeholders in the YEC.”
The federal and territorial governments pay for geological surveys in the territory to encourage investments by private mining companies. And it should be no different when it comes to the development of our energy resources, especially when Morrison is on record as saying the YEC has neither the means nor the interest in seriously considering alternatives to hydroelectricity.
“If a local individual or company wants to develop a wind farm, and the proposal meets all the criteria of a progressive and comprehensive independent power production policy developed with the input of the Yukon people, they should have access to any studies done by the YEC,” Cardiff adds. “And a New Democratic Party government would even go a step further by providing other forms of assistance to help proponents expand the territory’s energy capacity, as long as this is done sustainably and responsibly.”
Morrison has said using wind to generate electricity is not an option for the YEC at this time because this source of power production is neither reliable nor predictable. And yet he refuses to back up his claim with hard facts and figures contained in a study. Meanwhile, other jurisdictions, both in Canada and abroad, are capitalizing on wind power as one component of an energy strategy that is both good for the environment and cost-effective.
“We understand that a feasibility study completed in 2009 for the YEC showed that a 20-megawatt wind farm on Mount Sumanik, near Whitehorse, would cost considerably less than the extra eight megawatts the YEC is getting by expanding the Mayo B hydroelectric project at a projected cost of $120 million,” Cardiff says. “If this is true, I think the Yukon people deserve to know the facts.”
The NDP caucus has filed an Access to Information request for the YEC to release all its feasibility studies on wind and geothermal energy production.