Terasen Deal A Sell Out

Thursday, October 27, 2005 09:39 PM

Opinion250 Editor Ben Meisner speaks at Terasen gas sale meeting, seated at the table are, from the left, Peter Ewart of the Active Voice Coalition and Murray Dobbin, author and journalist who also addressed the gathering

About 70 people turned out to the College of New Caledonia tonight, to hear two speakers talk about the sale of Terasen Gas to the U.S. Company, Kinder- Morgan.

Opinion 250’s Editor Ben Meisner, was one of the featured speakers. He talked about how the sale of the pipeline will mean the U-S market will dictate the price for the commodity. He also raised the question of what will the city of Prince George do, if Kinder Morgan decides it doesn’t want to honour the Terasen “lease in-lease out deal” and the City will be stuck with repossessing an aging infrastructure while it carries the debt load of the money it loaned to Terasen.

The other speaker, Murray Dobbin, an author and journalist, addressed several concerns, including Kinder-Morgan’s dismal safety and environmental record. Dobbin noted Canada’s national energy policy seems to be “come and get it”. He pointed out the BC Utilities Commission is expected to examine the deal within a week or so, but there is still hope it can be stopped.

More than 6,000 e-mails have been sent to the BCUC opposing the deal, and the Union of BC Municipalities has called for public hearings on the issue. Dobbin told those in attendance “I urge you all to call your MLA and your M.P. tell them you will not forget they did not try to stop the sale of Terasen Gas, and that you will vote accordingly.”

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Posted on Thursday, October 27, 2005 09:39 PM in News by 250 News

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Comments

Posted by: dow15000 on October 27 2005 11:33 PM

Kinder Morgan cannot dictate the price of the commodity. They will have to follow the same process as any regulated utility. Any suggestion to the contrary can only be motivated by American bigotism that seems to have a very strong foot hold in Canada.

Posted by: acrider54 on October 28 2005 6:32 AM

Consider it done deal. Kinder-Morgan can and will do what ever they want. As for following rules...All one has to do is look at the softwood lumber tariffs, the money owed to BC by California for power.

Posted by: thales on October 28 2005 11:16 AM

It's sort of like a dam, holding back water for the dry times, when electricity is needed.

The propsect of Kinder Morgan is to increase "american reserves" with natural gas. By measuring those reserves, tuff times like our "fuel costs to people" will have been hiked to enormous profits. Do you need me to quote statistics?

The natural gas sector will also, benefit from selling at those dryer times. You get it yet?

Posted by: Chadermando on October 29 2005 3:07 AM

I would have liked to be there if not for work. Its good to see information sessions like this. I wonder if any politicians showed up to hear the views. Thats what counts IMO.

Posted by: Opatcho on October 29 2005 10:15 AM

Yes chadermando one showed up, Zirouski, but he left halfway throught the event when Ben brought up the question of the City heating down town. A couple of hopefulls also came but didnt hang around for questions afer the meeting.