Four B.C. universities are bringing 150 energy stakeholders together in a forum to discuss the implications of the province’s proposed Clean Energy Act.
This is the second forum held by the Pacific Institute for Climate Solutions (PICS), which is led by the University of Victoria in collaboration with the University of British Columbia, Simon Fraser University and the University of Northern British Columbia.
PICS held a forum last June about the then-new carbon pricing regime in B.C.
This year’s forum, dubbed, FutureGrid: BC’s Energy Options in a Changing Environment, is being held June 15 and 16 in Vancouver.
Lawrence Pitt, PICS associate director and forum organizer, told BIV Thursday morning that the Clean Energy Act is a profound piece of legislation that could have decades of implications for the province.
“It certainly has a lot of economic development embedded in it; it has a lot of environmental implications embedded in it,” he said. “There are challenges to its implementation and the First Nations communities have voiced that very vocally just this week.”
He said the forum would address the fact that there hasn’t been a lot of public dialogue about the proposed act. One hundred energy stakeholders from the government, private sector, NGOs and universities have been invited to the forum.
For those who were not invited, there are about 50 tickets at $150 apiece available.
The two-day forum includes a discussion June 15 that is open to the public.
Issues on the table include the role of independent power producers, the introduction of smart meters and grids into homes, changing regulations and oversight, cumulative environmental impacts from energy projects, evolving electricity markets and changing rainfall patterns in our major watersheds.
Pitt said that among the forum’s broad objectives is to foster partnerships between attendees, many of which have diverse perspectives on B.C. energy policy.