Careless or captured?

Despite deep cynicism about those backing Gordon Campbell's Liberals, I've long held respect for the writing of Vaughn Palmer. My reservoir of appreciation seems now to have run dry. He has been bright, skilled and articulate, usually worth reading throughout 35 years with the Vancouver Sun.

Now, I don't know. Is he distracted, overburdened, grown careless or captured by his subjects? What can explain Palmer's early reporting about the British Columbia Utilities Commission decision on BC Hydro's 2008 Long Term Acquisition Plan.

July 31, on his regular Vancouver radio outing, he led with this:

I think it means the BC Utilities Commission is out of touch. You know, they said, "We're not persuaded we need all this new green power because you've got the Burrard Thermal Plant sitting out there in Port Moody and it could run full time and take care of your power needs for many years." Which, is completely out of touch. ... the Utility Commission's belief that the Burrard Thermal is the answer to any of the province's power needs for the future just ignores its impact on air quality among other things.

That is not merely weak reporting of the Commission's determination. It is a reprehensible misstatement that totally fails to reflect the actual decision. I can think of only two possibilities. One is that Palmer had not read the report but relied on someone's corrupt précis. The other is that he intentionally misled the audience for some purpose.

Sidekick Keith Baldrey, also of Canwest Global, contributed:

And, that's why I don't understand why a number of environmental groups who are applauding this decision have remained silent on the fact that Burrard Thermal is to be relied on at an increasing rate because it produces dirty energy. That's a contradictory and hypocritical position and a number of people haven't really squared themselves with that.

No Keith, the BC Utilities Commission simply didn't say that.

Palmer subsequently shifted his attack, all but accusing the BCUC of joining forces with uninformed racists:

You know, that bit about the First Nations - I mean think about this for a minute - if we go out and get public opinion on First Nations, one of the first things you hear from people is, "You know, they always want a handout from the government, they're always taking government money." You know, here you got a bunch of First Nations in British Columbia - some of the best led native bands in the province - gone out and they've found private partners to develop their own resources on their own traditional territory and the big provincial government regulator has slammed the door on their face. I mean, it's no wonder that they're feeling frustrated.

Baldrey added:

. . . these independent power projects have as economic partners First Nations groups. These are a huge economic development tool for impoverished First Nations and Vaughn and I were reading this morning, from the Sechelt Indian Band, a letter they've written the BC Utilities Commission accusing them of essentially, and I quote, "This appears to us to be nothing less than regulated racism." So you've got First Nations now very much up in arms. With the stroke of a pen, the Utilities Commission has kiboshed what they saw as the number one tool to lift a lot of their people out of fairly extensive poverty and I don't know if the Utilities Commission thought this through properly.

I was interested to note that at 9am July 31, Baldrey and Palmer knew the contents of the Sechelt Band's letter and were even armed with the pointed quote claiming "regulated racism." Yet that letter was still warm from printing, being dated only one day before, July 30. I wonder how it came to be reviewed so promptly and publicly by the Victoria based journalists. Was the Public Affairs Bureau (PAB) or the Independent Power Producers Association of BC (IPPBC) helping Chief Garry Feschuk and the shishalh First Nation circulate the letter? Were the flacks also providing pre-digested interpretations of the BCUC decision to certain journalists?

Palmer went on to provide a bit of accurate detail, saying the BCUC decision did not reject green power, private power or run of the river facilities and that, primarily, BC Hydro had to rework the scheduling of projects. Mind you, he ignored the BCUC determination that BC Hydro had been either inaccurate or dishonest in its power needs forecasting. That should have been news. At best, Palmer had part of the story correct but his headline material was worse than sloppy.

We cannot though accuse all professional journalists of faulty or inadequate reporting. Mark Hume at the Globe and Mail had no difficulty understanding the entire BCUC decision and writing conclusions based on the Commission's actual findings. He said:

The commission's ruling made it clear, however, that there is no energy crisis - and that when there are energy shortfalls, such as during droughts or the period of peak demand in December, BC Hydro has a solid backup system in the Burrard Generating Station, an old, mostly idle plant fueled by natural gas.

The commission is not saying we should run the Burrard plant, or that Burrard is a better source of energy than clean resources," said economist Marvin Shaffer. What the commission determined is that Burrard is valuable as a backup facility, and that in that role it has the capacity of at least 5,000 gigawatt hours, not the 3,000 GWh estimated by BC Hydro.

By refusing to accept the lower capacity, the commission called into question the need for BC Hydro to purchase backup power from IPPs.

Had the British Columbia Utilities Commission not intervened, B.C. would have been damming its wild and scenic rivers, not in a noble fight against global warming, but in order to run air conditioners in California.

Contrast that analysis to the one by Keith Baldrey:

Yes, they (BCUC) just said go and use Burrard Thermal.

One does not need to be a sophisticated media analyst to conclude that Canwest Global's Palmer and Baldrey reported on the BCUC in a manner that is entirely below the standard set by Mark Hume. The Globe and Mail faces the same financial challenges as every newspaper publisher but in the western bureau, they employ and deploy high quality staff. Fine writers such as Mark Hume, Gary Mason, Rod Mickleburgh and Tom Hawthorne cover the news of this province with depth and accuracy, particularly in comparison to the competition.

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