By Will Braun
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| An artist's rendering of the Keeyask dam on the Nelson River. The project will be an extension of the overall hydro system. Image Source: Manitoba Hydro |
The Clean Environment Commission [has] concluded three months of numbingly detailed and occasionally passion-sparked hearings into the proposed Keeyask Dam.
....
The standard clean-hydro script was presented by Hydro at the Keeyask hearings. It was also showcased by Premier Greg Selinger in Washington, D.C., last February. Speaking to an audience at the Woodrow Wilson Center, Selinger portrayed Manitoba as a leader on climate and energy policy. He positioned Keeyask on this cutting edge, a benign source of energy to displace coal in the U.S.
He said the "legacy of bitterness" in the north has given way to a new era. New dams will be built in a way that not only reduces negative impacts, Selinger said, but uses them as "an opportunity to make environmental conditions better."
A remarkable claim.
What neither Selinger nor Hydro include in the official story, and what the CEC should include in its report, is this: A dam itself is no favour to the environment. Moose and beavers do not stand on the shore applauding as bulldozers roar and dynamite goes off.
Keeyask would involve pouring 870,000 tonnes of cement in the Nelson River. The work camps, roads, borrow pits and flooding would affect 14,000 hectares, not including the 1,400-kilometre Bipole III corridor.
...
Is Keeyask pushing the leading edge of energy and climate policy? Is it clean? Or is it a complex megaproject with potential benefits and serious consequences that need to be accurately described and thoughtfully weighed?
To echo a phrase from the closing argument of the Consumers Association of Canada at the hearing, hopefully the CEC report will "pierce the veil of Hydro branding."
Will Braun works for the Interchurch Council on Hydropower.
You can read Braun's op ed piece by clicking here.
- Submitted by Karla
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